First-Year Student Housing

In early August, our first-year class moves in for Language and Thinking; pictured above is the Arrival Day picnic. In their first year on campus, students live in halls that predominantly house other first-year students. This page goes over our housing application, roommate matching and housing assignment process, and what you need to know before you arrive on campus.

First-Year Housing

All first-year unmoderated students are required to live on campus and are assigned to live with at least one roommate. First-year students are assigned housing based on the timely submission of a Housing Profile and Facility Use Agreement form, found on MyAnnandale. Although it is often difficult to fulfill specific requests, every effort is made by the Office of Residence Life and Housing to do so. Students are typically notified of their placement by mid-July via their Bard email, which is assigned in June. Students are housed for Language and Thinking and Citizen Science in their permanent room assignments.

First-Year Housing

• Students whose permanent residence is within 50 miles of Bard.
• Students who are 21 years of age or older.
• Students who are married or have appropriately documented extenuating circumstances as approved by the college.

What makes first-year housing at Bard unique?

The largest first-year residence houses only 99 students, but many first-year students are in residences of less that 30 students. This leads many first-year students to engage in the residential community and build lifelong connections to their peers. Our residences feature community kitchens where students can share recipes from home or just bake some cookies for their neighbors.
Learn more about our residences!

Since their introduction to the Bard community in 1976, peer counselors have been building social connections between neighbors with a focus on stress reduction and community development. Peer counselors are Upper-College students who live within the residences and are trained to respond to conflict, support student transitions to and through college, and make unlikely peer connections.
Meet the Peer Counselors!

Incoming Students are assigned housing through a manual process in which the Residence Life and Housing team reviews each housing profile to best match an incoming student with a roommate or two. From here, the team actively curates the residence hall communities by both balancing personalities and working to ensure all residents will be able to connect to their peers in the residence.
Meet the ResLife Team