Bennington College

At Bennington, learning and making are inseparable. The faculty are committed not just intellectually, but also as leading practitioners in their field. Students develop ideas in the classroom, and then test those ideas where it counts—through hands-on work in the world. The result is a learning experience free of artificial barriers where students imagine, shape, and pursue their best work.

Graduate-style academic advising allows students to map a territory for study and practice that goes beyond the bounds of a traditional major and hones their ability to thrive in a world without givens, to tolerate ambiguity, and to find solutions even when a path is not laid out before them.

Bennington is the only college in the country to require an annual internship since its founding. For two months every winter, students work with an organization or institution of their choosing, anywhere in the world, to apply what they have learned on campus and to focus what they study and make at Bennington—engaging the field that interests them without waiting for graduation.

Bennington is a highly engaged community of active makers and practitioners. The faculty and administration are mentors and peers ready to engage with students’ work in addition to being subject matter experts. The Bennington community extends far beyond the campus, offering connections to alumni, colleagues, and employers around the world.

Bennington College has been a proven leader among liberal-arts colleges since its founding in 1932. Competitive across all metrics, Bennington is focused on creating a student-led education that enables personal fulfillment, societal impact, and long-term adaptability.

Life at Bennington is an all-in, everywhere at once, 24-hour continuum that does not begin and end at the edges of the classroom. Here you are not only shaping your education but the community at large. From the beginning, a Bennington education has been founded on these principles and in frames that make life outside of the classroom as intentional as inside the classroom. Student life informs who you are and become, how you engage in the larger collaborative spaces, and what you can and will bring to the broader campus culture. This happens in dining halls, houses, in clubs and organizations, in libraries and workshops, at events and beyond.

Since its founding, Bennington has been committed to the belief that a dynamic, relevant education is best achieved when students themselves define its direction. In this way, Bennington students take with them not only what they have learned, but how they have learned it.At Bennington, students work closely with faculty to design the content, structure, and sequence of their study and practice. As a result, internal sources of order come to replace external templates, and their education prepares them to direct their lives toward self-fulfillment and constructive social purposes—goals which are central to Bennington's founding vision.

Through the Plan, students develop a structure for their study and practice. The process involves close collaboration with and feedback from a faculty committee, who guide their progress and ensure that their plan is challenging, academically sound, and significant.

Every Bennington student, every winter spends seven weeks at work in the world pursuing jobs, internships, and entrepreneurial endeavors related to their studies, their professional ambitions, and their own curiosities.

The faculty serve as models for a student’s own practice, since they are active—even renowned—in their fields. Students learn from them how to frame a question, how to pursue a line of inquiry, how to create a space for new ideas, and how to set the direction for their life’s work.

We welcome applications for our undergraduate and graduate programs from students around the world, building on our commitment to diversity in all senses of the word, a competitive financial aid program, and a tradition of innovative approaches to education. With an average financial aid package of more than half the tuition price, we are committed to putting a Bennington education within reach. When you apply for financial aid, we will work closely with you and your family to explore and explain ways to meet your individual needs.

Bennington College has had an enormous impact on the intellectual and cultural life of America. Dancers flocked to the College in the 1930s and 40s to chart the course of modern dance. In the 1940s and 50s, painters and sculptors gathered on its campus to redefine the visual arts canon. Always a fertile ground for writers, the 1980s and 90s saw an influx of young talent eager to push the boundaries of contemporary literature. Today, Bennington is a hub yet again, for artists, writers, scientists, scholars—innovators in every field—who want to apply their individual talents to addressing global issues of urgent concern.

Bennington alumni have been on the forefront of important innovations in many fields and have shaped our ways of looking at the world. Bennington graduates are notably confident in their capacity to engage and succeed in the world because, at Bennington, learning and making are inseparable. The spirit of collaboration informs Bennington’s student experiences, and that principle extends to our alumni with the launch of the Bennington Alumni Cooperative.