The rigorous liberal arts education at Bard College will prepare you to take on the world in any field or career path. Students from all over the world continue to choose Bard as their ideal study destination. Hence, here is everything about Bard College’s acceptance rate and how to get in easily.
Bard has a philosophy that values education for the sake of self-growth. Inside the classroom, students are taught by incredible professors who genuinely teach and mentor. Social science research methods, Studio arts, Natural sciences, English, Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Music Performance are some of the popular majors offered.
White, upper-class students make up the majority of Bard. There is a large Jewish community, as well as a large atheist community. International students including those of various sexual orientations and racial minorities, also make up the student body. Bard has one of the best classroom experiences in the US.
Keep reading to know about Bard College’s acceptance rate and how to get in easily. Before that, you’ll get to know about Bard College, its history, campus, academics, and lots more.
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About Bard College
Bard College is a private liberal arts college founded in 1860 and located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, United States.
The campus overlooks the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River, all within the Hudson River Historic District. In the arts and sciences, eight graduate programs are offered and over 20 graduate degrees. Bard’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 9:1 and there’s a network of over 35 affiliated institutes, programs, and centers, in twelve cities, five states, and seven countries.
History
In the nineteenth century, the majority of the land now owned by Bard was mainly country estates called Bartlett, Blithewood, Sands, Cruger’s Island, and Ward Manor/Almont.
In 1853, John and Margaret Bard bought a part of the Blithewood estate and it was renamed Annandale. John Bard was Samuel Bard’s grandson. Samuel was a founder of Columbia University’s medical school, a prominent doctor, and a physician to George Washington.
In 1854, John and Margaret decided to educate the area’s children so they established a parish school on their estate. A wood-frame cottage, now renovated as Bard Hall, was built. On weekdays, it served as a school and a chapel on weekends. In 1857, the Bards built the Chapel of the Holy Innocents next to Bard Hall to expand the parish. During this time, John Bard and the New York leaders of the Episcopal Church remained in close contact. The Church suggested that a theological college be established.
In November 1858, John Bard donated the surrounding 18 acres (7.3 ha) and the unfinished Chapel to the diocese after being promised outside financial support. St. Stephen’s College was founded in March 1860. In 1861, construction started on Aspinwall, the first St. Stephen’s College building. During its initial years, the college benefitted from wealthy benefactors for funding.
Within four decades. the college started growing. In 1866, an administrative building, Ludlow Hall, was erected. In 1873, Preston Hall was built and Stone Row; four dormitories, was completed in 1891. And in 1895, the Hoffman Greek revival Memorial Library was built, and in 1934, the school name was officially changed to Bard College in honor of its founder.
In 1914, Louis Hamersley bought the fire-damaged Ward Manor/Almont estate and built a Tudor-style mansion and Ward Manor. In 1926, Hamersley acquired the abandoned Cruger’s Island estate to expand his estate. That same year, William Ward purchased Hamersley’s combined estate, and it was donated to charity and used as a retirement home for about four decades.
It was until the mid-1900s that Bard’s campus hugely expanded. In 1951, Bard college received the Blithewood estate as a donation, and in 1963, Bard bought 90 acres (36 ha) of the Ward Manor estate, and the main manor house was among. The remaining Ward Manor estate is now Tivoli Bay’s nature preserve.
In 1919, Fr. Bernard Iddings Bell became Bard’s president and the youngest president at the age of 34. His adherence to decorum, classical education, and grooming eventually clashed with the school’s movement towards Deweyism and secularization. In 1933, he reigned.
In 1928, Bard and Columbia University merged, becoming an undergraduate school similar to Barnard College. The agreement was that Bard remains affiliated with the Episcopal Church and maintains control of its finances. Bard’s prestige was raised due to the merger; however, it wasn’t enough to provide the college with financial support during the Great Depression. Bard’s financial situation was so dire that in 1932, a telegram was sent to the likes of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., George Eastman, and Frederick William Vanderbilt by then-Governor of New York and College trustee Franklin D. Roosevelt sent requesting donations for the college.
