No problem...glad to help!
Unfortunately, I really know next to nothing about Bennington's program. They weren't really on my radar when I was applying. I think they have much smaller lecture sizes than UVM, which can be a benefit. I haven't had much trouble getting to know my professors even with largish lectures, though. You just need to put a little more effort into speaking up in class and going to office hours. I also know that they don't have any medical school linkages, for whatever that's worth. (Although the only ones that UVM has are to the UVM College of Medicine and UNECOM, and only UNECOM lets you drop the glide year, so it's not like we have any super great ones either.)
The only other advantage I can think of offhand is that Burlington is really the place to be in Vermont. I don't know much about Bennington, but it's pretty small, so I can't imagine that it has anywhere near the opportunities that Burlington has, both in terms of premed (jobs, research, volunteering, etc.), and just in terms of stuff to do on your time off. Fletcher Allen has a fantastic volunteer department, and UVM has an entire office dedicated to undergrad research opportunities (which we have access to).
It's perfectly possible to do the UVM program in a year and a summer if you want, but I'm taking two years to do mine. I did my undergraduate work at a music conservatory, so it had been about 8 years since I'd taken math or science classes, and I was a little worried that taking Chem, Bio and Physics together might be a bit of an overload. So I'm going a little slower, readjusting to the academic world (and making sure I get great grades), and taking the extra time to volunteer. To be honest, if I'd gotten into a 1-year program like Bryn Mawr or Goucher I would have gone, but I'm fine with the way things turned out.
The advantages of a shorter program are, obviously, that you get into med school a year earlier, which translates to big bucks eventually. I've also heard that the intense 1-year programs can show med schools you're able to handle a rigorous schedule, but I had an extremely rigorous undergrad schedule, and I'm filling my free hours with volunteer work, so I don't think I have much to prove there.
I've found the folks at UVM to be extremely supportive. My Chem professor is just about the best thing since penicillin, and two out of the three Bio profs I've had are great, too (the third isn't teaching Bio anymore). Labs are taught by TAs, who can be hit-or-miss, but I think that's true just about anywhere. (I've had two great, one mediocre, and one awful one so far.) Polly, the post-bacc program chair and advisor, is really great. She answers emails incredibly quickly, and seems very knowledgeable about the workings of med school admissions. I've heard some complaints about her, but those have all come from either A) people who aren't premed (apparently she knows less about vet schools than she does about med), or B) people who aren't doing well in the program. I think they give you some grief if your GPA falls below a 3.5, which seems understandable to me.
Whew. So. If you have any more questions, feel free to give me a shout here or in a PM. Best of luck in making your decision!
