Bard College Visit Report by mamenyu

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - Found the presentation of the admissions officer off-putting; he was condescending to students and parents.

Campus Tour: Yes - Long tour (1.5 hours); very open-hearted tour guide.

---

Campus:

---

Almost no students made eye-contact; not an overall friendly feel. Students in the student union manning a table for "HomoComing" were in-your-face.

---

---

Beautiful setting, with leaves at peak of Fall colors but the buildings seem almost randomly placed; huge distances.

---

Student union not appealing or clean, lots of flies in the cafe, ancient computers; dorms looked run-down. Beautiful economics building overlooking the Hudson but it was locked.

---

There is apparently a wide variety of dormitory space; we mostly saw "the toasters" and trailer dorms -- both unappealing.

---

Hard to tell -- lots of secluded places and large distances between areas of campus.

---

It seemed incoherent. The estate and gardens at one end of campus and Gehry at the other are lovely; there's a beautiful running path; but saw few good spaces for students to hang out.

---

Off-Campus:

---

Beautiful area, especially in Fall.

Campus Visit Notes for Bard College

Visit Description:

We visited the college and conservatory and spent the greater part of the day walking around the campus or on the campus tour, which lasted 1.5 hours. The tour guide was very talkative and energetic. The campus has lots of buildings, many new, but rather a mish-mash in terms of attractiveness and practicality; there did not seem to be comfortable places for students to congregate on the campus. Lots of awkward interior spaces without appealing student lounge areas; the student union, for example, was fairly dead, messy, not very clean-looking. The music building (shared with the film department) was remote from the rest of campus (at the other end of the campus from the Gehry performance center) and dead - no lounge, no bustle of student activity. The education is very individualized, even in terms of selecting a "major," which is through a process called "modulating" that involves a paper and presentation/defense with three faculty -- kind of a mini PhD oral, then a senior project one-on-one with a professor. The big sport, according to the tour guide, is Four Square (yes!); small gym. Not diverse ethnically. The tour guide described Town/Gown relations as strained (after an anti-Bush demonstration by students in the town of Red Hook). Be sure to walk up to the economics building and its Italianate garden overlooking the Hudson. There we met the one friendly student who raved about the academics and social life but said the food was bad and you need a car. Visit the campus before enrolling -- to paraphrase Touchstone in As You Like It, it is not for all markets.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

Marriot Courtyard Inn -- very nice, clean, comfortable.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

We ate at at an inn in Rhinebeck claiming to be the oldest continuing inn in the U.S. -- pretty good food, poor service.

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

The drive along the Hudson is spectacular in the Fall; a fairly long 2.5 hour car drive to NY City. There is a train to NY that goes along the Hudson part of the way and would be a nice way to travel.