Along with administrators from Simon's Rock, he was instrumental in the founding of New York City's Bard High School Early College in 2001. During Botstein's 40-year tenure, one of the longest in the nation, Bard has established eight graduate schools, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. With the purchase of the 380-acre (150 ha) Montgomery Place estate to the south of the college in 2016, Bard's campus consists of nearly 1,000 park-like acres in the Hudson River Valley.