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Students come from across the country and around the globe to study at Bard.
They undertake a broad range of academic programs in Annandale. While pursuing their degrees, they volunteer in the community, develop their career goals, and bring their talents to the campus and the region. They share a love of learning and the leadership to make their mark on the world.

Who Is the Class of 2026?

  • Incoming Students
    First-year students: 450
    Public high school: 63%
    Independent high school: 25%
    Religious high school: 7%
    Charter high school: 4%
    Homeschool (partial or complete): 1%
    Refugee and Displaced students: 42 (Many of these students join the Bard Community from Afghanistan following the College's pledge to offer full scholarships to displaced students following the crisis in Afghanistan in August 2021)
  • US Geographic Distribution 
    New England: 15%
    Mid-Atlantic: 46%*
    South/Southeast: 8%
    Southwest: 3%
    Midwest: 7%
    West: 21%
    *New York: 33%

    Percentage of the Class 
    International/US-Dual Citizens:
    17%

    States: 37 
    Countries: 26
  • Ethnic Diversity
    African American/Black: 6%
    Asian: 7%
    Hispanic/Latino: 12%
    Multiracial: 8%
    Native American/Alaskan Native: 1%
    Native Hawaiian/or other Pacific Islander: 1%
    White/non-Hispanic: 69%
    Unknown: 8%

    *Race/ethnicity does not total 100% because students are able to select more than one race/ethnicity. 
Class of 2026
Photo by Karl Rabe

Class of 2026

Bard College’s Class of 2026 was selected from a large and competitive applicant pool, indicating their extraordinary promise. They are a high-achieving group, with wide-ranging interests and varied backgrounds. Our first-year students come to Annandale-on-Hudson from 37 states and 26 countries, bringing with them their passion, creativity, and intellectual engagement.

Our Students

Joelle Powe

Joelle Powe

Abundant opportunities at Bard have supported Jamaican filmmaker and anthropology major Joelle Powe.

Joelle's Story >>

  • Levi's Story >>
    Levi Lakota Lowe came to Bard sight unseen and fell in love with the campus as soon as he arrived.
  • Christina's Story >>
    Christina Kiser knew in high school that she wanted to go to medical school and become a surgeon.
  • Viveca's Story >>
    Trumpet player Viveca Lawrie was discovered by a Bard College Conservatory of Music faculty member, who encouraged her to apply to Bard.

More Student Stories

Academic Snapshot: Time and Credits at Bard

The academic year is divided into two 15-week semesters.
Most classes are 4 semester hours of academic credit.
128 credits are required for the bachelor's degree.
The average semester course load is 16 credits.

Bard by the Numbers

  • College Facts

    Academic 
    (2021-2022)

    1,121 classes
    Tutorials: 123
    Student/faculty ratio: 9:1

    Class size: 
    2–9 students: 37.2%
    10–19 students: 51.8%
    20–29 students: 9.6%
    30–39 students: 1.1%
    More than 36 students: .3%

    Faculty 
    Total: 274
    Identifies as female: 47%
    Identifies as male: 53%
    Faculty of color: 20%
    Full-time faculty with a terminal degree: 81%

    SAT/ACT
    Bard College has been test-optional for over 40 years.

    Application Fee
    There is NO application fee to apply to Bard College!
     
  • Tuition and Aid

    Financial Aid

    Total Bard Scholarship aid awarded:
    $67 million

    (2022-2023)

    Average debt: $27,714
    (those who graduated in May 2021)

    — Class of 2026 —

    Received Bard institutional aid: 73%

    Average Bard institutional aid: $52,859

    Average aid package total: $56,927
    (includes loans, work study, and grants)
    The class of 2026 received aid in the following categories: 6% loans, 1% work study, 93% grants.

    Total Bard aid to first years  $17.4 million 

    Pell Grant recipients: 19%

    Fees 
    Tuition: $59,800
    Room and board: $17,180
    Fall 2022 Language and Thinking (L&T) Meal Plan: $990
    Spring 2023 Citizen Science Meal Plan: $810
    Health Service: $470
    Security deposit: $225
    Total first year: $79,475

    *Note that there are additional costs if students acquire Bard's tuition refund insurance ($816 for 2022-2023) and/or Bard's health insurance ($3,350 for 2022-2023).
    Student Accounts- Fees

    Student Accounts-Policies

  • Other Notable Stats

    Over 50% of Bard students study away

    75% students involved in programs or projects in civic engagement, community service, Trustee Leader Scholars (TLS), or student club or activity

    Over 90% of Bard students are either employed, in graduate school, or pursuing scholarships--such as, Watson or Fulbright, within 6 months of graduating

    Graduate schools include: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, Dartmouth, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, London School of Economics, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Juilliard

About Campus: Rachel Explores Ward Manor

Rachel is a Bard College student in the Psychology Program. She visits one of the landmarks of Bard's campus: Ward Manor, often called simply "Manor." The porch behind Manor is a prime spot to study, enjoy a meal from the Manor Cafe, or connect with friends. The porch boasts a view of the iconic Stargon sculpture (affectionately called "The Bunny Ears"), the Bard Farm, and the Catskill Mountains in the background.

Video Gallery

Why I Chose Bard

Why choose Bard College? The unique and rigorous curriculum, stunning campus, and close relationships with faculty are a few of the reasons our students decided to make Bard their home. Hear them talk about what drew them to the college in the beginning and the scholarly, creative community they've found on campus since.

Student News

Bard College Berlin Student Aisha Khurram: “I had to flee for my education, but refused to leave other Afghan girls to their fate”
Writing for the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, Bard College Berlin student Aisha Khurram asked “global actors to take a stand for Afghan girls’ right to education” on International Women’s Day. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Khurram fled to Germany, where she enrolled at Bard College Berlin. She was relieved to continue her education, but her attention quickly turned toward her fellow Afghan women and girls.

Bard College Berlin Student Aisha Khurram: “I had to flee for my education, but refused to leave other Afghan girls to their fate”

Aisha Khurram. Photo by Tagesspiegel
Writing for the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, Bard College Berlin student Aisha Khurram asked “global actors to take a stand for Afghan girls’ right to education” on International Women’s Day. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Khurram fled to Germany, where she enrolled at Bard College Berlin. She was relieved to continue her education, but her attention quickly turned toward her fellow Afghan women and girls. “My excitement at getting the opportunity to resume my studies was accompanied by a deep sense of survivor guilt as millions of Afghan girls were simultaneously being deprived of their basic right to education,” writes Khurram. “For them to survive the ongoing crisis, education is as necessary as food and water.” Calling on the international community to act to assist girls and women in Afghanistan, Khurram asked the world to “put its faith in education and, more importantly, in young women’s capacity for creativity and change, because these two forces when combined possess the power to illuminate the darkness and liberate humanity from the shackles of totalitarianism.”
Read More on unhcr.org

Post Date: 03-14-2023
Bard Student Ariha Shahed ’26 Awarded Davis Projects for Peace Grant 
Bard College student Ariha Shahed ’26 has won a Davis Projects for Peace prize for her proposal, “Train Track to Right Track: Supporting Bangladeshis Who Call the Railway Tracks Their Home.” Ariha, a first-year economics and politics major from Bangladesh, will receive $10,000 to work with Bangladeshi families living in extreme poverty along the country’s railway tracks, communities which often go unnoticed. Partnering with NGO initiative BRAC Bangladesh, Ariha will help families connect with essential social protection programmes, access healthcare, keep their children in school, and improve their economic situations by sustainable and continual support.

Bard Student Ariha Shahed ’26 Awarded Davis Projects for Peace Grant 

Ariha Shahed. 
Bard College student Ariha Shahed ’26 has won a Davis Projects for Peace prize for her proposal, “Train Track to Right Track: Supporting Bangladeshis Who Call the Railway Tracks Their Home.” Ariha, a first-year economics and politics major from Bangladesh, will receive $10,000 to work with Bangladeshi families living in extreme poverty along the country’s railway tracks, communities which often go unnoticed. Partnering with NGO initiative BRAC Bangladesh, Ariha will help families connect with essential social protection programmes, access healthcare, keep their children in school, and improve their economic situations by sustainable and continual support.

Ariha’s project is designed to provide avenues for both short-term and long-term support to these communities through multiple efforts. It seeks to give families a way to re-establish their lives through BRAC’s “Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative,” which aims to help people ‘graduate’ from extreme poverty, and will operate out of workshop hubs near train stations in the country’s three largest cities, Dhaka, Chattogram, and Sylhet. Healthcare volunteers will offer basic health classes to those living along the tracks in these cities, and Ariha will partner with a small local restaurant to organize a food drive to distribute meal boxes from these hubs. “This way, we can incentivize a long-term solution for them using a short-term solution, which have been proven to work better when supporting people in extreme humanitarian need,” Ariha writes in her proposal. 

“The disparity between the families living below the poverty line along the rail-tracks and my own trips inside the comfort of a car had always struck me,” she said. “The first step to eradicating any kind of social inequality, I believe, would be to acknowledge one’s position of privilege. This project is a small way of giving back to the country and the people that raised me—something my parents have always valued. I want to thank my friend Mikaail Kaiser Shahabuddin (Davis Alum, Clark University ‘26) who will be helping me to co-facilitate this project and for his insights. As a Davis Alum myself, I’m overwhelmed and grateful to the Davis Foundation for such opportunities that help call attention to often neglected places like Bangladesh.”

Projects for Peace, a Davis Foundation initiative facilitated by Middlebury College in Vermont, is a global program that partners with other educational institutions to identify and support peacebuilders and changemakers across college campuses. Every year, 100 or more student leaders are awarded a grant in the amount of $10,000 each to implement a “Project for Peace” anywhere in the world. To learn more, visit: middlebury.edu/office/projects-for-peace.

Post Date: 03-11-2023
Math Is Magic, Writes Camonghne Felix MFA ’24 in the Atlantic
Bard MFA student Camonghne Felix writes about how childhood trauma affected her cognition, disrupting her education and her sense of self. After seeking treatment for ADHD and bipolar disorder as an adult, she finally found her way back to her love of mathematics. “Losing my ability to learn and understand math represented the frailty of the human mind,” she writes, “but my ability to relearn it represents the mind’s innate resiliency.” The essay is adapted from Felix’s new memoir, Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation, published this month by Penguin Random House. 

Math Is Magic, Writes Camonghne Felix MFA ’24 in the Atlantic

Camonghne Felix MFA ’24.
Bard MFA student Camonghne Felix writes about how childhood trauma affected her cognition, disrupting her education and her sense of self. After seeking treatment for ADHD and bipolar disorder as an adult, she finally found her way back to her love of mathematics. “Losing my ability to learn and understand math represented the frailty of the human mind,” she writes, “but my ability to relearn it represents the mind’s innate resiliency.” The essay is adapted from Felix’s new memoir, Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation, published this month by Penguin Random House. 

Camonghne Felix is a poet, writer, and political strategist. She was the first Black woman and youngest person to hold the position of speechwriter for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. She also served as director of surrogates and strategic communications for Elizabeth Warren's 2020 presidential campaign. Her debut poetry collection, Build Yourself a Boat, was longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry and shortlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award and for a Lambda Literary Award. Dyscalculia is her second book.
Read the Essay in the Atlantic
More about Dyscalculia

Post Date: 02-28-2023

Life After Bard

Bardians Are Everywhere
Photo by Karl Rabe

Bardians Are Everywhere

Whether working in Annandale or Berlin, in sustainable agriculture or in a tech startup, Bard alumni/ae make a difference. Bardians are changing the way the world works, taking Bard's commitment to innovation and engagement worldwide. Being a Bardian means having an impact, wherever you may be and whatever type of work you're called to do. Look for members of the Bard community. You'll find us in your favorite films, your most ambitious business ventures, and your most innovative educational institutions.

Staying Connected After Graduation
Bard Awards 2019, photo by Karl Rabe.

Staying Connected After Graduation

Bardians take great pride in their alma mater and support Bard in any way they can, whether by recommending new students, making a gift to the College, or offering professional mentoring to current students and young alums. There are lots of ways to stay connected to Bard after graduation:
Alumni/ae Association
The Bardian and Other Alumni/ae News
Career Development Office

Career Development On Campus and Beyond

Bard supports students' professional development during their years in Annandale and after graduation. The Career Development Office offers a range of internship and job resources, and hosts events that connect students with various professions, alumni/ae, and employers. Bard Works is an intensive, weeklong program for juniors and seniors at Bard College that prepares them for work after graduation. The Center for Civic Engagement helps students secure internships, find service-learning opportunities, and design their own projects.

