Bennington College

Date: Dec 01 2001
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
Bennington College…What can I say? The nostaligic memories of the good life and the evil of an omnipresent administration flood my mind, conjuring an emotional overload and of nightmarish landscapes both beautiful and haunting. In one way or another, Bennington College will change you. Forever. Today, the college is unlike the infamous Hamden College of "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt…it is rather like a year long summer camp with seasons specializing in prescribing students with their dose of Bennington College Liberal Arts education. The philosophy behind this education is the "Hourglass Theory" in which a student studies broadly to "discover" a chosen major, to specify a chosen major, to study that chosen major, only to broaden out again—to open the mind to the new and the vast of the world. It is a contraversal form of education, as some students wish to engross theirselves in their passions by Junior and Senior years…But then Bennington seems to embrace the contraversial. As for myself, the Bennington College that I first studied at is very different from today. A lot can happen to small liberal art colleges to keep the doors open, even changing the founding princibles from which the community was born. Still, the facilities are unsurpassed by any college large or small-and the faculty is wonderful. It takes a lot of fighting to succeed in what it is that you wish to accomplish at this school, but it can be done. One more thing…someone has to be very, very sly in dealing with the finacial aid office. They are very pennywise, and can be horrid when it comes to grant money. You are either Full-Tuition or prepare for battle.