Bard College at Simon's Rock
Great Barrington, Massachusetts, US
84 Alford Road, Great Barrington
Last updated: 15/03/2025
School Details
About Bard College at Simon's Rock
If students are on the verge of 11th or 12th grade and certain they don’t want more of the same, Simon’s Rock can show them what education is like when everyone shares a love for learning. Founded in 1966, Simon’s Rock is the only residential college experience designed for thoughtful, exceptionally motivated students who are ready to start college early.
Simon’s Rock Invented Early College, and they’ve been attracting inventive minds ever since. Simon’s Rock is the best choice for students ready to make a deliberate break with the standard educational track. No one comes to Simon’s Rock because it’s what their parents expect them to do—or what all their friends are doing.
Simon's Rock offer two degree pathways: the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Associate of Arts (AA)—and an infinite number of opportunities. All students at Simon’s Rock earn their AA after two years. It’s a liberal arts framework that is individualized but also rigorous and well-rounded. By the end of the second year, students will know what it means to engage in meaningful intellectual inquiry, and will be ready to follow their curiosity wherever it leads them. BA students will be able to customize their areas of concentration, choose their courses, take advantage of horizon-broadening study-away or signature program opportunities and design and complete their Senior Thesis.
Why Bard College at Simon’s Rock:
- Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts, ranked by Smithsonian Magazine as “No. 1 Small Town in America”, is an easy walk or bike ride from campus.
- Campus: The college’s wooded campus is in the heart of the Berkshires, an area known for its natural beauty and rich cultural life.
- Learning, liberated: A Simon’s Rock education isn’t a series of isolated classes that never connect one idea to another. It’s not about teaching to a test. Students will wrestle with unfamiliar and complicated ideas, dream about improbable solutions, and find a new way to describe the human condition—their own way.
- Engineering Dual Degree programs with Columbia and Dartmouth: Simon's Rock offers a pre-engineering concentration that sets students on an accelerated path to earn both a BA degree from Simon’s Rock and either a BS from Columbia University or a BE from Dartmouth.
- Real college, only sooner: It’s not “sort-of” college. Simon’s Rock brings students face-to-face with big ideas, essential texts, deep and high-spirited discussion, advanced research, and the latest scholarship with professors who are tops in their fields. With 35+ concentrations (Simon’s Rock’s version of majors), plus many internships and off-campus programs, and access to the classes and resources of the Bard College Network, students will learn vast amounts about…well, everything: how to think, manage time and budgets, see big projects through to the very end, persuasively express opinions, listen thoughtfully to others, and generally do what responsible, worldly people do.
- Be surrounded by people who take you seriously: Simon’s Rock’s professors choose Simon’s Rock because, like the students, they want something more and different: they believe teaching can be a two-way process that happens both in and out of the classroom. Students will know their professors on a first-name basis, and they’ll love sharing the important, ambitious scholarship they’re doing. Students will also meet every week with an advisor to talk about their work and their life. Residence directors and trained student peer advocates are always around to talk and help. With all these people, regular meetings—formal and informal—are the norm.
- A jump start that lasts a lifetime: Acceleration isn’t Simon’s Rock’s goal, but with most of the college’s students completing their BAs by age 20, a head start on life is inevitable. But it’s not just chronological age that sets Rockers apart. It’s their superior academic training, and the contacts they make through their internships, extended campus projects, study abroad experiences, conference presentations, and collaborative research. Students will be equipped to think comprehensively about their future (and will be given plenty of support to do so).
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