ALUMNI NEWSROOM

Art, Film, and Music: The Artful Animation of Bard Alum Jeff Scher ’76

Print magazine profiles animator Jeff Scher ’76 and looks at his most recent work: a video for Tom Petty’s “Call Me the Breeze,” from the late musician’s recently released Live at the Fillmore compilation. “All Scher needs to make his movie magic is some live-action film, a chromatic supply of watercolor and pastels and a rotoscope to get his cinematic juices boiling,” writes Steven Heller. “His films can be joyful, unforgettable and heartbreaking.”

Art, Film, and Music: The Artful Animation of Bard Alum Jeff Scher ’76

Tom Petty’s “Call Me the Breeze,” created by animator Jeff Scher ’76.
Print magazine profiles animator Jeff Scher ’76 and looks at his most recent work: a video for Tom Petty’s “Call Me the Breeze,” from the late musician’s recently released Live at the Fillmore compilation. “All Scher needs to make his movie magic is some live-action film, a chromatic supply of watercolor and pastels and a rotoscope to get his cinematic juices boiling,” writes Steven Heller. “His films can be joyful, unforgettable and heartbreaking.”
Full Story in Print Magazine

Post Date: 12-06-2022

Bail Reform Is Working. Why Are Democrats Running Away from It? Dyjuan Tatro ’18 for NBC News

Eliminating bail for low-level offenses has proved that you can maximize freedom while not endangering public safety, write Dyjuan Tatro ’18 and Scott Hechinger. Cash bail and the pretrial detention system disproportionately penalize poorer defendants; eliminating the requirement allows people to continue to work and support their families while fighting their charges. Yet in spite of bail reform successes, including in New York State, some Democrats have allowed Republicans to control the narrative around the policy and have even blamed bail reform efforts for midterm losses.

Bail Reform Is Working. Why Are Democrats Running Away from It? Dyjuan Tatro ’18 for NBC News

Photo by Bob Jagendorf, cc-by-2.0
Eliminating bail for low-level offenses has proved that you can maximize freedom while not endangering public safety, write Dyjuan Tatro ’18 and Scott Hechinger. Cash bail and the pretrial detention system disproportionately penalize poorer defendants; eliminating the requirement allows people to continue to work and support their families while fighting their charges. Yet in spite of bail reform successes, including in New York State, some Democrats have allowed Republicans to control the narrative around the policy and have even blamed bail reform efforts for midterm losses.
Full Story from NBC

Post Date: 12-06-2022

Bard Alumna Lexi Parra ’18 for the Washington Post: As Gang, Police Violence Rages, a Caracas Neighborhood Tries to Connect

On January 7, 2021, Venezuela’s Special Action Forces raided the La Vega neighborhood of Caracas, leaving 23 people dead in what the community calls the “La Vega massacre.” The special police unit has been accused of targeting working-class neighborhoods, criminalizing young men for where they live as it attempts to root out gang activity. As part of an ongoing project supported by the Pulitzer Center and a Getty Images Inclusion Grant, Bard alumna Lexi Parra ’18 gets to know the women of La Vega who are maintaining their community and pushing back against state and gang violence. 

Bard Alumna Lexi Parra ’18 for the Washington Post: As Gang, Police Violence Rages, a Caracas Neighborhood Tries to Connect

Nayreth holds her newborn daughter, Salomé, in her home in La Vega. Photo by Lexi Parra ’18
On January 7, 2021, Venezuela’s Special Action Forces raided the La Vega neighborhood of Caracas, leaving 23 people dead in what the community calls the “La Vega massacre.” The special police unit has been accused of targeting working-class neighborhoods, criminalizing young men for where they live as it attempts to root out gang activity. As part of an ongoing project supported by the Pulitzer Center and a Getty Images Inclusion Grant, Bard alumna Lexi Parra ’18 gets to know the women of La Vega who are maintaining their community and pushing back against state and gang violence. 

Lexi Parra majored in human rights and photography at Bard College.

Further Reading

  • As gang, police violence rages, a neighborhood tries to connect (Washington Post)
  • Venezuelan-American Photographer Lexi Parra ’18 Named Recipient of a 2022 Getty Images Annual Inclusion Grant
  • Bard College Student Wins Davis Projects for Peace Prize


Post Date: 10-18-2022

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