Bard College Simon's Rock
StudentsReview ::
Bard College Simon's Rock - Extra Detail about the Comment | |||||||||||||||||||
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Educational Quality | B | Faculty Accessibility | A |
Useful Schoolwork | A | Excess Competition | A |
Academic Success | A+ | Creativity/ Innovation | A+ |
Individual Value | A+ | University Resource Use | B+ |
Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty | A- | Friendliness | A |
Campus Maintenance | B | Social Life | B+ |
Surrounding City | F | Extra Curriculars | B+ |
Safety | A+ | ||
Describes the student body as: Friendly, ApproachableDescribes the faculty as: Friendly, Helpful |
Lowest Rating Surrounding City | F |
Highest Rating Academic Success | A+ |
Major: Computer Science (This Major's Salary over time)
The academics at Simon's Rock are excellent, but challenging. You will have to work hard and you will be seriously challenged to gain a deep understanding of the material and be creative and hardworking. The teachers are very nice and the student-teacher ratio is excellent. Most classes have 10-15 students.The majority of the students transfer after sophomore year, and there are only ~450 students total, so extracurriculars are largely based on what the current student population is interested in and can change radically from year to year. Sports are not very competitive but still fun. Simon's Rock has a newspaper, a literary magazine, and around 15 clubs.There is pretty much nothing to do in Great Barrington, especially since the college itself is a 1.5 mile (half hour) walk from the center of town, and the town is pretty sleepy anyway (latest movie showings start at 9pm). Since the community is so close-knit you will spend a lot of time just hanging out with other people, which is a good thing. Most of the people at Simon's Rock are bright, and some are incredibly so. The community as a whole is not very judgmental and the students have varied interests. A lot of people play music, mostly acoustic guitar. The people are very unique and you can have an intelligent discussion with anyone on almost any topic. There is an indie vibe, but there is no notion of being cool by fighting the mainstream. As a whole the students are a fun group to live and go to school with.Simon's Rock does suffer from some drawbacks. It is expensive, although the vast majority of the students are receiving a scholarship or financial aid. Its budget is very limited and its rural campus, though beautiful, can make things dull sometimes. The college does not always have the resources to provide the best facilities possible. However, the predominant attitude is to make the best of what we have and the benefits of the excellent learning environment outweigh the inconveniences.