Dr. Donald Tewksbury, on May 26, 1933, a Columbia professor, was appointed dean of the college. He was dean for only four years, yet he made a lasting impact on the school. Tewksbury had wide ideas regarding higher education. He was the one who changed the college’s name from St. Stephen’s to Bard. He emphasized hugely on arts, basically colleges at the time, and laid down the foundations for Bard’s Moderation and Senior Project requirement. Bard’s curriculum was never characterized as “progressive,” and the school was later considered an early adopter of progressive education.
In 1940, Bard was a haven for intellectual refugees fleeing Europe. These included Stefan Hirsch, the precisionist painter; Hannah Arendt, the political theorist, Felix Hirsch, the political editor of the Berliner Tageblatt; the violinist Emil Hauser; the noted psychologist Werner Wolff; the linguist Hans Marchand; and the philosopher Heinrich Blücher.
As a result of World War II in 1944, there was a huge drop in enrollment thereby putting financial stress on the college. The college had to become coeducational to increase enrollment, and this severed the ties with Columbia. In 1944, Bard became a secular, independent institution and enrollment doubled from 137 students in 1944 to 293 in 1947. In the 1950s, the college increased its enrollment by 150 students with the addition of the Blithewood estate and Tewksbury Hall.
In 2020, Bard College, and Central European University founded the Open Society University Network, a collaborative global education initiative granted US$1 billion. The college also received a US$100 million gift as part of this new initiative from the Open Society Foundations which is among the biggest financial contributions to an institution in the United States in recent history.
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Campus
Bard has a campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, a hamlet located in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It comprised more than 70 buildings and had a total gross building space of 1,167,090 sq ft. In 2020, it was listed as a census-designated place. The Campus buildings have various architectural styles but are still largely influenced by Postmodern styles and the Collegiate Gothic.
The historic buildings in Bard are associated with the history of the Hudson River estates (see Bard College History) and the early development of the college. The college used a building signature trend designed by famous architects like Gehry, Venturi, and Viñoly.
In January 2016, Bard bought Montgomery Place, a 380-acre (150 ha) estate close to the Bard campus, with huge historic and cultural assets. The estate has a farm, a historic mansion, and some 20 smaller buildings. The college bought the property from Historic Hudson Valley which was the owners of Montgomery Place since the late 1980s. The addition of this property increased Bard’s total campus size to about 1,000 acres (400 ha).
White, upper-class students make up the majority of Bard. There is a large Jewish community, as well as a large atheist community. International students including those of various sexual orientations and racial minorities, also make up the student body. Bard has one of the best classroom experiences in the US.
Academics
Bard is a college of the liberal arts and sciences. Bard offers Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in the undergraduate college. There are 23 departments and over 40 major programs, as well as 12 interdisciplinary concentrations. Bard was the first college in the U.S to offer a human rights major. 1,345 classes were held during the 2011–2012 academic year.
In the three weeks before the first semester, first-year students attend the Language and Thinking program, a rigorous, writing-centered introduction to liberal arts. Established in 1981, the interdisciplinary program’s goal is to “develop habits of reading and discussion, accurate clear articulation, self-critique, and productive collaboration.” The program focuses on history, philosophy, science, poetry, fiction, and religion. In 2011, works by Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Frans de Waal, Stephen Jay Gould, Clifford Geertz, and M. NourbeSe Philip made up the core readings included.
The pinnacle of Bard’s undergraduate experience is the SPROJ or Senior Project. This project is moderated and takes different forms in different departments. Many students write eighty pages, which a board of three professors critiques afterward. A series of recitals, concerts, or shows must be organized by Arts students. Math and science students may produce good creative work while some social science students can take part in research projects.
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Bard College Acceptance Rate and How to Get in Easily
Admission Requirements
The important requirement you should consider to get into Bard College easily is:
- GPA requirements
- Testing requirements e.g SAT and ACT
- Application requirements
Keep reading to know the admission requirements based on the Bard College acceptance rate.
The acceptance rate is the first criteria you must consider before applying to Bard. You will get to know how competitive Bard is and the requirements you must meet.
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Bard College Acceptance rate
The Bard College acceptance rate is 64.6%. Out of 100 applicants, 65 are selected.
The school admission process is selective. You must have a good GPA and SAT/ACT scores, which are more flexible than other schools, to stand a better chance of getting in.
