Bennington College Top Questions

Bennington is a bit of a bubble, plain and simple, however it is very possible to flourish within this bubble in ways that are very difficult within the real world. Though there are no more than three bars in town and not many opportunities for fun, the large amount of things to do on campus often begs the question, why would you even want to leave? Although this is certainly not a healthy way to live your life in the long-term, for four years students have a most culturally rich, busy, and exciting microcosm on their doorstep. Said to be the birthplace of “the themed party”, there are very creative soirees hosted every weekend in the house common rooms that are almost always open to the whole school. Last year students attended parties such as, Daddy Daughter Dance, Bacchanal, Prom, Dr. Seuss, Risky Business, Outer Space Ocean, Mardi Gras, Roll-o-Rama, Ultraviolet Masquerade as well as lots of plays, gigs, and opportunities for contra dance. Drinking is something that can be hard to avoid at Bennington. It is definitely very possible and I know some people who have managed to avoid it completely however the norm is for people to drink a lot of boxed wine and then go run around the fields. I think this is partly down to the fact that people are working so hard during the week they feel they need to find an easy way to unwind on the weekends. During weeknights it is very quiet on campus and it's rare to see anyone wandering around outside after 11pm. There are also a bunch of activities and clubs that are on offer though in my own experience I get excited and sign up for a bunch and then end up never showing up -- this seems to be a fairly common experience.

If you are infectiously passionate about what you like, start a club and everyone will join. Clubs for the most part depend on who's there at the moment. There are no fraternities, but some of the dorms have so much house pride that they often resemble them. Fraternities of hipsters trying casually to assimilate to the local color by wearing Vermont sweatshirts and drinking locally brewed beer. Bennington students support their friends by going to their performances and openings. They love to argue about modern dance, postmodern literature and post-postmodern art.

There aren't too many clubs on campus, but if you want to start one, no one's stopping you. We've even got a brand new volleyball club (who knew?). There are always plenty of people around on weeknights & weekends. They might be drinking, or hosting an art exchange, having an open mic night, karaoke, making books, playing board games, having a film screening, playing pranks on other houses...

The housing is amazing. I live in Fels (it's a house, not a dorm), and I love it. The rooms are big and the kitchen we share is very nice. We also have our own washer and dryer. Houses also have nice traditions, such as DBD (drunk before dinner) or mattress sliding. There are a lot of things to do on campus. There are talks, theatre preformances, bands to go see. There are parties like every weekend. But the school is very cut off from the town so the social scene is limited. I felt like the school is too small (700) and that I was very limited in the people I could make friends with. Pretty much everyone is nice, but not very many different social groups, so it can be hard to find people you click with. Bennington is very much a drinking school. It is very easy to get alcohol. People do smoke pot, but its not as prominent. Most people smoke ciggarettes.

I work at the Student Center. Next term, I'll be a supervisor. There're a lot of great people working there, a lot of fun and a lot of obnoxious costumers, but it's a cool place to hang out. There's concerts and other kinds of events there & if not, the workers are generally blasting tunes & anxious for genuine human interaction. Parties happen Thursdays through Saturday morning. Dating is a ridiculous process as far as I've gathered. The library has a lot of movies if you're not the get trashed to wind down type & the weekly house dance parties can be funny if you're sober, and fun if you're not.

There are lots of clubs and activities at our school that I think a lot of people get involved in. I don't, and I don't really know why I guess I just don't have a huge desire to, but I think it would be a good idea to get more involved in the future. There are always trips to go hiking and camping, or horse back riding and snow shoeing; there are even trips to Six Flags. We don't have real sports teams at our school, but we do have a huge list of intramural sports which I think people get really involved in, our soccer team being the most popular. I would say that most people leave their bedroom doors unlocked at all times, and usually open if they are in the room. Guest speakers should get more attendance than they do, but most of the performances done by students usually result in all of the seats filled and overflowing. The dating scene is something to be desired... since Bennington consists of 70{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} girls and 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} boys, girls are often viewed as disposable and good boys are hard to come by. If you're bisexual you are probably having a good time. I met my closest friends when I was a freshman at orientation and we had peer mentor groups, but some of my friends changed and I got new friends when I started taking classes I was really interested in meeting people who like the same things I do.

