<p>Is Bennington too small or too far off the CC radar to elicit interest in this forum? My son has just been accepted at Bennington and is very intrigued by the school, but we have less information about it than other LACs. I’d love to hear from any current students or parents about why you love (or don’t love) Bennington.</p>
<p>Many thanks!</p>
<p>I wonder about that too. I check Bennington’s thread whenever I check my other daughter’s school and there’s hardly ever anything new. I can see why the kids that go there don’t post, their lives are way too interesting to spend time sitting on this site, but you’d think parents and high school kids would be on.</p>
<p>You asked for opinions - My daughter LOVES Bennington. She is going to be so sad when she graduates. There are some things she doesn’t like. She doesn’t see why they are spending money building CAPA, which, I believe, is supposed to be dedicated to solving the world’s problems. She thinks Bennington should just stay true to its strengths as a liberal arts school. But that aside, she’s passionate about her classes, her friends, her professors. It was not her first choice, but once she was there awhile, she realized it was the perfect school for her. Let me know if you have any specific questions.</p>
<p>after creeping around on the CC forums for a while, I finally decided to come on here. </p>
<p>I applied to Bennington ED and can’t be happier to attend there next year, and it’s always confused me why there’s so little love on this website. I looked at a bunch of schools over the course of my high school years, and it was always difficult because I began to realize that there was a million things I wanted to explore academically, and there are few schools that would let me do that. When I went to my first tour of Bennington, the first thing my tour guide asked me was what my academic interests were. After naming off a list of academic interests, she smiled and told me that I already sounded like a Bennington student :)</p>
<p>danceclass - I’m sad to hear that your daughter isn’t looking forward to CAPA. A lot of the incoming students I’ve talked to really like the idea of CAPA, and all of us want to take CAPA courses in some capacity. The idea of CAPA seems really interesting to me because of the fact that it seems to take the concept of making interdisciplinary connections and applying it to world problems (this is, however, the perspective of a future student, so I suppose it would be different from that of a person who’s actually attending the school). </p>
<p>FrogMom - if your son wants to meet more bennington students, and he has a facebook, there is a bennington 2015 group up! we’re slowly growing, and even if he’s still considering other schools, it may help to talk to other kids who are in his position (many of the kids in the group are still deciding)</p>
<p>Haha, every time I come on CC (more often than I care to admit) I check the Bennington thread and there’s never any updates! I guess it’s because it’s such a small student body/applicant pool. But still, I would think it’s a unique enough place that people would want to know about it. I haven’t heard back from the school yet, but it’s my (sort of) first choice!
To danceclass:
It’s so great to hear that your daughter loves Bennington! I was wondering if she has had any trouble getting into the classes that she wants? I’ve heard that can be a hellish process.</p>
<p>Frogmom, how did your son receive his acceptance? I am still waiting to hear from them.</p>
<p>littleefeblum, It will be students like you that make CAPA take off and be a success. My daughter just doesn’t like change. We both romatically long for the days when the image of Bennington was girls in long white dresses dancing in the meadows.</p>
<p>Wallpaper, She had trouble getting in a painting class sophomore year because she had not taken painting initially. But eventually she did get one and has had no trouble since. I think seniority helps. It also helps to have a very supportive advisor on your side.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. Danceclass, how has the plan process worked for your daughter? Is there some structure or do students need to be very motivated and directed at the outset? I saw your comment in the Skidmore thread - thanks for that as well - and it’s hard to know just how conventional is too conventional for my son. If there is support and guidance from faculty mentors, and if experimentation in different disciplines is encouraged at Bennington, then it could be a great place for him. By the way, he’s not “artsy” (though interested in photography and computer graphics). He just doesn’t want a huge impersonal school, nor is he interested in the frat house/sports side of college life. He’s a bilingual, bicultural city kid who likes the US but has never lived there.</p>
<p>@rs12345, he got a PDF of his acceptance letter by email since we don’t live in North America.</p>
<p>danceclass, i’m a pretty artsy (as in aspiring educator/author) young girl interested in bennington and i was wondering how your daughter feels about the size/ sort of wacky boy:girl ratio (like 2 girls for every boy). i really like the sound of the school, but i wonder how those elements would effect one’s experience.</p>
<p>Frogmom, The plan process is very much student driven, but they meet frequently with their advisors who let them know if they are going off track and make suggestions. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about right at the beginning. Experimentation in different disciplines is definitely encouraged. My daughter’s interests range all over the place.</p>
<p>SaturdayAsUsual, Yes, there are more girls than boys. My daughter, however, makes broad and deep friendships with both and has always gotten along great with boys. Therefore at meals she often finds herself the only girl at table of 15 boys. She’s also had two serious boyfriends among the Bennington boys, so it can be done. By the way, in case you don’t know, most kids live in houses (no dorms) with both boys and girls, and, yes, even the bathrooms are coed.</p>
<p>thanks, danceclass! i can’t wait to check it out further!</p>
<p>Danceclass: Is your daughter taking a lot of dance classes at Bennington? (that sounds sort of dumb, I know, but I didn’t know if it is you or she who dances) My D is a dancer and wanted to continue classes at Bennington, if she goes there. It’s hard to tell what they are like from the descriptions. Can you help? Thanks so much!!</p>
<p>Saturdayasusual: We visited Bennington and even though I know the male/female ratio is very skewed to females, interestingly, when we were in the dining hall and even walking around campus, there seemed to be a fairly even mix. Just an impression.</p>
<p>shesleavinghome, Yes, my daughter is concentrating in dance, so she takes lots of classes, and loves it. Keep in mind that dance at Bennington is almost exclusively modern. (They did offer a ballet class one semester, and my daughter took it, but it was nowhere near her level.) The modern taught is not any style you might be familiar with (Lymon, Horton, Graham, etc.), but rather the students are encouraged to develop their own styles. I’ve attended the dance concerts (called Martha Hill) for the last few years and some of the performances have been amazing, although there were some that I hesitate to even describe as dance. (Performance art, maybe?) </p>
<p>My own daughter has done things I didn’t know she had in her. She was classically trained and had to be instructed to “throw herself off balance” to lose some of that ballet control. By the way, the dancers not only choreograph their own (and other’s) dances, but are also responsible for the sound and lighting. They either design it themselves or recruit friends to do it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. My D has been taking dance forever (since she is three), and with a couple of forays into hip hop, mainly focuses on ballet (did pointe until this year – it was physically damaging for her), modern, but also loves musical theatre (Fosse, etc.) She cannot imagine life without dancing. I know there is no musical theatre at Bennington, but I was hoping there might be an opportunity to continue that type of genre.<br>
You’ve obviously been happy with your D’s experience there. Thank you so much for your observations and comments – very appreciated!!</p>