Simon's Rock College of Bard?

Question

Can anybody who attends or has attended or works there as faculty tell me a bit about the school? I'm going to apply next year and i want to know about the science department specifically.

Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

Since you asked for a former/current student or faculty member, I thought I'd respond (being a student).

Quite a few people visit the school but they often get a limited persepective or are somewhat confused as to the structure (although visits are still very good). There's so much to say and yet I have essays that need to get written...

(Obviously, given the length of this answer, I have my priorities wrong.)

=)

Before I mention anything else, about 2/3 of the students transfer out to other universities by the end of their sophomore year (it's just how things go, I'm going to be one of them). They almost always enter their transfer school as a junior. I also assume you already know that it usually accepts people starting at the age of 15 (average freshman enters after sophomore or junior year of high school).

This is also NOT Bard College (you probably already know this but some other people might get confused). While Simon's Rock has financial associations with Bard (and there's a very simple transfer process into Bard), the two schools are barely related in terms of faculty and administration (the schools share just two of the same officers).

In particular regards to the science program, its strongest areas are physics and environmental science although biology, chemistry, and computer science (more engineering, but...) still have some amazing faculty members. A lot of people transfer out to good sciency schools after two years OR, if you stay for three years at Simon's Rock, you can go to Columbia University, Dartmouth, or Washington University in St. Louis for two years and get a BA from Simon's Rock and a BS from one of the aforementioned universities (five years total, two Bachelor's degrees). It's called the "3/2 Engineering Program" (although most sciences are included) and almost everyone chooses Columbia. This year, 100% (four) of the juniors who took the 3/2 route were "accepted" at Columbia (acceptance is a formality as long as you've completed required courses and maintained a 3.0+, B, GPA).

If you like Apple computers, you will have lots of company. For the people like me, you can gloat that your Windows machine runs all those new video games and programs perfectly (sorry, I had to throw this in).

The science people, by the way, are more sane than the artsy people. I usually like the science people better.

As a whole, Simon's Rock is a really, really liberal school which is to be expected of a primarily liberal arts school. If you cannot stand the thought of living in the boonies, you will be in for a rude awakening. The town of Great Barrington is nice but it's pretty small and quiet. The campus is set on a little over 200 acres, most of it undeveloped, and usually has about 350 students on campus at any given time (with about 50 studying abroad).

The faculty are the single greatest aspect of Simon's Rock (this is this hardest part to gauge from visiting). Almost all of the professors hold terminal degrees in their fields and are willing to take time out of their personal lives to help students through problems (both academic and not-so-academic personal issues). Classes average about 9-11 students with a few introductory science courses reaching 20 people while a number of classes have less than 5 people.

Students are usually bright although some of them are a little arrogant and conceited. You should make some really close friends, though. You also get to live with a roommate you first (and probably second) year. I've had one awesome roommate and one rather strange (i.e. bad) roommate. Either way, roommates are "fun."

As transfer student, we've been accepted into almost any college/university you can think of. Everything from Julliard to Stanford and all the state schools inbetween. Ditto for graduate and professional schools (whether you transfere or stay for all four years). You can contact the Admissions people for a much more complete list.

This is a real college. Not just in terms of accreditation but in the sense you're given the freedom do what you like (no curfews, mandatory study halls, etc.) as any other "normal" college. While people are usually willing to help you through tough times, nobody's going to track you down at 10:50 to make you show up at your 11:00 class.

Simon's Rock is sadly, also uber-expensive, something like $50,000 comprehensive for each year. The cafeteria food definitely isn't worth the price but they force you to buy ia full meal plan during your first year. If I were you, I'd apply to the Acceleration to Excellence Program Scholarship (AEP) as you can get a full-tuition merit scholarship good for your first two years (I'm on this scholarship).

And that's the short summary.

Answer 2

My son was quite interested in this school but as soon as we visited and took a look he totally changed his mind. You need to visit. That's pretty true of just about any school, but I think it is particularly true of this one.

Maybe it will be just your thing, but you definitely need to check it out in person.