Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Bard College at Simon’s Rock is located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is a private not-for-profit, 4-year or above institution.
From Wikipedia: Bard College at Simon’s Rock (more commonly known as Simon’s Rock) is a private liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It is part of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The school is an “early college”, designed for students to enroll immediately after completing the tenth or eleventh grade, rather than after graduating from high school. Simon’s Rock is the only accredited four-year early college to date and still the only college or university to take this approach with all of its students. It is one of a number of early college entrance programs that provide opportunities for students to enter college one or more years ahead of their traditional high school graduation date. A majority of students transfer to larger institutions after receiving an Associate of Arts degree after two years, although many stay for four to receive a Bachelor of Arts.
Notes
These are items that bear looking into more closely.
- There are apparently no tenure stream faculty. This can indicate a risk to academic freedom and thus educational quality, as faculty members may be able to lose their positions because of their speech, publications, or research findings.
Overview of institution
This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.
Institution kind: Baccalaureate/Associate’s Colleges: Mixed Baccalaureate/Associate’s
Undergrad program: Baccalaureate/Associates Colleges
Graduate program: Not classified (Exclusively Undergraduate)
Enrollment profile: Exclusively undergraduate four-year (see more details below)
Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $44,326 (2.3 times the equivalent cost of Harvard).
Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.
Size and setting: Four-year, very small, highly residential
In state percentage: 23% of first year students come from Massachusetts
In US percentage: 84% of first year students come from the US
Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: Unknown (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]
Student to faculty ratio: 6.8 (undergrads to all faculty)
Degrees offered: Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree
Schedule: Semester
Institution provides on campus housing: Yes
Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 443 students
Freshmen required to live on campus: No
Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Implied no
Disabilities: 24.00 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.
Map
Comparisons
The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.
- Bard College at Simon’s Rock compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Smith College, Pitzer College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Reed College, St. John’s College, Sarah Lawrence College, Lake Forest College, Wabash College, Knox College, Westmont College, Juniata College, Hartwick College, Bennington College, Rockford University, Sweet Briar College, Elmira College, Hampshire College
- These institutions compare themselves to Bard College at Simon’s Rock, but not vice versa: Goodwin University, Landmark College
Enrollment
General
Teaching
Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.
Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.
Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.
Geography
This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated.
Financial Aid
Graduation
Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).
Library
Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.
Diversity
The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.
Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).
These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.
Overall diversity
Freshman profile
Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.
Freshman geography
Test scores
SAT scores
ACT scores
Majors
This presents information on the number of majors and the median earnings one and five years after graduation for people who got a degree from this institution in that field. The earnings are for those who are working and not enrolled in further education. The earnings data (from the federal college scorecard) also has information on earnings for those categorized as ‘MALE’ and ‘NOMALE’ – for readability, these are recategorized here as “Men” and “Women”, respectively, which adopts the gender binary used in other federal data. “W/M earnings ratio” is the median earnings of women divided by men, as a percentage.