<p>I'm focusing my reach mainly on LACs like Bard and Gettysburg. Location doesn't really matter much to me as long as the education I get at the college is of a high standard. I really like Bard and I got a good vibe from its website but I've been hearing and reading stuff like how radical Bard students are. But 'radical' is subjective so if you know or have heard anything from credible sources to how radical they are (their actions, general vibe, etc) do help me out. I'm not too keen on going to a school that'll protest on something for every two weeks, yeah? </p>
<p>I know a few people who have gone to Bard and you’re certainly right–“radical” is subjective. In terms of politics, Bard students are generally very liberal. You won’t be seeing protests going on every two weeks, but I have heard people are active with asserting their beliefs. Don’t let this dissuade you from going. Bard is a great school with a unique culture. Because of the “liberal atmosphere” people are very accepting. The small size and intimate relationships you’ll build with your peers and professors are excellent selling points.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Gettysburg is a school of equal caliber. Two great schools, one very difficult choice.</p>
<p>My friend’s daughter left after the summer entrance program because her roommate had a revolving door of men and wouldn’t stop smoking pot. Actually, she left because the school told her she was “intolerant” when she asked for a different roommate when school started. She really didn’t care what the roommate did, as long as she didn’t have to be in the same room when she was doing it.</p>
<p>DunninLA, Surely you’re aware of the irony that one side has the folks who consider themselves the most open minded, yet they are often the same ones who shout down speakers from the opposite side of the aisle at our most prestigious universities.</p>
<p>Hipsters. Think TUMBLR. Like Alternative, hippie, scence, music-ly type kids but with a little intellect mixed in. It’s like an Art School but not - the kids there are like Art school students. It’s a lot of psuedo-intellect ‘i’m so open-minded and free and accepting’ but it can be kinda annoying unless you fit he bill. I think the comment above said it best “Very accepting of other people who think like they do, anyway.”. Liberal, not so much. Radical hippies - more like it. If you’re more a rational intellectual person than i would choose a different school.</p>
<p>“Radical” is subjective and comparative. As someone who can (barely) remember the days of “Tricky Dick Must Go”, Malcolm X, the SDS and Sit-Ins to End the (Vietnam) War, the most radical thing I see on campuses today is someone wearing Ray-Bans and Uggs.</p>
<p>i think you should also post this on the Bard forum to be sure that you are getting the perspective of people who attend the college. </p>
<p>As someone who visited the campus several times with a prospective student, I didn’t get the sense of rampant protest by any means. I think that there alot of programs and opportunities to get out in the real world and learn about how things are being applied, not just a campus where students sit in a bubble and yell at the world…</p>
<p>A co-worker’s kids went to Bard, Hampshire and Reed. She liked Bard the best, I think because she thought it was the most left-wing.
The Bard students I’ve known were not into social protest so much as social experimentation on a personal level.
Bard and Gettysburg seldom appear of the same student’s final college list.</p>