Catalogue

The Five Pillars of the Bard Education

The undergraduate curriculum creates a flexible system of courses that gives coherence, breadth, and depth to the four years of study and helps students become knowledgeable across academic boundaries and able to think critically within a discipline or mode of thought. Students move from the Lower College (first and second years), which focuses on general education and introduces the content and methodology of the academic and artistic areas in which students may specialize, to the Upper College (third and fourth years), which involves advanced study of particular subjects and more independent work. The pillars of the Bard education are the Language and Thinking Program, First-Year Seminar, Citizen Science, Moderation, and the Senior Project.

• The Language and Thinking Program is an intensive, presemester introduction to the liberal arts and sciences. First-year students spend three weeks learning to read and listen thoughtfully, articulate ideas clearly, and review their work critically.
• The two-semester First-Year Seminar presents intellectual, cultural, and artistic ideas in historical context, through extraordinary works of literature, philosophy, politics, religion, science, and the arts. 
• The Citizen Science program encourages first-year students to develop personal science literacy through hands-on coursework and projects. 
• Through Moderation, students declare a major and move into the Upper College. Sophomores write two Moderation papers: one that assesses their academic performance and experience during their first two years, and one that identifies goals and a study plan for the next two. Students discuss these papers with a review board of faculty members—an unusual and valuable experience at this level.
• The capstone of the Bard education is the Senior Project, an original, focused work that reflects a student’s cumulative academic experience. Preparation begins in the junior year, when students pursue tutorials and seminars directed toward selecting a Senior Project topic.