Bentley University

My first semester has overall been a very positive experience for me. The school does a lot to make the students feel welcome, but at least with the freshmen I know, most are pretty afraid and stay within small groups of friends. As far as I can tell, the cliquishness is pretty normal and can be broken through with time and effort. Otherwise, you're stuck in your clique which can be frustrating. The people are rich for the most part, especially the international students. The campus is majorly white, rich kids who can have an attitude. However, they're mostly chill people who have been sheltered all their life.

Classes are always small, with caps at around 28 students, including freshman introduction classes which is great. You get to know the people in your classes as well as your professor which is a great help to both social and academic life. The professors are amazingly accessible, many requesting to be called by their first name and give out their home phone numbers. They are also for the most part fair in discussing grades and very flexible. The workload isn't that bad, and at least for the first few years, you'll get a B+ if you just do the work.

Many students suffer an inferiority complex because they didnt get into their top choice schools. This can get frustrating at times. The students are focused on having a good time, but care about getting the work done, and getting a good grade on it. A lot of times the motivation is more to get the grade than to learn, but its not hard to learn for the sake of it, and you can find people like that.

It's a small school that makes it really easy to meet a lot of great people if you make the effort. My roommate sits in the room all day and therefore doesn't know too many people. Just be open to new people and experiences and you'll be surprised.

The new gym and library are great, and have been very well received by the students. I love going to the gym and plugging in my headphones and watching tv, and the study rooms in the library are great for demanding general business group work.

The college will become a University soon, with a great majority voting for the name change, which shows the school is working to rise in the rankings and recognition. They care about student opinion and it shows.

The cafeteria food is pretty easy to get sick of, but the corner take-out place (harry's corner) in the stu center is a popular alternative.Final thing you need to know.. watch out for the stairs to class and the gym.. the hilly campus can get really frustrating and discourages movement around the campus. There's a lot of walking and often, people dont want to go to class, libary, or gym because of it, especially in the cold weather. A lot of discipline is needed for this.

1st Year Male -- Class 2010

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Useful Schoolwork: B+

Bentley has been a great experience so far. I came as a transfer student from SUNY Purchase, and this environment is so much better. The resources are incredible and they actually work. The new library is awesome and is so comfortable to just hang out in. However, people feel free to use their cellphones in the library whenever they want to, which is very rude.

The kids here are very bright but sometimes it doesn't show because many of them lack a passion for what they are doing in school. The other comments about the international students being wealthy is very true. The occassional Prince or child of a foreign diplomat is commonplace at Bentley. For some people, it's hard to adjust to this school because people are very unapproachable at first, but be patient and you'll find that these kids can be the nicest you'll ever meet. The only real negative thing I can think of is the fact that they are violent drunks. Be careful when drinking at this school.

The Career Services department is wonderful as well. The administration really goes out of their way to try and get companies into the school to talk to kids about opportunities within their firm. Bentley has strong relations with the Big 4 accounting firms, Morgan Stanley, Northwestern Mutual and Fidelity, to name a few.

As far as Financial aid is concerned, I think it's done completely at random, so don't ask me.
If you're wondering why Bentley doesn't rank higher in many of the rankings like USNews and Business Week, it's because of a few reasons. First, many of the professors are actually professors. They are teachers first and foremost, rather than researchers for their own projects. Second, the school has been growing rapidly and has been really getting noticed just in the last few years. Third, some of the campus was under construction and made it hard to see how nice it is. Lastly, the departments other than Finance and Accounting need a little improvement. They're good, but not as good.

The real negatives about this school, from my perspective, are overshadowed by the positives. One is the housing. Most of the buildings are old and need to be renovated. Not only that, but the way they give out housing is really bad. Plan to live off campus here. Also, class picking is a big mess as well. People usually get crummy schedules, unless you're in the honors program. Everyone also takes practically the same classes, so a diveristy among education is lacking at Bentley. Similar to that, every class (freshmen, sophmore, etc..) goes along the same track. A freshmen will probably never have a class with an upperclassman, so it's hard to interact with the other classes, academically, and since housing is based on seniority, socially as well.I would seriously consider Bentley as THE business school to attend, but if you do, bring a passion for what you wanna do, even if you're not quite sure yet.

1st Year Male -- Class 2008

Education Quality: A+, Innovation: C+

Bentley will hand you a job if you do well enough, and you will have a blast along the way. What else do you want from a business school?

1st Year Male -- Class 2014

Education Quality: A+, Extracurricular Activities: B+