Bennington College Top Questions

We're all a bunch of hippies. We're all kinda crazy, a bunch of swishy artist types who talkin cliches and smoke cloves.

I think that a lot of people's parents hear Bennington and still think the school is as out of control as it was in the 80's before the current president of the school came in and re-organized everything. The more college-aged generation, (or even high school students), have associated Bennington College with our alum Bret Easton Ellis's novel Rules of Attraction, (which is based on the college), or the movie version made from it. I also think people associate Bennington with other hippy schools like the University of Vermont and Hampshire, and automatically think everyone has dreadlocks and smokes a lot of pot.

Well, there's the affected, snobby visual artist stereotype; the idea is that all visual artists are really pretentious know-it-alls, and they're all rebellious, grungy heiresses. Then there's the typical hipster stereotype, and then we also get labeled as hippies on top of that. Also there's the stereotype that all Bennington women are lesbians until graduation.

Everyone here is a freak and dresses weird. Everyone does their own thing. The school is basically like a summer camp.