A Private College in the Public Interest Bard College seeks to inspire curiosity, a love of learning, idealism, and a commitment to the link between higher education and civic participation.
Photo by Karl Rabe
Academics
Academics at Bard focus on giving students a strong scholarly foundation with our core curriculum, then encouraging them to explore individual academic interests. The College seeks to inspire curiosity, a love of learning, idealism, and a commitment to the link between higher education and civic participation. Close contact with scholars who are teachers but also active in their disciplines is a constant, and the level of academic discourse in the classroom is high. The College provides a beautiful setting in which students pursue their academic interests and craft a rich cultural and social life.
Civic engagement is at the core of Bard College’s institutional mission, reflecting the fundamental belief that higher education institutions can and should operate in the public interest. Bard uses its resources to develop partnerships that address local, national, and global problems, reach underserved populations, and tackle critical issues of education and public policy.
“At Bard, we show up. We build, paint, dig, teach, play, sing, sweat. We show up in the middle of the night, work in the rain, crawl under the car, whatever it takes. This does not mean erasing the self. It means struggling with the tension between self and collective interests, and then acting compassionately.” —Paul Marienthal, Dean for Social Action; Director, Trustee Leader Scholar Program
Watch: Annie, a premed biology major at Bard, explores the Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation.
Campus Life
The focus of student life at Bard College, both inside and outside the classroom, is on campus. From its historic Hudson Valley setting to its state-of-the-art science and arts facilities, the College offers an idyllic environment where students can enjoy a rich social life interwoven with their cultural and intellectual pursuits.
Bard College offers the best of both worlds: a traditional liberal arts college with exceptional programs in the fine and performing arts. In small classes taught by notable faculty, students work closely with top professionals in their fields. All students, whatever their major, are encouraged to take advantage of the same high-level arts instruction and engagement; the discipline of cultivating one’s artistic abilities has wide-ranging collateral benefits.
Bard Academy and Bard College at Simon’s Rock Announce Relocation to Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley
The Bard College Board of Trustees and the Bard College at Simon’s Rock Board of Overseers today jointly announced that Simon’s Rock will be relocating from its Great Barrington, MA, campus to a new campus on the property of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. The school’s new home, recently acquired and adjacent to Bard’s existing campus, will open its doors to Simon’s Rock students in Fall 2025. More >
Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking and Master of Arts in Teaching Program Receive Library of Congress Grant Award
The Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking (IWT) and Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching Program (MAT) have been awarded their fourth grant, in the amount of $74,911, to support their collaborative one-year project “Mapping Boundaries: Writing to Read Primary Sources in Middle School Classrooms,” imbedding digitized Library of Congress primary sources into their programming for teachers and students. More >
