Reply to Tell me about Bennington College

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Tell me about Bennington College"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Students can request a letter grade for any and all courses you take -- and slightly over half (54%) do opt to receive at least one letter grade per term; that's common especially if a student intends to go to grad school. But the focus of the College's feedback is the narrative evaluation -- an intense examination and analysis of students work and performance in a class.  
 
After 12 years in DC (six of those as a member of the DCUM community), I recently moved to work at Bennington, and I've been floored by the quality of the student and alumni work. (Picture interviewing students for a campus work job: a sophomore who was writing her second novel, a junior who had worked at the New York Daily News during her Field Work Term, and on.)

Here are a few highlights from my first six months here: 
-Alums won two Pulitzers this year: Donna Tartt (who won for [i]The Goldfinch[/i]) wrote her first book while a student; and Megan Marshall (who won for [i]A New American Life [/i]) discovered the topic of the book for which she won the Pulitzer while in class. 
-Three alums just got Emmy nods: Peter Dinklage for Game of Thrones; Joel Marsh Garland, who is on Orange is the New Black, which was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series; and Julie Tucker (who shared her nomination) received her 9th nomination for Casting for work on Nurse Jackie (she previously won for Six Feet Under and Damages.)
-Alum Peter Dinklage's 2012 commencement address was recently highlighted by NPR as one of the best ever. http://apps.npr.org/commencement/speech/peter-dinklage-bennington-college-2012/
-Sylvan Esso, which includes alum Amelia Meath, is on the cusp of a big breakthrough; they were recently in DC at the 9:30 Club.

This only school in the country, as far as I know, that requires every student, every year to spend 7 weeks every winter in the world of work (internships, jobs or entrepreneurial pursuits)--as we have since our founding. A 2013 report from the Chronicle of Higher Education and APM’s Marketplace The Employment Mismatch (http://chronicle.com/article/The-Employment-Mismatch/137625/#id=overview) found that the single most important credential for a college graduate entering the workforce is internship experience. The recent Gallup-Perdue study (http://www.gallup.com/poll/168848/life-college-matters-life-college.aspx) also highlighted the importance of internships integrating with academic life (which Bennington does through the Plan process).

The Princeton Review rated Bennington as #2 for best classroom experience, and #8 with Professors get high marks. Unigo found us to be in the top 10 brainiest colleges.

I'm happy to talk more, if anyone wants to reach out.

Best,

Alex Dery Snider
Director of Communications
Bennington College
aderysnider@bennington.edu
802.440.4399[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics