Bard MBA

Low Residency

The Bard MBA is structured around weekend intensives with regular online instruction in between these residencies. There are five intensives each term: four in the heart of New York City, and one at the campus of The Cary Institute for Ecosystem Services, in Millbrook, NY. Classes take place over four days, beginning Friday morning and ending Monday afternoon. Students and faculty are together for an engaged and intense period, sharing class time, meals, down-time, and enabling a powerful kind of education that engages students for a lifetime of transformative work.

The Bard MBA program is based on a semester system. The fall term runs from late August through December, and the spring term from late January through May. There are no formal classes during the summer inter-break, though students will have assigned reading, and will be supported to seek out internships if they desire. The weekend sessions are run in conjunction with on-line instruction, typically from 7 pm to 10pm Tuesday and Thursday nights throughout the term.

Click here to see how a typical term is organized.

The Bard Difference

The Bard MBA model of weekend intensives has key advantages:
  • Accommodates professionals working up to 30 hours per week.
  • Supports attendance from across the region, country, and even the globe.
  • Enables teaching by leading national faculty and cutting edge practitioners.
  • Provides contact hours and content comparable to a traditional residential program.

Curricular Distinction

Bard’s approach is also the right way to do business education. The on-line dimension of the curriculum is primarily lecture and discussion, focused on content delivery in a traditional style. This allows much of the time during the weekend intensives to be freed up for interactive group projects, engaging with guest experts, and working directly with area businesses. The Bard MBA program is, in fact, a series of powerful, 4-day educational retreats—twenty of them over the course of two years.
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Housing and Transportation

Students are responsible for their own housing and meals in New York City. Some low cost options will be available. Room and board is provided as part of the program tuition for weekend intensives held in the Hudson Valley.

Students are responsible for all transportation expenses, including between sites in New York City, and to the Hudson Valley Location.