1351 Alabama Ave, SE. Washington, DC 20032
No, Bard High School Early College is not a private school. It is a selective early college high school operated through a partnership between Bard College and the DC Public Schools for DC residents.
No. While the Bard schools share some characteristics with charter schools, such as autonomy in hiring administrators and faculty, we operate as a partnership between Bard College and the local public school system. As a college, Bard DC does not use a lottery-based admissions process. Our campus is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding between Bard College and DC Public Schools.
All DC residents who meet eligibility requirements.
Through a Memorandum of Understanding between Bard College and DC Public Schools, Bard DC shapes its curriculum, first and foremost, as a rigorous course of study in the liberal arts and sciences that meets Bard College requirements for a general education during the first two years of college. While students take local standardized assessments, those assessments do not drive the Bard curriculum or the material taught in the classroom; to the extent possible, state and local required assessments are given during the 9th and 10th grades so that they do not interfere with the associate in arts degree curriculum taught in the 11th and 12th grades. Students have choice over courses within the academic disciplines offered at Bard: Division of the Arts, Division of Languages and Literature, Division of Mathematics and Sciences, and Division of Social Sciences. Our course catalogue is available here.
The Bard High School Early College model allows all enrolled students the opportunity to earn an associate in arts degree from Bard College, worth approximately 60 transferable credits, completely free of charge. This saves students and their families up to two years of college tuition, fees, and related costs. While there are additional costs of providing a college program in high school, Bard relies on funding from public and private sources to ensure that costs are not passed on to students and families.
Please visit our Assessment page.
We accept 9th, 10th, and 11th applicants.
You will be notified when the lottery results are posted via MySchoolDC.
For general information about Bard Early College, click here.
