ACADEMICALLY

Bard teachers are always interesting characters, very left-leaning but generally not Woodstock wackos.  They are generally friendly, some of them almost like parents to me.  The odd teacher is self-absorbed, but in general these teachers would love nothing more than to have one-on-one talks with their students.  They know who you are and they are very sensitive to individual approaches to problems. 

SOCIALLY:

I was concerned when I was accepted to Bard that the environment was going to be a bunch of stuck-up, snobby hipsters with high depression rates.  There ARE many of them here.  However, there are many happy, hard-working and always interesting international students that are neither stuck up nor psychologically distressed.  I found that the healthiest community at Bard is the international one, and the fact that there are something like 200 or more of them -and they really are from all over the world - means you never need to deal with hipster types. 

Parties are laid back, less beer-pong oriented and more geared towards conversation.  Fine by me.  There are weekly concerts by local bands, which range from so-so to “why am I here."

Alcohol abuse seems to not be a huge problem.  Drugs are everywhere, but avoidable.  Weed is abundant, and 4-20 is a Bardwide holiday.

Politically, Bard is very liberal, but it has a good deal of very intelligent liberals that do not agree on a wide range of topics.  But expect the usual “Republicanz r dumb” conversation here and there. 

THE CAMPUS

Actually, the Bard campus is a hodgepodge of ugly and beautiful, old and modern.  The rooms are standard college fare, but they are in general nice, if not spartan.  The library is very good, there are plenty of communal computers available 24-7, and good study areas.  The food ranges from great to awful, but I'd say it's generally pretty bad.

THE TOWN

Don't bother.  A few restaurants, and very little else.  A single bar worth mentioning.  Non-plussed here.

OVERALL