Why Bentley University?

This question, and many variations of it, have been asked of me dozens of times, since I made the decision to attend Bentley. We all know how the basic introduction begins here at Bentley with five standard questions:

• What’s your name?

• What year are you?
• What dorm do you live in?
• What’s your major?
• Where are you from?

Well, my name is Lauren, I’m a sophomore, I live in Kresge Hall, I’m majoring in IDCC, and I’m from Minnesota, a state in the north Midwest.  Yes, we have electricity; yes, there are actual cities there; and, yes, snow before Halloween isn’t out of the question. No, not everyone lives on farms, and no, not everyone has the accent popularized by the movie Fargo, which is actually in North Dakota. 

Nevertheless, the question remains, “What brought you to Bentley?” Before I came to school here, I had absolutely no attachments to the East coast. I didn’t know any Bentley alumni—almost all of my extended family lives in the Midwest, and I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to major in business.

My unlikely interest in Bentley actually began with a brochure received in the mail, during the end of my junior year in high school. As we all know, that’s the time when you’re bombarded with college mail on a daily basis, and to be honest, I didn’t even read most of it. I knew that I wanted a small private school, a strong study abroad program, high placement and retention rates, and some combination of business and liberal arts. I had already made my list of seven schools to which I was going to apply for admission. However, I then learned that Bentley had all of the criteria that I wanted in a college and was extremely impressed with the LSM program. I began to think that Bentley was the perfect place for me, yet it wasn’t located in the Midwest. 

Fast-forward to Fall of my senior year in high school, which was college application time. Being the organized and plan-ahead type of person that I am, the majority of applications were completed and submitted months before the deadline dates. However, on a whim, I decided to apply to Bentley. It wasn’t one of my first choices, but it was far away from Minnesota.

By March, I had narrowed down my future colleges to two places and then made a decision to tour Bentley. I just had a feeling that I couldn’t commit to a school without really knowing all of my options. So, during Spring vacation, for the first time in my life, I took a trip to the East coast. It sounds corny, but as soon as I arrived on campus, I knew that Bentley was the school for me. People always say that when you try on the right wedding dress, you’ll know. Well, Bentley was my wedding dress school.

Although I took a tour, saw the beautiful campus, and read the statistics, these weren’t the things that sold me on Bentley; it was the feeling I had from being on campus. Reacting with a gut-instinct is unusual for me because, like many business students, I usually rely on numbers, pro/con lists, and logic. 

Choosing to attend Bentley is the best decision that I’ve ever made. For me, it was the beginning of making independent decisions and figuring out what I wanted to accomplish in life.  Moving from Minnesota wasn’t easy, but the unique community at Bentley made it worthwhile. There’s a reason our retention rate is so strong and that our job placement rate is over 90% despite the current economy.

The students here make this campus what is it – irreplaceable – and this is something to celebrate as we look forward to Homecoming Weekend.