Sooo Pretentious!

<p>I visited Bard around this time last year, and I was just so incredibly turned off by how pretentious it seemed. The Dean of Admissions, for one thing, was incredibly smug. Anyone here know what Potamology is? Yeah, neither did I. But as my dad and I were talking to the Dean about how beautiful the river near Bard is, she looked at me with this smirk and said, “So, you’re interested in potamology, then?” Seriously? It was nerve-wracking enough having to talk to this woman, and now she’s expecting me to know what freakin’ potamology is? I just looked at her, totally dumbstruck, while she’s staring at me with this air of pretentiousness, waiting for me to give her an answer to a question she clearly knew I wouldn’t understand. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed after that little encounter. And the little speech she gave later on to all the other potential students visiting about how Bard is a place for “intellectuals” and “unique individuals”… ugh. It took all my strength not to roll my eyes. Definitely not a place for the humble.</p>

<p>just looked it up…it is obsolete for the study of rivers</p>

<p>@izzys123 - The reason to visit a college is to get a feel for it, and how you would feel being part of it. No college is right for everyone - if it were there would be no point in visiting or even picking among them. Is Bard pretentious? To my mind, not in the least - but obviously we react differently to things. Is Bard a place for intellectuals and unique individuals? Most definitely. For myself, I do not find it pretentious nor arrogant to say so. Obviously you feel differently and, quite possibly, would not have been happy at Bard.</p>

<p>On the other hand, we never had any formal interaction with the college’s admissions dept. and you are not the first person to have a strong reaction to their information sessions. I’m very curious to know what they’re like that they elicit such intense reactions.</p>

<p>I am curious, however, why you would post a year later a negative reaction to a college on a public forum?</p>

<p>I’m not a student at Bard, but I fell in love with it after a handful of visits there. I’ll admit, though, that some of the students that I ran across were certainly a bit snobbish and arrogant. To be fair, though, I’m sure that you’ll find at least a handful of those types of people at any college you go to.</p>

<p>I know plenty of extraordinarily nice people who are currently at/have graduated from Bard and have no regrets about it (they may harp a bit on how expensive it is, though!), so I know that they can’t all be horrible people.</p>

<p>The Dean of Admissions is a bit of a character, isn’t she? She was probably trying to elicite a response out of you. Had she said that to my d, she probably would have said, “Huh? What’s that?” and after being told, would have told her about a dance she was choreographing where she starts out as a fish and transforms into a bird. What the Dean was not looking for was for you to stand there dumbfounded staring at her. She probably judged that you weren’t right for Bard just as you decided Bard was not right for you. So it’s all good.</p>

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<p>Bingo.</p>

<p>She’ll also remember your name two years from now! Personally, I think she’s a fantastic woman who serves the college very well.</p>

<p>Bard is incredibly pretentious. There is an arrogance among administrators that somehow only their way of doing things is the right way. Meanwhile, at 52,000 a year, you get very little for your money.</p>

<p>sligoker–Am I right in assuming you have a child at Bard? Interested to hear what makes you call the school pretentious. It’s a school my D would like to visit based on what she knows about its relatively flexible curriculum. Also, the “very little for your money” part is troubling. Can you elaborate?</p>

<p>What were you hoping to get for your investment?</p>

<p>Embrace the Pretentiousness!
And really, what you “get” from a college experience may not be evident for years, or even a lifetime, after graduation. Anecdotally, my sister attended a school similar to Bard (even more pretentious, if possible) and came away with a liberal arts degree in nothing in particular. However, she also came away with the ability to think independently, to write, and to speak, and with a large contingent of (pretentious) contacts. She now has a fabulous job which could potentially affect the well being of the whole world one day. (She also has a fabulous Manhattan apartment.)</p>

<p>Parent of a freshman student at Bard here. She just got home for spring break and this topic came up in conversation last night. It’s my D’s opinion that Bard is not pretentious. In fact, she says everyone is nice and it’s been easy for her to fit in and make friends. But, she also says that many of the students are interested in talking about different subjects such as philosophy and other topics. But she says they do so without the intent of trying to impress people, but that that’s just what’s interesting to them.</p>

<p>And BTW, I would say my D is definitely <em>not</em> pretentious. :-)</p>

<p>My friend’s daughter spent a semester there a couple of years ago. She loved the program she was in and the campus but couldn’t deal with her roommate having sex all night with different guys who were in and out, so to speak. She couldn’t deal with the drinking and the drugs. The school refused to change her room assignment.</p>

