Bennington College/Chapman My Options??

[Iain]

I recently saw on an SDN advertisement, the Bennington College 1 year Post-Bacc course. What is the word on the street about it? Does anyone have any information of the cost of the course? What is the school like? How feasible is doing all the classes in 1 year? Is the college out in the middle of the boonies? How cold does it really get in Vermont? I spent sometime going through their website, and am becoming very interested in this course.

I have just applied to Chapman, which I am very enthused with, it is local, I can keep my current job, I will be close to my family, etc. Has anyone completed this course? I have friend who did their undergraduate studies there, and it sounds like they enjoyed it. My fingers are definitely crossed to get into that program.

Also can you suggest any other post bacc courses that I should look into? My biggest concern is I gained my degree in the UK, and although I did reasonable well and graduated with honors, with the change in systems my scores where not quite where I would have ideally liked them to be, and how they translate into the US system I have no idea. Another saving grace is I was 19 when I graduated, which I think demonstrates my academic ability and determination.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Febrifuge]

Hi, Iain. You should search for "Bennington" as a userid here at SDN; the admissions officers there come by the board from time to time.

I'm enrolled, and will be starting the 1-yr postbac out there in June. PM me if you like, or we can talk publicly here. Cheers!

 

[Iain]

Thanks for your reply, I will certainly run a search, and will likely be in touch with you over the next couple of days. Just with New Year reports, and the fact I am off next week, things became hectic literally over night!

 

[Pemulis]

Iain,

The Bennington program has a decent rap from what I know of it, but you should be aware that it is not the only post-bac on the block. Do a search in this forum and you'll find out about tons of others. The two that are perhaps most similar to Bennington's that have really great reps are Goucher college and Bryn Mawr college. Both have 100% placement into med school, get you in and out in one year, and have linkages with a number of medical schools to get you straight in without having to take the normal "glide" year off for application. Bennington, btw, does not have any linkages that I know of.

A caveat: I have never heard of Chapman, so I can't comment on it, but in general its considered a good idea to take your post-bac courses somewhere with a strong rep. Unless this school has a really good rep in your area, I'd be leary of going there.

Finally, Vermont gets damned cold in the winter. If you want sunshine, don't go there. BUT, the whole state is amazingly beautiful, Bennington is a very charming little New England town, and if you like skiing, snowboarding, hiking, etc., Vermont can't be beat (on the east coast, that is).

 

[Pemulis]

Oh, Febrifuge, what's up? I owe you an email one of these days...

 

[Iain]

I certainly do need to do more research, however I find a lot of programs have very structured entrance requirements - considering I gained my degree in the UK, with a different grading system, and evaluation method, never took SATs, etc it worries me to apply to programs, without be in communication with them first. I just want to make sure any ambiguity that my records create, is addressed before decisions are made.

Bennington caught my eye, as it had many similarities to where I did my undergrad, so adapting to the environment would be quite smooth. After review the 1-year program although intense looked manageable - however my biggest concern is it is very expensive, and Vermont is a long way from home. It did certainly generate interest though.

Chapman has a 70% acceptance rate; it is a very well known school here locally. I like the fact, that I would still be able to work, continue to volunteer locally, all while undertaking their program. It is also very reasonably priced, which is just a benefit. I think it just really fits my needs the best – it is definitely my number 1!!

Unlike most people I am in no particular hurry - I want a program where I can learn the material, and get good marks. If the best program for me is a 2 year program with no flow throw that is fine – in fact I would quite enjoy a glide year the idea of spending a year in South America volunteering, mastering Spanish (and playing polo in Argentina in the summer) sounds like terrific experience, and something very worthwhile for my development for a career in medicine.

I guess I have to spend sometime searching SDN, and looking at programs to find other that has what I am looking for. Thanks for your continued help.

 

[Pemulis]

Iain,

I would add one more warning for you to be aware of: a lot of schools publish an acceptance rate of "70%" or whatever, but you need to really look at what that means. Most schools have a committe that endorses your application for med school. The goal of that commitee is to protect the school's rep, not yours. So, at a lot of schools, when they say the acceptance rate is 70% or whatever, what they mean is that 70% of the people they endorse get accepted. They don't tell you that they only endorse maybe 20% of their pre-med students, and so really, they have an acceptance rate more like 15%. This is a common trap.

I do know that Bennington gets close to 100% of their students in, and that its a "true" 100%, i.e. just about everyone who starts the program gets accepted somewhere.

Good luck and let us know how it goes. You can PM me if you have any questions.

 

[Febrifuge]

That "endorsement" deal is pretty devious. I was not aware that schools did that.

As '70s TV commercials might say... "pretty sneaky, sis."