Stereotypes of Bard students

<p>Goes to show you, your experience in ANY college dorm has very little to do with the bricks and mortar (or fiberglass!), and a LOT to do with who you meet and make your community of friends with. It’s college. It’s an adventure. You are not buying a condo.</p>

<p>I will admit that there was a part of me that tried to dissuade my very bright daughter from Bard. You can get into a “harder” school! Aren’t there a lot of drugs there? Well, it’s a good thing she didn’t listen to me because Bard has been an extraordinary choice for her. Her friends aren’t just good students they are intellectually voracious, they do the arts (music, painting, writing, theater) the way kids at the Ivies do sports, and there isn’t any frat scene drinking cutlure. Plenty of kids do drugs, but that’s true everywhere. I just think the Bard kids are less hypocritical to be perfectly honest, about lots of things. Finally, my daughter’s professors are on fire and she is getting real mentoring, as are her friends who I’ve spoken with. I can go on and on about Bard but Botstein is the real deal and he has created an academic community that truly lives up to its ideals and isn’t just churning out factory fodder for Wall Street. It’s a special place and reallly beautiful as well. I’m more rah-rah for the school than I am my own alma mater.</p>

<p>atidrep - So glad to know it’s working out well for your daughter. I had some of your same concerns, and they were groundless! The relationships with my son’s peers, and with his professors are extraordinary. And I love that phrase: the professors are on fire. they are, they! As are the students.</p>

<p>[Bard</a> College Profile - About Bard College - Town & Country Magazine](<a href=“http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/bard-college-profile]Bard”>Bard College Profile - About Bard College)</p>

<p>Late to the party, but agreeing with SpiritManager and atidrep – I had a lot of concerns about the Bard stereotype, as did my daughter. She enrolled with both of us braced for her transfer applications to be filled out in the first semester…but once she saw what Bard is really like, she never looked back. She’s now part of the Bard alum NYC network, which includes people who are genuinely interesting and intelligent and definitely not boring bourgeois conformists!</p>

<p>I saw that same video before I came here. It’s really a joke. I’m writing to you live from the trailers (exciting, I know)! They’re alright, I guess. The walls are thin and one time when it was really windy the bottom siding came off and I could see the cinder blocks we’re sitting on. Definitely better than some of the freshman filing cabinets at other dorms.</p>

<p>thanks my daughter is choosing between bard and GW right now … we had to turn down ivyes and ‘new’ ivyes due to money (wanted full 60+K a year OMG)</p>

<p>i’m glad to hear what you have said… it sound like she will love it there…</p>

<p>Bard seems to be all ‘hush hush’ on the details of doing semesters abroad at non bard schools and ‘how you get internships’ … i’d love to hear how easy the abroad semester was to do and where you child went…</p>

<p>I don’t think there’s any problem doing semesters abroad. However, financial support is only extended to official Bard programs - otherwise one takes a leave of absence, I believe, for the semester. I’ve never heard that a student couldn’t attend a program they wished to (unless they couldn’t afford it.) How you get internships? How do you get them anywhere? The Career Center does have assistance for finding internships, and there are research opportunities available through the faculty. What are your daughter’s interests? (My son is finishing his 4th of 5 years of a double degree program - in the conservatory for composition, and in the college for Classics.)</p>

<p>D did a semester abroad through a non-Bard program - she did have to handle most of the details on her own, and Bard’s scholarship did not apply for that semester (but they did reinstate it on her return). She went to London using the Arcadia program and was pleased with the results.</p>

<p>She also did an internship her senior year. Although she did use the resources of the career center, she found the internship on her own. In the end, the internship turned out to be a significant factor in her finding employment in her field, but I definitely would not recommend doing one while finishing up senior projects in two majors!</p>