Bard College at Simon's Rock

We take students seriously as scholars and as thinkers. We believe their ideas matter. In small classes with lots of individual attention, students get an education that's about connecting and synthesizing—not memorizing and regurgitating.

The academic program at Simon's Rock combines a core curriculum in the liberal arts and sciences with extensive opportunities for students to pursue their own interests through electives, tutorials, independent studies, internships, and study abroad.

The core curriculum comprises approximately half of students' total course load during their first two years. Requirements include the Writing and Thinking workshop; first-year, sophomore, and cultural perspectives seminars; and courses in the arts, mathematics, natural sciences, and foreign languages. The College also requires students to participate in the campus Active Community Engagement program, which involves them in athletics, health and wellness education, and community service opportunities on and off campus.

All new students are assigned a faculty adviser, who meets with them weekly during their first semester and regularly throughout the rest of their time at Simon's Rock. Classes are small, faculty members are accessible, and opportunities to pursue individual interests are extensive. After earning the associate degree, many students begin work toward a bachelor's degree in one of dozens of concentrations. Some others transfer to highly competitive colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. Through the sophomore planning process, students receive individualized guidance from advisers and faculty as they explore options for their last two years of undergraduate study.

The academic program is supplemented by a number of signature programs. The Simon's Rock/Columbia University Engineering Program offers three years at Simon's Rock and two years at Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science, after which students receive both a bachelor of arts from Simon's Rock and a bachelor of science from Columbia University. A similar arrangement exists with the engineering school at Dartmouth University. A partnership with Vermont Law School offers two accelerated degree programs through which students earn a bachelor of arts. from Simon's Rock and a master's degree in Environmental Law and Policy, or Energy Regulation and Law, from Vermont Law School, in a total of four years.

Through Simon's Rock Scholars at Oxford, a select group of students is admitted each year to spend their junior year at Lincoln College or St Catherine's College of the University of Oxford in England. The College also offers a half-or full-year program in creative writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester in the UK and the opportunity to pursue Chinese language immersion study at Qingdao University in China. Students interested in theater can spend a year at London Dramatic Academy; those interested in photography can study at the International Center of Photography in New York City.

At Simon's Rock, we offer associate and bachelor's degrees.

While studying for the associate degree, students take elective courses in areas of special interest while completing courses in a variety of disciplines within the liberal arts. Students complete the bachelor's degree in one of 35 different concentrations reflecting most traditional disciplines, or choose one of several interdisciplinary concentrations. Students may also design a second concentration.