<p>I don’t think Bard and New Paltz are all that similar except for being liberal arts schools in upstate NY.
Bard is a private school and has a reputation of having a more intellectual and wealthy population. New Paltz students would be more money conscious and middle class. While both supposedly have creative and artsy students, NP is very down to earth while Bard is supposed to have students with more of an attitude of “I’m special and different.”
Bard’s faculty gets very involved with students from what I’ve heard, while NP has more typical professor/student relationships. Both have small class sizes but Bard is a much smaller school. Social life at Bard is very limited. NP has more going on.
If I can answer any questions feel free to ask.</p>