Bard College SAT and ACT Requirements
Bard College has requirements for standardizing tests. SAT or ACT scores are required.
Before you apply to Bard, you must take either the SAT or ACT and perform well in the tests to have a strong application.
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Bard College SAT Requirements
The average SAT score composite is 1330 on the 1600 SAT scale. Therefore, Bard College is quite competitive in SAT scores.
The New SAT 25th percentile score is 1230, while the New SAT 75th percentile score is 1450. What this means is that a New SAT score of 1150 places you below average, while 1320 places you up above average.
Below is the section breakdown of new SAT scores:
| Section | Average | 25th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
| Math | 650 | 590 | 710 |
| Reading + Writing | 680 | 640 | 740 |
| Composite | 1330 | 1230 | 1450 |
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Bard College ACT Requirements
Just like for the SAT, there’s no known hard ACT cutoff mark based on Bard College’s acceptance rate. However, if your score is low, you won’t stand a chance of being admitted.
The average ACT score at Bard College is 29. This score makes Bard College quite Competitive for ACT scores. The 25th percentile ACT score is 27, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 31.
Although Bard may not have a minimum ACT requirement, If your ACT score is below 27, you won’t stand a chance of getting in, unless there’s something very unique about your application.
Therefore, you should prepare for the ACT and retake it if your ACT score is currently 27 or below. Raising your score will boost your chances of getting in.
ACT Score Sending Policy
If you’re taking the ACT, you have absolute control over which ACT scores you send. You can take up to 10 tests, but can only send your highest one.
This means that you have various chances to improve your ACT score. Take the ACT as many times as you can and aim for the school’s ACT requirement of 29 and above. When you have the final score that meets or exceeds the average required ACT score, you can then send only that score to Bard College.
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SAT/ACT Writing Section Requirements
Bard College requires an optional essay section for the SAT and ACT.
It is recommended that you take the SAT Essay/ACT Writing section so that your application will be stronger.
SAT Subject Test Requirements
You should double-check 6 months prior whether Bard College requires SAT subject tests before applying just to make sure and have enough time to take the test.
Because of how selective Bard is, having a strong academic performance increases your chance of getting admission. If you score a 1450 SAT or a 31 ACT or above, then you can be almost sure of admission.
With a high SAT/ACT score, the rest of your application may not matter. The rest of the application requirements must be met though, and your GPA should be close to the school average of 3.79. Exceptional extracurriculars and letters of recommendation won’t be needed to get in. You can get into Bard College easily based on your score merits.
Conclusion
Bard College is a private liberal arts college that offers a rigorous liberal arts education that will prepare you to take on the world in any field or career path. Eight graduate programs and over 20 graduate degrees are offered in the arts and sciences, while the undergraduate college offers Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees. There are 23 departments and over 40 major programs, as well as 12 interdisciplinary concentrations
The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 9:1 and there’s a network of over 35 affiliated institutes, programs, and centers. Bard College’s acceptance rate is 64.6%. The school admission process is selective. You must have a good GPA and SAT/ACT scores, which are more flexible than other schools, to stand a better chance of getting in.
FAQs on Bard College Acceptance Rate and How to Get in Easily
Bard College’s average GPA is 3.79. The school is very competitive for GPAs.
If you get a GPA of 3.79, you are expected to be average, with a mixture of A’s and B’s, especially more A’s than B’s in your high school transcripts.
If you have a low GPA, you can use AP or IB classes to make up for it and show you can handle college academics. The Bard College acceptance rate is 64.6%.
Bard has a philosophy that values education for the sake of self-growth. Inside the classroom, students are taught by incredible professors who genuinely teach and mentor. Bard was the first college in the U.S to offer a human rights major. 1,345 classes were held during the 2011–2012 academic year.
The average ACT score at Bard College is 29. This score makes Bard College quite Competitive for ACT scores. The 25th percentile ACT score is 27, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 31
The New SAT 25th percentile score is 1230, while the New SAT 75th percentile score is 1450. What this means is that a New SAT score of 1150 places you below average, while 1320 places you up above average. You should double-check 6 months prior whether Bard College requires SAT subject tests before applying just to make sure and have enough time to take the test.
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