giddey_up

My D has just been accepted at Bard and has to make a decision pretty soon. Most everything we’ve read about the academics, great professors, class size, make us believe Bard is a great match. She has some questions, though, that maybe someone could help us with:

Is there a good music scene on campus and off campus?

There seems to be a higher proportion of girls than boys - are there opportunities to socialize with students from nearby schools?

Stats show that 75% of the student body is from out-of-state, but are they mostly from New England and Mid-Atlantic states? Or are they more geographically diverse than that?

Granfallooner

I also have a humble question--based only on rumors, not personal experience or opinion--is there a preponderance of snobs? SORRY! Curious, not convicting.

BrooklynDad

I have heard very nice things from people who went to Bard. But it is in a somewhat remote location. It is in a beautiful spot on the Hudson River, but there is no real "off-campus" right nearby that I could see when we went there. You can get the idea from this:

http://www.bard.edu/about/location/

I would think that it might be good to have a car and to be able to drive at some point during college, but I don't have much current information. It's only 1 1/2 to 2 hours from New York City by train, of course.

giddey_up

Never mind - got the financial aid letter. Zero merit and we'd have to pay way over our EFC.

wmgan

Snobs? There'll always be a few of those everywhere but they're certainly not the majority at Bard.

There is definitely a good music scene on campus. There isn't much of a scene for anything off campus, though -- it's not easy to go anywhere if you don't have a car, so for most of the students, the social scene is more-or-less confined to the Bard campus.

It's true that NYC isn't far away, and I've been there a number of times during my first year at Bard, but it isn't as easy as it might seem -- it's true that the train ride is less than 2 hours, but getting to the train station is a challenge unless you own a car, or are in the habit of getting others to drive you around. (There are two trains that go to NYC -- the Metro-North is cheaper but leaves from Poughkeepsie, which is almost an hour away from Bard; the Amtrak costs about double but leaves from Rhinecliff, which is much nearer to Bard.) The shuttle schedule (http://inside.bard.edu/community/tra...le_trains.html) leaves something to be desired (as does the shuttle schedule to the Kingston mall, which I've not been able to make all semester!); there is also a loop bus in the early morning and early evening that goes to the train station in Poughkeepsie that costs $1. I often end up having to take a cab back to Bard from the train station if I come back late at night. (My friends and I have considered staying overnight at the train station before, but we never did -- I'm not sure how safe that is.)