If you were a prospective cognitive scientist/linguist/philosopher of language and you had to select between Whitman, Bucknell (as a Presidential Fellow), and Bard, which would you choose? Bucknell seems to have fairly solid programs in my fields of interest (it also happens to be the only school with a linguistics major), whereas Whitman’s psychology and philosophy programs seem less focused. Bard is obviously the odd one out, but I’m keeping it open as it seems to have a decent philosophy of mind program and I have an affinity for the arts. Now, I am currently leaning towards Whitman because graduates seem to have slightly better prospects for grad school/PhD programs (nearly 65% of Whitties go to graduate school vs roughly 25% of Bucknellians). Any opinions/advice would be wonderful.
Edit: Please note that I am very liberal, completely uninterested in extramural sports/Greek life, and extremely fond of intellectual discussion.
I’m guessing you’ve already explored the Mind Brain and Behavior cross discipline concentration at Bard: http://mbb.bard.edu/overview/ - the approach to the subject may be quite different than that of Bucknell and Whitman (I have no idea!) Have you corresponded with any of the professors in the concentration at Bard to discuss your interests? I see many courses posted on the website - you’d want to find out how often they’re offered and if it takes any juggling to fit them into your schedule. And you would be majoring in something else, while adding MBB as a concentration. In terms of the points in your Edit above - Bard fits you to a tee.
The percentage of students who go to graduate school is only partially based upon the quality and preparation of the undergraduate curriculum - it’s also based on how many students actually want to go to graduate school. I don’t think Bucknell will give you worse prospects for grad school than Whitman; perhaps fewer Bucknell alumni wish to attend grad school.
Just from browsing the faculty interests, Whitman’s psychology faculty have a clear emphasis on cognitive psychology (about 4 of the 7 full-time faculty members do research/have interests in different areas of cognitive psychology). There are also two full-time faculty in the philosophy department who focus on philosophy of mind. That seems like a decent core of people. However, no linguistics.
Bucknell has separate majors in linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy - all of which are areas that cognitive scientists draw from (and computer science, often, too - they have that as well.) There is very good representation of cognitive psych amongst psych faculty there and strengths in philosophy of mind in the philosophy department as well. Those four departments/programs (along with computer science and maybe some engineering classes, even) might enable you to do a student-created major in cognitive science, if you wanted.
MBB at Bard really does sound very relevant to what you’re interested in; it would be broader than your specific interest, but that’s probably a good thing. The great thing is that it’s a concentration, so you could choose a disciplinary major (probably psychology or philosophy) while concentrating in the MBB program. The existence of a whole program is good, as it means a core of faculty who enjoy thinking about these things collaboratively and maybe seminars and special topics classes focused in it.
If you don’t want Greek life, do note that Bucknell is about 50% Greek. They also have D1 sports there and seem to be more rah-rah than most small liberal arts colleges are.
Honestly, for this particular major/interest area either Bucknell or Bard seem like the best choice, and Bard may be a better fit for you as a person than Bucknell. But There are other considerations to be made about the individual colleges.
Thank you so much for your responses! I really do appreciate the effort you have put in to help this soon-to-be college freshman. 
@SpiritManager I’ll definitely contact faculty associated with the MBB concentration. My biggest concern with Bard at the moment is that many of its science programs are new and most of its notable graduates (according to Wikipedia) are writers, performers, and artists. I’m just a bit skeptical about studying psychology at a school which places so much emphasis on the arts. If I did choose to attend I would probably major in philosophy.
@juillet I suppose that my qualms with Bucknell have more to do with the campus culture than the quality of the academics. I’m afraid that the relatively small percentage of students entering graduate school might reflect an overly businesslike student body, one which is more concerned with financial stability than knowledge for its own sake. I’ve grown up with this mentality all my life and am going to college in order to escape it (at least temporarily).
With regard to Whitman, I’m wondering if I’d be able to develop a 3-2 program where I’d study cog sci for 3 years and linguistics at another institution for 2. I’ve heard about computer science, engineering, and forestry majors doing this in the past. Do you happen to know how these sorts of programs are formed?
Also, do either of you know if Bard’s reputation in the sciences has improved very much since it built the Reem-Kayden Center for Science and Computation in 2007?
Thanks again!
Bard has put a ton of resources into the sciences in the last decade. I believe there are almost as many students majoring in the sciences now as in the arts. The psychology department is wonderful, by the way - and very rigorous. Students from Bard get into Med school and elite PhD programs 0- although I’m sure that also depends on the students themselves, of course. You can access a document listing which grad schools last year’s students are attending this year: http://www.bard.edu/about/disclosures/students/ (This, of course, only lists schools for students who chose to go directly into a grad school program after graduation.)
Yes, Bard is terrific for those interested in the arts - but for someone interested in linguistics and philosophy, having strong programs across the board is essential. You might find you get as much from a poetry class, as from the neuroscience class.