Student housing at Bennington is another unique feature. Instead of a hundred students living on one building, being policed by R.A.s, about thirty students live in one of eighteen houses. Each house has a very distinct personality and has its own traditions. There are two House Chairs elected in each house who can help with any house resident's problems, and who preside over Coffee Hour. Coffee Hour is something each house does every Sunday evening, in which students discuss campus-wide and house-wide issues, and talk about upcoming campus events. Someone always makes food for coffee hour as well, which is further reason to go to Coffee Hour. It's a good time to get to know the other people in your house. Few people lock their doors on cmapus, and there haven't been many problems with theft recently. The only athletic events that draw any sort of crowd are Pioneers soccer games, in which the Bennington Pioneers play the local high school and other local colleges, like Marlboro. Guest speakers and concerts are popular, as are several weekly film screenings and theatre performances, which happen often. The dating scene is strange. Just don't come to Bennington as one of those girls who expects to leave college with a husband. Casual sex is pretty common, but relationships are not. A friend once told me that there are three kinds of Bennington boy: the Taken, the Gay, and the Creepy. It is astonishingly accurate. Parties are common and there are a few big House parties held each month. Smaller room parties happen regularly. Drinking is very common and most parties have a drinking room, and at smaller parties, drinking is usually the primary goal of the evening. Of course, it isn't hard to find things to do that don't involve drinking. Peer pressure isn't an issue. If someone doesn't want to drink, no one questions them or pressures them into anything. Parties are just as much fun if you drink or if you don't. Bennington has several traditional event that happen over the course ofthe year, such as Sunfest, our (invariably rainy) day-long music festival in May, 24-Hour Play, where several plays are written and perfromed within 24 hours, Pigstock, the Rain Plays, Baccanal, Midnight Breakfast, Study Breaks, and several themed parties (Swan-Halloween, Cannfield's Versus etc) If someone happened to be awake at two in the morning on a tuesday, which isn't exactly a stretch, they'd probably be doing homework, practicing music, working on a project in the visual arts building VAPA, or just watching a movie and chilling on a house common room. Insomnia seems to be common at Bennington.

There is plenty to get involved with on campus. Pretty much any type of student group you would be interested in from Student Council to the Beer Brewing Club. If you are interested in these groups, check out the Bennington Wiki at wiki.bennington.edu. There is no fraternity/sorority life, but rather, everyone lives in coed houses with about 30 people. I personally would not have it any other way as far as a living situation goes. Each house has its own personality and vibe - some smoking with no quiet hours, some non-smoking with quiet hours and any mix of the two. Some traditional events are Bowlarama (Midnight Bowling in Bennington), Rollerama (Rollerskating in Greenwall Auditorium), Midnight Movies, and Snowball (Winter Formal type thing). There are bands that play on campus almost every weekend, and every spring there is an all day music festival called Sunfest with carnival games etc. As far as partying goes, it depends where you look. Some houses party really hard and others are quiet 24 hours a day. You just have to find your niche in that sense. The dating scene is a little tricky. Because the school is very small people often refer to it as incestuous. For instance, your next door neighbor might be hooking up with the guy/girl you were hooking up with three weeks ago, and it can get a little weird. However, plenty of people have great lasting relationships as well (myself included for a year and a half.)

If you're awake at 2AM on a tuesday at Bennington, it's either the beginning of the term and you don't have class on wednesday, your are doing work, or you're about to get yourself into a lot of trouble for doing something stupid. Bennington has a few traditional events such as PigFest which happens only in the spring and consists of a bunch of bands playing while a pig gets roasted, SunFest which is a lot like PigStock except no pig, Rollerama which happens every term and is a night of rollerskating and music and candy, and certain house parties like Saint Kilpat's or Bacchenal.

Social can get frustrating at times. The school is isolated and the closest city is about an hour away. There are a lot of traditional parties throughout term that can be fun for some. However one's social life at Bennington does not have to depend on partying. There is always something to do, it's just a matter of finding out when and where it is on campus.