About Simon’s Rock at Bard College

Over 50 Years of Independent Minds
In 1966, Elizabeth Blodgett Hall founded Simon’s Rock based on the belief that many bright, motivated young people are ready for serious intellectual work at the age of 16 or 17.

Founding
Simon’s Rock (named for a glacial rock formation on the family land that would become the original Simon’s Rock campus in Great Barrington, Massachusetts) opened in the fall of 1966 as a women’s school offering its students a four-year program that combined the last two years of high school and the first two years of college—concluding with an associate of arts (AA) degree. In 1970—the same year Simon’s Rock graduated its inaugural class—the school became a coeducational campus, and by 1974, the high school component was eliminated. Through the support from the National Science Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation, the College developed its bachelor of arts (BA) program, which ran until 2025 when Simon’s Rock relocated to Bard College’s main campus in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Our History
Like many colleges founded in the 1960s, Simon’s Rock struggled with the pressures of inadequate resources and turned to President Leon Botstein of Bard College, who had a distinct appreciation for early college, having himself entered the University of Chicago at the age of 16. President Botstein fully understood the significance of Simon’s Rock and the importance of the early college mission.

In 1979, Simon’s Rock became part of Bard College, one of the nation’s most outstanding and innovative liberal arts colleges—located 50 miles from the Simon’s Rock campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. While Simon’s Rock has retained its unique identity and singular mission, the partnership brought new academic and financial strength to the College. Since 1979, Bard has added to the texture and depth of the academic experience at Simon’s Rock, shaping many of the intellectual hallmarks of a Simon’s Rock education: Writing and Thinking Workshops, Moderation, the Senior Project, as well as the First-Year and Sophomore Seminars.

The partnership with Bard College has deepened the Simon’s Rock mission to provide a transformative liberal arts education at exactly the moment in adolescence when a young person is most ready for it. It has also allowed Simon’s Rock and Bard to drive a nationwide educational movement based on the core beliefs that motivated Elizabeth Blodgett Hall. In 2015, Bard Academy at Simon's Rock opened on the Simon’s Rock campus, welcoming a small class of boarding and day students to an enriched two-year high school experience prior to their enrollment in the regular Simon’s Rock early college program. 

In 2025, Simon’s Rock and Bard Academy relocated its campus from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to a new campus, the Massena Campus of Bard College, in Barrytown, New York. Amid a changing early college landscape and shifts in higher education, the relationship with Bard became ever more essential to the continued mission and success of Bard Academy and Simon’s Rock in supporting and meeting younger scholars who are ready to pursue their creative and intellectual pursuits now, not later. 

With access to Bard College’s campus and resources, Bard Academy and Simon’s Rock remain at the vanguard as a collaborative leader in the early college movement. Simon’s Rock continues to invite young people to participate fully in their education by offering them unparalleled opportunities for serious intellectual work at the moment they are ready for it.

Our students typically enter Simon’s Rock after finishing 10th or 11th grade, which means that they skip the last year or two of high school and arrive at Simon’s Rock without diplomas. They make a deliberate break from the standard academic track to dive straight into college at an age when most of their peers are just heading into their junior or senior years of high school.

But Simon’s Rock is not some kind of “halfway” college or an unconventional prep school. It’s a rigorous institution accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, part of the prestigious Bard network, and regularly recognized for its excellence (ranked #7 in the Princeton Review’s top 20 schools with the most highly rated faculty; ranked #4 for the most innovative school and #5 for best undergraduate teaching by U.S. News & World Report.; students awarded 10 Fulbright fellowships since 2010).

We know this path is not for everyone, but for those who make the leap, choosing early college at Simon’s Rock has been demonstrated over 50 years to give our students a head start on finding and pursuing their passions—and to set them up for a lifetime of personal and professional success.

Dear Members and Future Members of the Simon’s Rock Community,
 
It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you to Bard Academy and Simon’s Rock at Bard College. I have been part of this unique community of unique individuals for more than 25 years. Some of you have been Rockers for even longer, and some may just be exploring our school for the first time. Wherever you are on your journey with us, I welcome you to explore today’s Simon’s Rock, the founding school of the Early College movement, and a place that remains on the forefront of what is possible for young people ready for more in their education.
 
Our founder, Elizabeth Blodgett Hall, believed that young people were capable of far greater educational challenges than the world of the 1960s was offering them. In 1966, she welcomed the first Simon’s Rock students to her new school in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. At just 16 or 17, students engaged in college-level learning, taught with rigor and authenticity by passionate faculty. From her vision, Simon’s Rock evolved into the first Early College. 
 
Now, 60 years later, Simon’s Rock remains at the forefront of Early College education. We are a site of innovation, responding to evolving student needs while maintaining our longstanding commitment to true, rigorous learning – through reading, writing (lots of writing!), problem solving, and discussions inside and outside the classroom. As a private institution with both residential and day options, we are able to welcome students from across the United States and from countries around the world. You will join a Rocker community proudly celebrating 60 years of Early College.

We invite you to explore Simon’s Rock, through our website, and through visiting us in person at our campus in Barrytown, New York, a few minutes down the road from Bard College. We offer two pathways for enrollment: the Bard Academy pathway (for 9th and 10th grade aged students), earning a high school diploma and A.A. degree; and our longstanding Early College pathway (for 11th and 12th grade aged students), jumping directly into college study toward the A.A. degree. All of these pathways lead to a B.A. at Bard College, sooner than the traditional college timeline.

Ready for more? Discover what’s possible at Simon’s Rock, where independent minds thrive.
 
With Rocker Spirit,
John B. Weinstein