The First Year

All first-year students participate in a common curriculum—

the Language and Thinking Program, First-Year Seminar, Citizen Science—and take elective courses.

First-Year Experience Resources

The Language and Thinking (L&T) Program

The L&T Program is an intensive introduction to the liberal arts and sciences with a particular focus on writing. All new students attend the program during the last three weeks of August. Students read extensively, work on a variety of projects in writing and other formats, and meet throughout the day in small groups and in one-on-one conferences with faculty. The work aims to cultivate habits of thoughtful reading and discussion, clear articulation, accurate self-critique, and productive collaboration. Satisfactory completion of the program is required for matriculation into the College.

Language and Thinking Website

First-Year Programs

First-Year Seminar

The two-semester First-Year Seminar presents intellectual, cultural, and artistic ideas in historical context, through extraordinary works of literature, philosophy, politics, religion, science, and the arts. Class discussions and frequent writing assignments develop precise, analytical thinking. Core texts address a specific theme for the year. This year’s theme is: The Republic Revisited.
First-Year Advising

All first-year students are assigned an academic adviser, with whom they meet at strategic points during each semester. The advising system helps students begin the process of selecting a program in which to major, meet the requirements of that program, prepare for professional study or other activities outside of or after college, and satisfy other interests.
First-Year Electives

Electives allow students to explore fields in which they are interested and experiment with unfamiliar areas of study. Students select three elective courses in each semester of the first year (the fourth course is First-Year Seminar).

Explore the Course List

Citizen Science

One of the Five Pillars of a Bard undergraduate education, Citizen Science encourages first-year students to develop their personal science literacy through hands-on coursework and projects. Students develop a core understanding of the full arc of science, from the way science is conducted in the lab through the creation of science-based policies that influence the world around us. This broad foundation allows the STEM and non-STEM students, as citizens, to understand the role they all play as they grapple with the ever-increasing number of national and global issues influenced by science.

Citizen Science Website

Begin in Berlin

Entering students may spend their first year at Bard’s campus in Berlin, Germany, joining a global student body of 260 from more than 60 countries. Begin in Berlin students take Language and Thinking and the first-year core sequence at Bard College Berlin, and may choose electives from courses in (among others) German language, practicing and performing arts, social studies, literature, art history, aesthetics, philosophy, and social engagement—many of which use the city as a classroom. All credits transfer automatically to Annandale.