Posts tagged graduation

The thing is, you and your Plan Committee (a group of faculty that work to help you define your Plan) work together to decide how best your classes can fulfill your plan.

If you study film and you’re interested in making nature documentaries, then you’ll probably be taking a fair bit of natural sciences and a fair bit of video. If, however, you want to go to grad school for biology, the game changes - your Plan Committe will help you pursue the question of “what part(s) of biology am I most interested in?” as well as helping you to know what kinds of courses will be in a typical pre-req requirement for a Master’s program.

It’s apples and oranges, basically. Don’t think of the Plan as ‘building your own major,’ necessarily (though there is certainly an element of that in the whole process) - think of it as defining an area of inquiry that you want to use your education at Bennington to explore. If your inquiry is about research-level, graduate biology, then you’ll have to conduct summarily high-level classwork in order to graduate. If you’re asking questions about the natural world via film, then your classwork will likely be spread out more between the two disciplines.

But yeah! I hope that makes sense. Definitely read up on the Plan Process in that link in the first paragraph, I think everything will make a lot more sense afterwards. I hope this was helpful!

-Evan ‘13

Ultimately, I plan on attending grad school for behavioral ecology and making the next step towards a career in the sciences, but not, necessarily, right away.

What I’m really thinking about right now is trying to find a job for a couple years after I graduate that (ideally) lets me travel a bit here and there. Right out of undergrad, I’m not necessarily looking to jump into my Master’s right away, but rather to make some money, catch my breath, and just relish the fact that I have a degree. I’ve still got another year and a half until I graduate, so, obviously, things can change, but that’s the rough idea right now.

I don’t know as I could accurately tell you what Bennington students ‘usually’ do, since there’s so many different paths to take, but aside from grad school-oriented folks like myself, one avenue I notice recent grads taking is to contact old Field Work Term employers. In some cases, those employers might be looking to bring on more help, and who better to consider than someone who’s already learned the ropes and (hopefully) has made a good name for themselves there already? In other cases, there might not be an opening at the same office (or lab, or farm, or…), but your ex-FWT boss might know somewhere similar that IS looking to bring on someone new. Among other things, FWT is great for networking.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that, regardless of what Bennington students decide to do after graduation, they tend to be very well-prepared to go off into the world and do it. Bennington breeds students who are well-connected, intellectually curious, and well-prepared to solve problems and debate solutions. The Plan Process and FWT are both integral and formative to this output, as is the energy of the campus. While I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll be doing once I graduate, I can say that I feel more than prepared to jump into that unknown.

-Evan ‘13