The BardBac is a community of adult scholars pursuing BA degrees at Bard College. BardBac students come from a variety of different experiences, and enroll full-time at Bard’s main campus on full tuition scholarship.
A project of the Bard Prison Initiative — Bard’s response to the crisis of mass incarceration — the BardBac was launched in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The BardBac seeks adult learners whose educations have been interrupted or deterred, who are hungry for robust intellectual inquiry, and who are eager to make new, extraordinary contributions to their communities.
Join the mailing list for alerts about upcoming events and information sessions. Applications for Fall 2025 enrollment will be accepted from December 1, 2024 through March 1, 2025.
Student Voices
“For me, a brown immigrant woman, growing up in an underprivileged community … the BardBac has opened a door to a future where I will be able to help my community.”
—Verónica
“I had always planned on going to school. It never occurred to me that I’d be well into my fifties before I’d finally keep that promise to myself. … Being awarded this scholarship is the opportunity and gift of my lifetime.”
—Monica
“The opportunity to look at education through a shared vision of aspiring Bard graduates who were given a chance to be counted, be open and be developed is a long time coming.”
—Cleveland
Faculty Voices
One of the main highlights of teaching during the pandemic was having two BardBac students in my course “How to Read and Write the History of the (Post) Colonial World.” They were brilliant. Although modest at first about estimating their academic strengths, within two weeks they each claimed for themselves a central place in class discussions, raising the intellectual bar for everyone, including myself.
BardBac students are less discouraged by what they don’t know, and more focused on making the most of the abundant opportunities here at Bard to learn and develop.
I had two BardBac students in a class on immigrant sanctuary in United States law, both of whom had been involved in immigrant struggles. They would have been great additions if they had simply visited to tell of their experiences, but they were also motivated students who took real pleasure in the opportunity that Bard offered. If they are any measure of the broader group of BardBac students, then this is one of the best things to come to Bard in a long time.
