Bard College Top Questions

Bard offers a unique experience: The faculty is top-notch and easily accessible, the campus is spread out (600 acres) but comfortable, and the people are great. Our academics give you a structure but encourage exploration, and our seminar-style classes (we don't offer lecture classes) encourage participation and critical thinking. I wish that smoking weren't as prevalent, but that's been my biggest complaint.

the best thing about bard are the classes and the teachers, all of mine have been excellent, I would change the location and the party scene on campus, there is relatively low school pride, it is hard to get off campus

The school is small, but it's good. There are certainly "cliques", which some complain about, and people may seem anti social at first, but don't let this fool you. Your average Bard kid may be a shoe gazer, but ask a question, start a conversation, and you should be able to find a lot of cool kids around. There are a lot of good concerts, mostly bands you've never heard of, and these are excellent times to meet other people with your tastes, start a band, or just drink a beer and chat with a stranger. With a few notable exceptions, the College and its faculty are really chill. Security will let you drink a beer in the open, but they might take a handle of whiskey away. They'll bust you for smoking in your room, but if you want to smoke a joint outside, they won't say anything. So many people smoke, but there's very little pressure to do so. In terms of a college town, this is a bubble. Campus is sweet, but some of the local towns are rather unfriendly towards Bard kids. The most frequent complaints are probably the food (which really is terrible, despite its large offering of vegetarian and vegan foods) and the cold. California kids (of which we have an abundance of) are normally ecstatic with the first snow, and miserable by the second. The winter can be really depressing, but it always leads to stronger bonds within dorms. Which, incidentally, is the reason that spring and fall are so much fun. Those are the times when you walk around the beautiful campus (the forests around here are amazing) and try and make new friends. Those are good times.

People complain all the time here: about the other students, about the distribution of funding, most of all about the administration. But, I find that rarely do any of them actually want to leave. I think the kids here are really great, especially coming from a place where no one had even heard of this school. Bard is a great in that, in almost all cases, a hobby or interest or personality that may have been thought of as "weird" in high school is totally embraced here. People are more prone to finding other people's obscure interests exciting and interesting. There is generally a lot of work, but if you take classes you like it tends not to get too overwhelming. Also, people generally always find a lot of time to hang out. This is a place that can get boring, especially in the winter, but I have found the kids here to be much more willing to have an adventure or try something new than at other schools. Many people here compare Bard to summer camp, except with homework, because people really take advantage of the outdoors (when the weather is nice) and participating in activities that many kids at other schools might not embrace, like picnics, fort-making, embroidery...etc. People here are generally interested.

Best thing: The small class sizes I'd change: The food, and the meal plan rules. I'd also make first year seminar optional second semester. School size: Its quite small. And when you get in trouble, you feel like its too small. People's reactions: Generally positive. I spend the most time: In the science building. College town: Absolutely. Administration: I have a good opinion of them. They deans aren't solely disciplinarians. They are also social support. They behave like counselors too. Recent Controversy: Oh, Bard students love controversies. We make them. School pride: Not sure. Unusual: The breaks don't coincide with anyone elses. I'll remember: The waterfall. Student complaints: The food is terrible.

Bard is an amazing place if you are properly suited for it. You need to have close to no inhibitions to be here, and you also have to be more intelligent than the average American. There isn't one "best thing about Bard". For me, it's the fact that I'm with a bunch of other people who can smoke pot all day and still be eloquent and function in and out of class (everything in moderation). For the person to the left of me, it could be something completely different. You don't have to do drugs to be at Bard, you don't have to be a hipster to be at Bard. But you do have to know what the hell you are talking about, and you have to be ready to speak your mind at every possible opportunity, otherwise you will be eaten alive by professors and students alike. We're very competitive, but in an extremely intricate and subtle way. It's a small school, but I was personally looking for that. The towns around Bard are all incredibly small, but none of them are "college towns". This is probably because they are all too afraid of us demon liberal hippie college kids. Also, Bard is mad awkward.

