andro- you sound a little sensitive yourself! not sure why the school pride of hampsters and bennies bothers you so much. we go to very misunderstood and oft maligned institutions and it gets really tiresome. those of us who attended, or taught there, know how many great things go on within that open structure and don't want people considering those schools to be misdirected about what the school's strengths and weaknesses might be.

As someone with affection, and history, with both Hampshire and Bennington, I heartily disagree with your views on these colleges.

College can be somewhere that one gets fed enormous amounts of information, angst over grades, and make sure the RIGHT names and ec's are attached to one's name, OR
it can be a place where one learns HOW to learn, becomes engaged with the material, and gets real world experience.

Hampshire and Bennington are the latter.

Your assertion that not having grades makes them easier shows real ignorance. An evaluation is much more specific and comprehensive than a mere letter. This is one of the reasons that these schools have such good statistics regarding graduate school.

If you were in graduate admissions would you rather see:

A
A
B

or:

Excellent writer & thinker
articulate and thorough
good student, but somewhat disorganized

of which potential student would you feel you had a clearer picture?

It is publications such as yours that claim that these schools are good places for slackers that are, in part, responsible for the high attrition rates. No slacker will make it through either of these schools and that gets figured out pretty quickly. In fact, just the opposite is true, and a very high level of independence is required.

You really need to do your research about the schools you write about. You make yourself look stupid, and lose credibility, publishing so much inaccurate information.