FAQs
The Bard Early Colleges offer public high school students a tuition-free college course of study in the liberal arts and sciences concurrently with their high school program. The Bard Early Colleges offer students an excellent secondary school education and a significant academic and financial head start on their college degrees. The Bard High School Early Colleges (BHSECs) in Manhattan, New York (established 2001); Queens, New York (established 2008); Newark, New Jersey (established 2011); Cleveland, Ohio (established 2014); Baltimore, Maryland (established 2015); and Washington, D.C. (established 2019) are four-year, freestanding early college high schools operated as a partnership between Bard College and the local school district. The BHSECs allow students to earn 60 transferable college credits and a Bard College associate in arts (AA) degree concurrently with a high school diploma. These schools are designated as public high schools and accredited as branch campuses of Bard College. Bard also operates Early College Centers in New Orleans, Louisiana and Hudson, New York, which provide students from a region or network of schools the opportunity to earn one year of Bard College credit concurrently with a high school diploma.
Unlike most early colleges, the four-year Bard High School Early Colleges (which start in 9th grade) provide both the high school and college education in one building, with a unified, college-credentialed faculty teaching both high school classes (in 9th and 10th grades) and college courses (in place of 11th and 12th grades). This model allows BHSEC faculty and staff to work intensively with students to ensure that they are prepared to succeed in the early college program and beyond. Students enter in 9th grade and, after two years of a college preparatory high school sequence taught by college faculty, take a full college course of study in liberal arts and sciences in what would otherwise be 11th and 12th grade. The college program culminates in an associate in arts (AA) degree from Bard College.
- 83% associate’s degree completion at the Bard High School Early Colleges (Class of 2018)
- Over 85% four-year college enrollment (Class of 2016)
- 91% college persistence rate (2018)
- 97% BA/BS degree completion after graduation—well above the national average of 60% (Classes of 2005–09)
- An independent, quasi-experimental study conducted by Metis Associates on the BHSECs in New York City found that BHSEC students are significantly more likely to enroll in and complete college than similar students who attend traditional public and selective public schools.
Bard Early College students can transfer their Bard College credits from the early college program to a four-year institution of higher education, reducing the time to degree completion and offering students significant monetary savings. In recent classes, approximately one third of BHSEC graduates have finished their bachelor’s degrees within three years
All Bard Early College students are selected through an individual interview and faculty-created assessment process designed to gauge student interest and fit for the early college. There is typically much more student demand than available seats at the Bard Early Colleges.