Bard College

Summary

Bard College is a private institution that was founded in 1860. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,958, its setting is rural, and the campus size is 600 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Bard College's ranking in the 2012 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, 51. Its tuition and fees are $43,306 (2011-12).

Bard College’s setting is less like a typical campus than a vast village spread out across 500 acres of parks and woodland. Located in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., the secluded school is close to the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains. Many students have views of the campus’s nearby scenery from their dorm rooms. First-year students must live in one of the campus’s 40 different residence halls and houses, some of which have “alcohol free,” “quiet,” and “wellness” themes. For outdoor recreation, students can go horseback riding, canoeing, hiking, and biking. There are more than 80 clubs on campus, and students are welcome to start new organizations. There is no elected student government at Bard, and no Greek system, either. More than half of Bard students study abroad before graduation. There are tons of student volunteer options, like the Bard Prison Initiative, a program that sends students to maximum- and medium-security jails throughout New York to tutor inmates. The Bard Raptors sports teams are members of the NCAA Division III Eastern College Athletic Conference. Freshmen at Bard start college earlier than their peers at most other schools, arriving in early August for a three-week orientation to campus, academic, and community life known as the Language and Thinking Program.

For day trips, New York City is 90 miles from campus, and easily accessible by train. Students have several options for longer stays in the Big Apple, too. Through the Bard-Rockefeller Semester in Science, students can enroll in an intensive semester of research and study at New York’s Rockefeller University. Students will live at Rockefeller and will work in the university’s laboratories. Students can spend also spend a semester or two in New York through the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, which pairs students with internships in international relations and human rights areas. In addition to its undergraduate offerings, Bard has unique graduate degree options such as a master’s of music in conducting through its Conservatory of Music and a doctorate of philosophy in decorative arts. Notable alumni of Bard College include journalist Matt Taibbi; actor Christopher Guest; and the founders of Steely Dan, musicians Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.