What makes a Burlington College education special? More than anything else, it is putting the needs and goals of students at the center of college life. Graduates continue to report that the personal support and individual attention they received at Burlington College transformed their lives.
Above all, Burlington College treats students as individuals—individuals with important contributions to make to the intellectual spirit of the college community. These contributions become the center of college life. Working in small discussion-centered classes, generally of between eight and 15 members, students come to know each other and themselves—well. In a classroom atmosphere that balances academic rigor and mutual support, students are challenged to discover what truly matters to them. In this stimulating environment, classes can take on lives of their own as students direct the discussions, and instructors, at times, become equal observer-learners in the process.
The respect students experience in the classroom is reflected in the College’s non-graded evaluation system. At the onset of each course or other learning activity, student and instructor negotiate a learning contract that sets expectations as well as specific learning goals. And at the end of the semester, both student and instructor provide written evaluations of progress made toward these central goals. The evaluation period becomes, then, not a harried time of cramming for exams or scrambling for a grade, but a time for reflection on what one has learned.
