<p>I was wondering how the crowd at Bennington is? 700 undergraduates seems extremely small to me…</p>
<p>I’m a junior at Bennington (I transferred in at the beginning of my sophomore year, so I’ve been there for a year and a half now) and there are a lot of downsides, and a lot of positives to Bennington’s size. You won’t run out of new people to meet, even with the size as small as it is. When I go into a class room I know about half the people there, but I’m always meeting people that I’ve seen around but never talked to. With that said, it can be hard to avoid people when there isn’t a crowd to get lost in, for whatever reason that you want to avoid someone be it a creepy stalker or ex, etc. With that said the small size allows the college to have a very tight knit close community, wonderful housing, above average food, etc. The main downside, to me, is that our small student body means that we have a limited number of faculty. Now, this still pans out in the positive in a lots of ways, and low student:teacher ratios are well maintained. It limits the number of people that you can study with, but also leads to closer working relationships with the people who teach in your area. I study biology, and there are only three biology faculty at Bennington, but I know all of them very well, and I feel like I get more out of my classes because I have such a strong working relationship with them. </p>
<p>Yeah, I’m losing my train of thought, so if you have any specific questions shoot me a PM or post here. I’d be happy to answer.</p>
<p>Thanks for the answers. Now I just hope I get in.</p>
<p>You’ll find it to be a very tight-knit group even after you graduate. If you move to NYC or Boston especially, you’ll find lots of Bennington alumni who will help you get on your feet.</p>
<p>Visited with daughter, she always though she would be a big city/big school girl, but she loved it. I went to a big state U, but somehow Benn did not feel that small to me, or to her. If you are a fit for Benn, you might not find 700 people you like as much and have as much in common with at a school with 20,000.</p>
<p>I only saw Bennington in the dark on my way out of town, but the security guards were really nice. Looking forward to going back and visiting the school in the daylight.</p>