Communities Jonathan Wood
Intrigue with Plan prompted a transfer
On transferring to Marlboro
My experience in a public high school left me disenchanted with the whole education system. So I didn't put a lot of thought into picking colleges. I just entered one in the University of California system. I felt the structure of major requirements really limited me for what I wanted to learn. There wasn't any continuity to what I could learn and what I could take outside of college.
My sister is a Marlboro student, and when I was visiting over the summer I heard about Plan for the first time. I thought that sounded like a great way to focus specifically on what I wanted learn and have a self-directed education that I wasn't able to get at my previous school.
On academics
I never specifically got instruction from a professor at my previous school. It was always a teaching aide and they were sometimes helpful and sometimes not helpful at all. What I've found here, is the professors are involved with your life and what is best for you and I really have appreciated that.
Because there's not a large faculty here, sometimes you may want to study something but no one really has that area of expertise. But you have to be so self-sufficient with your academics here, anyway; it's forcing me to look into this stuff on my own and learn how to research on my own. Then I can take it to a teacher and show them my work and ask about setting up a one-on-one tutorial. So it's a give and take between a lot of structure and an absence of structure.
On the Clear Writing Requirement
It's a lot of pressure, but good pressure. It makes you want to keep revising these essays to make them the best you possibly can. The idea is that you want to get your writing up to a publishable level at this stage of your life. The professors are very hard on your writing, but they're also very positive about it. They give very clear and thorough notes and my writing has gotten a lot better this semester than what it was before I transferred in.
On the Plan of Concentration
Plan convinced me that this is where I wanted to be. The idea of creating a large body of work that demonstrates my ability to write and research is a really positive thing. I felt the opportunity to take my education toward graduate school or something else was greater at Marlboro than at another college or university.
On social life
I went on one of the Bridges orientation trips and got to meet a lot of the other transfers, which was really helpful and it was just really fun. You're in such a small community that you can't help but be emotionally involved with everyone around you, but the positive side of that is that everyone else around you is there to support. I've found some pretty powerful relationships here.
Whenever it was sunny day and there was still snow on the ground I would try to get outside. I would check out snowshoes from the Outdoor Program and go snowshoeing on one of the college trails, or go to the ice skating rink or just take a walk.
I have a car and that's been really helpful to get away. Sometimes you just don't want to work in the library anymore and you don't want to work outside and Brattleboro is a pretty nice little town.
Advice for prospective transfers
Don't think you know everything before you come here. You're going to have to rewrite essays many, many, many times before you get a good product.
I feel like there's not a lot of competition here between students. If someone in class is disagreeing with you, it's not because they're trying to please anyone. We're all trying to learn together and benefit from each other. So someone who is very open and willing to share themselves with other people would be a good fit at Marlboro.