University Attributes

Designing Your Education-
At the same time that Bennington students learn how to design experiments, write essays and novels, and compose music, they also learn to take responsibility for planning their own educations. There is no list of courses one must take in order to become an 'English major' or a 'science major'; Bennington students and teachers can'­t answer the question of who they are by pointing to the name of the department to which they belong. Instead, students develop their own concentrations, sometimes focusing their work in a single discipline (mathematics, for example) and sometimes creating connections between two or three. Assisting them in this process are the students'­ faculty advisors, with whom they meet once a week during the first year and less frequently thereafter. Over the course of their careers at Bennington, students write and rewrite their plans of study through ongoing conversations with their teachers, their peers, and the work in which they discover their intellectual and creative passions. The individualized programs of study that students design share a similar 'hourglass' shape: they start out broadly, narrow in the middle, and open out again at the end. During their first year, students experiment with a range of courses in various disciplines-listening for what makes their pulses race,rying to discern more clearly what matters most to them. In their second and third years, students immerse themselves in particular disciplines, delving more deeply into intellectual and artistic pursuits.

The third year culminates in the creation of a thesis,which is often an extended essay, but also incorporate paintings, sculptures, research findings, prints, costumes, public performances, or another media entirely-depending on the nature of the student's work. The thesis allows students to bring together the discoveries they've made in the course of their concentrated work in a discipline or set of disciplines, to exercise publicly the expertise they've developed. However, the completion of a thesis is not meant to mark the end of the student's education; instead, students are challenged to frame their specialized/focused knowledge within its larger contexts-to return to the kind of open-ended exploration they pursued at the beginning of their college career. In other words, students start their last year at Bennington by turning their answers into questions. Rather than narrow their focus still further, students set about exploring the ways in which their own discipline relates to others, and considering how their deepening understanding of a subject or a craft or a question might matter to the rest of the world.

Degrees Available

• Bachelor of Arts
• Bachelor of Science
• Master of Arts
• Bachelor of Fine Arts
• Masters of Fine Arts

Degree Level

Doctorate Degree

Subject Areas

Experience Required

no

Application Process Involves

• Letters of Reference
• In-Person Interview when Feasible
• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Phone/Video Interview
• Transcript