@snow30 From the website: “The financial aid budget is limited. The College will only admit a student if there are resources—either personal funds or College grants and loans—adequate to pay for his or her expenses. International students are expected to furnish a significant portion of the cost to attend Bard. The average scholarship for an international applicant was $37,112 for the 2015-16 academic year. Please note: it is Bard’s policy not to offer admission to any international student who is unable to demonstrate sufficient funding.”
You might be able to supplement your aid with grants from your home country or local scholarships. There was a student from Croatia on here a few years ago who received the full tuition Levy Economics scholarship. She supplemented that for travel, room & board, & book costs with fundraising she did among family and friends in her home city, as well as a local scholarship.
Getting an almost full ride is a rarity at Bard, and if you have no resources at all, you might not be able to get a visa. Are you applying to the conservatory? If so, there are some special scholarships for specific instruments.
**Decision: Accepted **
$33,500 New Generation Scholarship
[ *] SAT I (breakdown): 1970 (660 math 660 writing 650 reading)
[ *] ACT: 29 (30 english 30 reading 28 science 27 math) but waiting on the December scores…
[ *] SAT II: 730 math I, 620 math II
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.3 (trash… but straight 3.5-3.7 since last semester sophomore year. Freshmen year killed my gpa…hoping the strong upward trend helps.)
4.0 GPA from a community college where I got a math credit from
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Doesn’t rank
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: Two science courses and an honors math, along with regular classes (for first semester)
[ *] Major Awards: No major awards… but honor roll, athlete scholar, varsity letter
Subjective:
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Hoping this makes up for poor GPA
[ *] Job/Work Experience: No paid jobs
[ *] Volunteer/Community service:
Research/computer work for head of otolaryngology department at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital. Chose me to lead patient data management project, and he wrote me probably my best recommendation. My essays all revolve around this work. Probably among the most important parts of my app
Volunteered at a food pantry for a long time
Sports (4) varsity and JV
Science olympiad
Piano
Debate
Student gov
Get tutored in Arabic/Turkish, proficient (also fluent in Farsi)
[ *] Essays: Pretty damn good essays, hired a past Dartmouth admission counselor current Dartmouth Med student to help write them.
[ *] Teacher Recommendation: 9/10 (one of them pretty much asked me to write a rec for me)
[ *] Counselor Rec: She said she emphasized my “diversity”… I’d probably say 7-8/10
[ *] Additional Rec: 10/10 from the head of otolaryngology at the hospital. Obviously haven’t read it, but I’m sure it’s really good
[ *] Intended Major: Biology, Pre-med
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): NH
[ *] School Type: Prestigious public (#1 public in NH)
[ *] Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *]Legacy: Harvard University, Dartmouth College
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM (if Middle Eastern counts…), proficient in several languages and fluent in Farsi. Dunno what else.
SpiritManager… You seem well informed as a Bard parent etc…Do you have any insight into Bards financials as I’ve recently read that Moody’s Investor services downgraded them last year to a Baa/unstable rating…I have spoken with some informed others that said they have struggled at times with making payroll and 2 years ago had only liquidity for 2 months of operations. Yet they recently had a successful Capital Campaign raising over 500M between 2010 and 2015…According to Moody’s they have a poor debt/revenue ratio yet have a great established donor base that is generous when needed…Thoughts…?
@parentgeorgia - I’m just an alumni parent at this point. I don’t serve on any board and am not privy to the inner workings of Bard’s finances although I’ve read the articles referenced.
Bard has a very dedicated group of donors, but does not have a large endowment compared to an Ivy League school. Bard also tends to spend a greater proportion of the money that is donated, rather than hoarding it and crowing over it like some other schools do. I can’t figure out why Yale, for instance, where my son went for grad school, would charge tuition to anyone - considering the size of its ever growing endowment!
From what I’ve gathered of the history of the college it began as a pre-seminary and for years 50+, the alumni were ministers. Hard to build an endowment from that alumni; in contrast Vassar was established a year after Bard but from day one their alumni were the aristocracy - young women of the wealthy - a finishing school - and were able to build an endowment from the get go. Bard has historically been a college that focused on the arts and artists, another cohort of alumni who generally are not in the position to give large donations. And as the graduates continue to predominantly work in the arts, education and in fields that focus on social issues at hand - housing, advocating for the poor and disenfranchised, etc. - they’re not likely to ever establish an endowment through the wealth of the alumni. It isn’t a school with a ton of bankers and hedge fund managers among its alumni, although there are always the exceptions. Especially now with the Levy Institute on campus, which is one of the most preeminent economic think tanks in the world.
The size of its endowment and dependence on donations should not be of any concern to you as a prospective parent. Bard attracts some of the best professors in the world, its facilities range from perfectly adequate to wonderful, and it provides generous financial aid.
I wish Moody’s had been as concerned about the big banks & brokerage firms in 2007….
I totally want to attend, this college is out of my league though Also I most likely can’t afford it. Great college though! Can’t wait to receive the decision…
IDK. Comparing Bards rating to Ivys’ financials is silly. Comparing to other LACs is more reasonable. What other similar schools have a Bb3 rating? what is Bard doing to avoid another sequential down grade? What austerity measures are in place?
S did also… Classy and thoughtful gesture. Anyone attending accepted students day. Spoke with admissions last week and as expected… they have a full informative and exciting April 9th planned …
D received as well which was nice. However, she has emailed the department head & 2 others associated with the department she is looking to major in going on 2 weeks ago & NONE of them have responded. Three separate emails & no on took the time to answer her. Really annoyed by that. Leaves a bad taste so we are not sure if we are going to go April 9th or cross Bard off our list.
@Kat2013 that does sound disappointing. One thought - has she emailed Bard before and gotten replies? I had an issue at work where the host for the work email was being blocked as spam by government agencies I was emailing, as well as some businesses. I never got a bounce back, or undeliverable message - just total silence. I had to switch to a gmail account to email them.
Perhaps she could try using a different account and resending the emails with a note saying - “I sent this a few weeks ago from my main email account, but never received a reply. I wanted to make sure you received it.”
In addition, I would recommend letting the admissions office know about this. If you’re writing off a school where she’s admitted and was interested because of such a problem - it would be helpful to them to know.
Agreed…! By all means please call the admissions dept. and let them know about the lack of a reply… I spoke with the office and chatted with an informed senior student working in admissions last Friday. Very helpful and informed. Although I had to ask… She did provide me with the email addresses of 2 professors. Our S is emailing them today…Please keep us updated as I will also…
@SpiritManager she emailed them from her gmail account - it is the only email platform she uses. I will forward her emails from my work platform & see. It is the one thing that REALLY gets on my nerves. Should we not receive an answer I will let admissions know. How can you choose a school if no one gets back to you regarding your intended major?!
@parentgeorgia - I will keep you updated. I hope your son has better luck than my daughter did.
Also I most likely can’t afford it. Great college though! Can’t wait to receive the decision…