Bard vs Chatham (Pittsburgh)

Magdalen
Wed, 18 Apr 2018 05:49:04 +0000

Hello,

I am a transfer student deciding between my final choices of colleges, and I honestly am so stuck. I got into my top pick, which was actually Pepperdine in LA but their award offer wasn’t nearly as good as Bard or Chatham so I’ve narrowed it down to those two schools.

Bard offered me about 6K more a year than Chatham has and that’s a big deal, my family is paying my tuition and I’m the youngest child so I’m conscious that they’ve had to pay for my siblings too.
I’m studying Public Policy (or Political Studies at Bard) and I’m very passionate about advocacy for disabled youth, which is what I want to do when I get out of school.
I like Chatham’s policy program brecause it’s very tangible, they focus less on theory and more on policy in the real world. Chatham is also in a city, and in a politically interesting city, which is probably one of it’s biggest draws.
Bard is very theorical in it’s approach to policy and it’s in a super rural area. The academics are no doubt amazing and well known in the academia arena. A draw for Bard is it’s obvious prestige.
Chatham is a formerly women’s college (went co-ed 4 years ago) and it’s super progressive which I also find really fascinating! Bard is also obviously very progressive but I feel like Bard is in an echo chamber because of it’s location and Chatham can escape that since it’s in the middle of the city.

I don’t know, my parents are willing to pay the extra tuition for Chatham, but I don’t know if it is a good investment considering Bard is more prestigious and less money. I’m worried I’ll get bored at Bard, not academically, but geographically, and that will affect my grades.

Lastly, Considering I am a transfer student and Bard needs 128 credits to graduate, I worry I’ll be even more behind my peers trying to catch up.