Vermont Colleges Trip Part IV

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT

Marlboro College is a very small liberal arts college of about 270 students with accessible faculty and a class size of about 8 students.  Most graduates, about 70% go on to graduate school as opposed to entering the work force right after graduation.  Marlboro is a little unique in that they do not have majors, instead they have concentrated fields of study that the students choose themselves.  There are no required courses and in terms of assessment there are mostly papers or cumulative projects to show student learning and achievement. 

 

Students engage in a “plan” – a giant independent project, which is essentially deemed as their major.  Students will graduate with a Liberal Arts degree, but with a concentration in whatever area their “plan” showcases.  The students here are a bit quirky and very intellectual, passionate, independent and self-motivated; I’m assuming most probably go on to get their Ph.D. or start non-profits. When we walked around campus, you are supposed to take your shoes off upon entering the dorms and from what I could tell, there were no TVs in the dorms (although the guide admitted many watch TV on their computers with Netflix).  The buildings aren’t your typical college campus type buildings. 

Some examples of student designed programs:

·        Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts & Writing/Literature: An exploration of family and home in a collection of paintings and a body of creative non-fiction, with a critical essay examining a contemporary American novel. 

·        Bachelor of Science in Physics & Computer Science: Development of a broad understanding of physics through the creation of software to analyze x-ray diffraction data. 

·        Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in Politics & French: An internship in Rwanda culminating in a series of essays addressing individual complicity in systemic crimes.

http://www.marlboro.edu/

Southern Vermont College, Bennington, VT

Southern Vermont is a small liberal arts college of about 550 undergraduate students, although they are looking to grow to about 700-750 students.  Their most popular major is health studies and our tour guide was a nursing major, although they have 18 career focused majors and programs of study.  The college focuses on experiential, hands-on laboratory work, internships, and practicum opportunities as part of the overall learning process. 

Southern Vermont has more of a traditional college campus feel – with dorms and athletic facility on the lower campus and then a very short ride to the upper campus which has a gorgeous stone building that holds all of the students’ classes.  SVC offers over 20 clubs and organizations and has 10 Division III athletic teams.  Just a few stats – 60% female, 40% male, 64% first gen, 35% from Vermont, 82% employed or in graduate school at commencement, 78% admitted, 91% retention, and pretty affordable at $32,000 tuition & room/board.

http://www.svc.edu/

Bennington College, Bennington, VT

Bennington College was another unique, non-traditional, small liberal arts college with about 686 undergraduate students where every student designs his own major.  There is no core curriculum and each student has a 7 week internship each year in between fall and spring semesters.  Similar to Marlboro, there is an integration of different areas of curriculum around central ideas or questions through the “Plan Process”, which is the heart of a Bennington education. 

Students work very closely with their professors who are actively practicing in their fields.  The “Plan Process”: the first year (exploration) the students take a variety of courses to begin to identify the questions that will determine the direction of their studies.  Year 2 and 3 (immersion) students dive into a particular discipline, a cluster of disciplines, or a question.  Students will propose a formal plan for their studies and work with faculty to determine specific requirements that will ensure depth, rigor, and mastery.  Year 4 (opening outward), students explore how their own work relates to others’ and how their deepening understanding of a subject or craft might matter to the rest of the world.  Students choose either a senior project or thesis paper to conclude their work.

http://www.bennington.edu/

Stayed tuned for the next leg of the trip!!


Coming up next... Green Mountain College, College of St. Joseph, and Castleton State College...

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