Bard College

What are the graduation rates for students at Bard College?

In the reported 2024-25 outcomes, Bard's four-year graduation rate was 54%, while its six-year graduation rate was 68%. The additional time matters: students who finish after the fourth year can still appear in the six-year measure.

Federal graduation rates generally track a defined cohort of first-time, full-time students, rather than everyone who has attended the college. They therefore do not describe every transfer student's experience or predict an individual student's completion date. Bard's reported first-year retention rate was 85%, a separate measure of how many students continued into the following year.

What is the earning potential for graduates at Bard College?

Field-of-study earnings figures for Bard should be read as limited, early-career measures - not as salary offers or a forecast for everyone with a particular major. The reported College Scorecard field figures measure earnings approximately one year after completion for the population represented in federal data.

Among the reported examples, the one-year figure was $30,818 for biological and physical sciences, $24,172 for social sciences, and $17,518 for fine and studio arts. Differences between fields can reflect occupations, further study, work hours, location, and which graduates appear in the underlying records. A one-year measure also says little about later career progression.

These figures are most useful alongside questions about graduate school, internships, debt, and the kinds of work graduates seek. They should not be interpreted as earnings for every Bard graduate in a field.