<p>She transferred to SUNY Binghamton and loves it there. </p>

<p>When my friend and I discussed it, one of the things we talked about was how great it is that there are so many different colleges because kids are so different.</p>

<p>I have to think that Joan52’s friend’s daughter could have had the same experience at 98% of the colleges in the United States - except, perhaps, the unwillingness of the administration to change her room assignment. (Although I suspect even that might be the same at a lot of places - changing room assignments mid-term isn’t the easiest thing in the world.)</p>

<p>Could someone tell me what pretentiousness means in this context? I’m guessing it’s one of these words like hipsters that I just don’t run into here on the West Coast.</p>

<p>If I got a dime for every drinking/sex/drug story at XXX College/University, I would be fairly well-off. But I also think it’s inaccurate to conclude that this is a common experience at Bard.</p>

<p>Is sligoker ever gonna explain why she thinks that?</p>

<p>My D and I visited Bard a year ago and also were turned off by the crabby, superior attitude of two people in Admissions. Everyone else during the visit were fantastic though - especially our student guide and a third Admissions rep - so we came away feeling really good about the place and D is hoping for an acceptance letter.</p>

<p>We decided to give the snotty reps the benefit of the doubt and figured they were just having a bad day, but I’ve since thought that Bard and every other school certainly must know how much damage can come from ANY negative vibes emanating from Admissions. It lingers and gets around. No institution needs that! We’ve toured quite a few schools since then and have always been treated with total kindness and respect, no matter how selective the school, so even though we’re not hung up on that unpleasant blip, it stands out in our memories.</p>

<p>Initially, the pretentiousness didn’t throw me off at Bard. As i went through the tour, I remember thinking to myself that I could deal with that, because honestly, I can be a little unintentionally pretentious sometimes. What got to me was the attitude of the admissions person I had my interview with afterwards. He tried to dissuade me from applying early action, because he felt my grades/gpa was too low (I never actually told him my gpa, so I was kind of confused where he got that idea from). When I described the things I did outside of school, I mentioned that I was a tour guide, and he made some comment about how I “came off as one”…perhaps those aren’t things that should have put me off, but it was definitely my most uncomfortable college interview (the other places I interviewed with were Oberlin and Bennington - Bennington was by far my best interview, but they’re known for really discussion-based interviews as opposed to interviews where it’s all about your high school activities). </p>

<p>There was one woman who was at the admissions office when I was there, and when I think about it more, I’m pretty sure she was the dean. She asked me what I knew about Bard’s academic structure, and she was really impressed when I mentioned moderation. However, she was pretty intimidating…my dad and I compared her to Professor Stromwell from legally blonde…hahaha</p>

<p>Anyways, I think that the attitude at Bard is tailored to a specific type of people. I know that there are good, kind, polite people who attend Bard, but as seen by some of the people in this discussion board, there are a lot of rude, pretentious hipsters that you need to wade through to get to them. Some people can handle that; some people can’t. However, I’d rather deal with a bunch of pretentious hipsters as opposed to bros…but to each his own.</p>

<p>Although my S isn’t attending Bard, we came away with a totally different impression, and loved the school.</p>

<p>First of all, we got to speak to several people from the admissions office while visiting during our first visit–and, after visiting many other schools, we realized how rare that was! And, it seems that many of you got to speak to someone in Admissions as well (over and beyond the interview in several cases). In many of the LACs we visited, my S and I had no contact with Admissions officers at all, much less the head of Admissions! </p>

<p>Just thought I’d point it out–we actually appreciated the personal attention.</p>

<p>I am admittedly a Bard fan, but that results in part from looking at a lot of selective schools and finding the admissions presentations and options for Bard among the most impressive by far in terms of being serious and having a vision to present. They don’t shower you with mailings, emails and fancy brochures, but they do speak to students and parents as (young) adults and present aspects of Bard that are unique as well as those that common to demanding schools.</p>

<p>I agree, momwonders. We appreciate Bard’s articulation of a vision for what it means to be an educated citizen - and the fact that they don’t overdo their promotional materials. D was thrilled to be accepted yesterday. Fingers crossed that financial aid comes in where we need it…</p>