The best thing at Bard is the weekend breakfast. It's served till 2pm and they bring out the waffle maker! Although it's difficult to make a waffle because there's only one waffle maker and the line is usually very long. The reason breakfast is so wonderful is because, as most Bard students will tell you, food at Kline, the main dining hall, SUCKS. Most students try to go to Manor, the nicer dining hall, or eat off campus (which can get expensive really fast). Bard is really small. Very small. In fact, there's only one place on campus to go to socialize besides the dorms, and thats the Campus Center. The Campus Center has a game room which is pretty much just a tv and two arcade games next to a change machine. There's a computer lab, a vending machine, a pool table, and an on-campus eatery called Down The Road. On the weekends clubs rent out the dining halls for parties, and there are usually performances on the weekends, but beyond that there's not a huge social scene. Even at the parties and performances, one rarely ever socializes with people they don't already know. So even though there aren't many students, there are always people you haven't met. Also, Bard offers a lot of lectures, and open-mic night which is where students can pretty much just put on an improv talent show every week. When you tell someone you go to Bard, the reactions are pretty mixed depending on where the person is from. They either say "What's that?", "Oh, Barnard!", "I hear that school's full of creeps," or "Ooo! Bard! Congratulations!" The "college town" is called Red Hook which isn't actually the same town that Bard is in, but it's the closest town there is. It has a CVS, a couple diners, a cute little Bagel Shoppe, and Hannafords. If you go to Bard, you've gone on at least one late night trip to Hannafords which is the 24 hour grocery store near by. As for bigger stores like Target and WalMart, the closest place that has those is Kingston, which is impossible to get to without taking the shuttle or having a car. Bard is rural. They're not kidding about that. There are things that could possibly be walking distance but only if you feel like taking a VERY long walk. IT IS VERY USEFUL TO HAVE A CAR AT BARD. The campus is pretty spread out, and it's not likely that someone on south campus is going to feel like trekking up to north campus for class when the weather is really bad (and it will be really bad, and classes are rarely cancelled). Also, if you ever want to go to the city or out of town for the weekend, there aren't any shuttles to the train stations so you have to take a car. You won't be happy at Bard for very long without a car, or at least someone who has a car. There is no school spirit. People go to sporting events but usually just about a handful, and they're usually girlfriends of the players. Bard has it's own nude magazine called "The Moderator." Every year The Moderator has a party to celebrate it's release and these parties are clothing optional. I hear they used to get pretty crazy, but recently they changed the rules so that the party can't go passed 10, so this year it ended up as just kind of a scantilly clad cheese and crackers party.

Bard is GORGEOUS. Very little has been done to adapt nature to a campus, rather, the campus has truly adopted to the beautiful Hudson Valley scenery around it. Of course, this means we frequently walk through a swamp to get to class today, but five deer are also likely to leap across our path as we walk. The school is very small, which can be a great thing (you know everyone) and a bad thing (you know everything about everyone). There is NOTHING as far as a town goes, but a shuttle attempts to take students to the two nearest towns. The administration is frustrating, occasionally--mostly, the school just doesn't have the money for a lot of things that would make life easier. Registration is a bitch. Registration is a bitch. Registration is a bitch.

the administration/admissions makes the school seem what it is not.

Bard campus is pretty disgusting. Its beautiful during the spring and fall, but when the rain and snow starts coming, everything floods here. People drink 40's a lot but the party scene is dull, and can get very boring. Its hard to find things to do on weekends. Before I came to college, I didn't want to go to a school with a big frat scene, but now I wish there was at least one frat or sorority house where people could go on weekends to party. Its just so hard to find a place to go. The student run "SMOG" garage, where crappy bands come, really isn't very fun. Its just sweaty kids drinking bad beer. I spend most of my time in my dorm room or at my friends' dorms. Bard has no college town, theres nothing around and no place to go. The administration is very helpful and the faculty is great. There is no school pride, at all. My friends complain a lot about the food, its really awful. I've had college food at other places, but Bard's food is by far the worst. The meal plan is way too expensive for the quality of food you get. SMOKING is my greatest complaint. You can't go two feet without running into an environmentalist, smoking outside of a building. Nobody (security) enforces rules against smoking right outside of doors. Its horrible and I wish it would change. Come to Bard, get second hand smoke cancer.