Bennington College

Majors

Students can pursue interests in all of the traditional academic disciplines within the liberal arts (e.g. history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, science, social science) and in the visual and performing arts (architecture, ceramics, classical and jazz music, computer graphics, dance, drama, painting, and sculpture). In addition, Bennington now offers a five-year bachelor's/master's degree in teaching. Graduates of this program are certified in early childhood, elementary, or secondary education and earn a license to teach in the state of Vermont. The degree is recognized in thirty-seven other states, including New York, California, and Massachusetts. Students may apply to this program after their freshman year.

Bennington's faculty members are more committed to providing students with resources for a life of independent thought and self-education than they are with designing majors. From their perspective, a genuine education is actively created rather than passively received. Throughout their education at Bennington, students are challenged to pursue questions and interests that matter to them and taught the ability to pursue those questions wherever they may lead. It is not presumed that a student's progress need be the progressive elimination of all but one interest called the major; on the contrary, it is presumed that a student may well choose to explore a diverse range of disciplines in depth. Over the four-year period, students continually discuss with their faculty advisor and in writing what courses they intend to take and the reason why. In these evolving statements of purpose, students design, chart, and argue their course of study. This individualized statement, called the "plan," replaces the traditional major. Student plans are presented at regular intervals to panels of faculty for further discussion and review.

By taking an active role in crafting their own education, students learn what it takes to discover an intellectual identity and to pursue it. They learn to replace imposed discipline with self-discipline and to deal with a world where the requirements are imposed from within rather than from without. In the process of their education, every Bennington student must individually confront the question, "What is a real education?"