The first time Anthony Lloyd heard about a high school that supposedly offered students the chance to graduate with an associate degree, he balked at the idea because it sounded unreal.
“Honestly, I didn’t believe it,” Lloyd said of the high school, which he heard about from a friend who planned to enroll in the school.
“I was like, ‘What high school can give you an associate degree and a high school diploma at the same time?’” Lloyd said. “It sounded like one of those commercials that’s like a get-rich-quick scheme. I was like, ‘Alright, let me know how that works out.’”
However, once his friend was accepted to the school and confirmed the school’s promise was real, Lloyd began to give the school — Bard High School Early College Baltimore — a second look.
Today, Lloyd not only stands to graduate from the high school this spring with an associate degree in general studies, but also won a full ride to attend Bard College, a well ranked, four-year private college in Annandale on Hudson, New York, where the average cost of attendance is just over $29,000.
Now Lloyd — who is poised to become the first in his family to earn a college degree — talks up Bard High School Early College Baltimore just as his friend did a year or so ago. Asked during a recent briefing on Capitol Hill what makes the high school distinct, Lloyd touted the school’s seminar-based courses and its emphasis on critical thinking.
He speaks of being introduced to philosophers whose names he could not pronounce and classes where students get the opportunity to critically analyze texts.
