Bard: Rethinking School
Bard continues to build upon its pioneering origins to broaden and deepen its strengths across all academic disciplines. A highly selective liberal arts college, Bard has grown considerably in recent years while maintaining the essential elements of small classes and close interaction between students and faculty.
Bard College has a longstanding interest in initiating and supporting programs that encourage teachers and students to think about education in new ways, offering various innovative educational initiatives in effort to impact social change.
Bard, A Place to Think - Master of Arts in Teaching
BPI runs college inside two long-term, maximum-security prisons and two transitional medium-security prisons. Between these four prison campuses the Initiative now enrolls over 100 incarcerated students, women and men, fulltime in a rigorous and diverse liberal arts curriculum, offering both associate and bachelor degrees.
Founded at Bard in 1982, the nationally recognized Institute for Writing and Thinking (IWT) is based on an approach to learning that recognizes the role of language in the development of thinking.
In 2000 Bard College and The Rockefeller University in New York City established a collaborative program in science education.
Established in 1966 and a unit of Bard College since 1979, Bard College at Simon's Rock is the nation's only four-year college of the liberal arts and sciences that is designed to serve younger students.
In 2001 Bard College and the New York City Board of Education created Bard High School Early College. This alternative to traditional public high school offers motivated young people an opportunity to embark on serious college work at age 16.
Bard's New Orleans Initiative offers two unique academic programs: Bard Urban Studies and Bard Early College in New Orleans.
Smolny College is a joint enterprise of Bard College and St. Petersburg State University and is Russia's first liberal arts college.
The Clemente Course provides college level instruction in the humanities, with the award of college credits, to economically and educationally disadvantaged individuals at no cost and in an accessible and welcoming community setting. Participants study four disciplines: literature, art history, moral philosophy, and American history.