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Bard College Complete Information Guide

2 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
52% Acceptance Rate

This overview covers the essential stats on Bard College, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.

Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

* Rankings

Where Does Bard College Rank?

#1,126 Best Colleges in Nation
#106 Best Colleges in NY
Bard College ranking badge

2026 College Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

Bard College was awarded 2 badges in the 2026 rankings.

National Standing

According to College Factual’s 2026 analysis, Bard is ranked #1,126 out of 3,449 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality.

Bard is also ranked #106 on the Best Colleges in New York list.

See all of the rankings for Bard College.

What Are the Admission Requirements for Bard College?

52% Acceptance Rate
58% Of Accepted Are Women
13% Submit SAT Scores

Admission Selectivity

Bard College has an acceptance rate of 52%, which means the school is serious about who it admits. Take your time in putting together a strong application that highlights why you are a good fit for Bard.

Standardized Test Scores

About 13% of students accepted to Bard submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 650 and 750. Math scores were between 620 and 700.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Bard College  ( 650 to 750 )
200
800
SAT Math Scores for Bard College  ( 620 to 700 )
200
800

Bard received ACT scores from 9% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 28 and 32.

ACT Composite Scores for Bard College  ( 28 to 32 )
1
36

Learn more about Bard College admissions.

Instructors at Bard College

9 to 1 Student to Faculty
63% Full Time Teachers

Faculty Accessibility

The student to faculty ratio at Bard is an impressive 9 to 1. That’s quite good when you compare it to the national average of 15 to 1. This is a good sign that students at the school will have more opportunities for one-on-one interactions with their professors.

Full-Time Faculty Share

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Bard College is 63%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  63 out of 100
0
100

Student Success Metrics for Bard College

85% Freshmen Retention
73% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 85% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Bard College enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That’s certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  85 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor’s degree is typically four years. This rate at Bard for first-time, full-time students is 73%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  73 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Bard College.

Student Demographics at Bard College

2,280 Undergraduate Students
36.3% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
58.2% Percent Women

The current enrollment includes 2,280 undergraduates at Bard.

Get more detailed information on the diversity at Bard College.

How Much Does Bard College Cost?

$16,772 Net Price
32% Take Out Loans
$25,312 Total Student Loans

The average net price of Bard is $16,772. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.### Net Price by Income Group for Bard

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$13,609 $17,710 $19,816 $26,909 $43,347

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid. Note that the net price is typically less than the published price for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Bard, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It’s not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Bard, approximately 32% of students took out student loans averaging $6,328 a year. That adds up to $25,312 over four years for those students. The student loan default rate is 3.2%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you’ll be able to pay back your student loans. Get more details about paying for Bard College.

Post-Graduation Earnings for Bard College

$46,543 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Bard College with a bachelor’s degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $46,543 in their early years. This is in the same neighborhood of the average college graduate’s salary of $49,219 per year. However, certain majors may produce higher-paying graduates.

See which majors at Bard College make the most money.

Location of Bard College

New York State
2,280 Undergraduate Students
Rural Campus Setting

Bard College is a private not-for-profit institution found in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York. Students who love country life may enjoy the rural location of Bard. Get more details about the location of Bard College.

Location of Bard College

Contact details for Bard College are given below.

Contact Details
Address: Annandale Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504-5000
Phone: 8457586822
Website: www.bard.edu
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BardCollegeNY
Twitter: twitter.com/BARDCollege

Bard College Majors

9 Majors With Completions
1,658 Undergraduate Degrees

In the most recent reporting year, students from 9 majors graduated from Bard College. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Completions Average Salary of Graduates
Multi-Disciplinary Studies 829 NA
Fine & Studio Arts 187 $23,573
General Social Sciences 167 $24,172
Liberal Arts General Studies 138 NA
Biological & Physical Science 87 $30,818
Other English Literature 85 $19,624
Business Administration & Management 55 $51,051
Music 51 $27,353
Economics 17 NA
Other Social Sciences 14 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Bard College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Distance Learning at Bard

3% Take At Least One Class Online

Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.

58 students took at least one online class at Bard College.

Learn more about online learning at Bard College.

Similar InstitutionsWant to see how other colleges compare to Bard? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free tool for head-to-head college comparisons.

Data Sources and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

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