Barnard Bulletin
Barnard is currently one of four Columbia undergraduate colleges with independent admission, curricula, and financials. Students share classes, libraries, clubs, sororities, athletic fields, and dining halls with Columbia as well as sports teams. This is through the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, an agreement that makes Barnard the only women's college to offer its students the ability to compete in NCAA Division I athletics. Students receive a diploma from Columbia University.
Barnard offers bachelor of arts degree programs in about 50 areas of study. In addition to Columbia, students may also pursue elements of their education at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Jewish Theological Seminary which are also based in New York City. Its 4-acre (1.6 ha) campus is located in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights, stretching along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets. It is directly across from Columbia's main campus.
Barnard College alumnae include leaders in science, religion, politics, the Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, theater, and business. Barnard graduates have been recipients of Emmy, Tony, Grammy, Academy, and Peabody awards, Guggenheim Fellowships, MacArthur Fellowships, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the Pulitzer Prize.
History
Founding
From its founding in 1754 until the mid-1980s, Columbia College of Columbia University admitted only men for undergraduate study. Barnard College was founded in 1889 as a response to Columbia's refusal to admit women. Classes took place in a rented brownstone at 343 Madison Avenue, where a faculty of six offered instruction to 36 students.
The college was named after Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, a deaf American educator and mathematician who later served as Columbia's president for over twenty years. He advocated for coeducational settings and proposed in 1879 that Columbia admit women. Columbia's Board of Trustees repeatedly rejected Barnard's suggestion, but in 1883 agreed to create a syllabus that would allow the college's students to receive degrees. The first such graduate received her bachelor's degree in 1887. A former student of the program, Annie Meyer, and other prominent New York women persuaded the board in 1889 to create a women's college connected to Columbia. Men and women were evenly represented among the founding trustees of Barnard College.
Morningside campus
When Columbia University announced in 1892 its impending move to Morningside Heights, Barnard built a new campus nearby with gifts from Mary E. Brinckerhoff, Elizabeth Milbank Anderson and Martha Fiske. Two of these gifts were made with several stipulations attached. Brinckerhoff insisted that Barnard acquire land within 1,000 feet of the Columbia campus within the next four years. The Barnard trustees purchased land between 119th–120th Streets after receiving funds for that purpose in 1895. Anderson requested that Charles A. Rich be hired. Rich designed the Milbank, Brinckerhoff, and Fiske Halls, built in 1897–1898; these were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The first classes at the new campus were held in 1897. Despite Brinckerhoff's, Anderson's, and Fiske's gifts, Barnard remained in debt.
Ella Weed supervised the college in its first four years; Emily James Smith succeeded her as Barnard's first dean. Jessica Finch is credited with coining the phrase current events while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s.
The college received the three blocks south of 119th Street from Anderson in 1903. Rich provided a master plan for the campus, but only Brooks Hall was built, being constructed between 1906 and 1908. None of Rich's other plans was carried out. Students' Hall, now known as Barnard Hall, was built in 1916 to a design by Arnold Brunner. Hewitt Hall was the last structure to be erected, in 1926–1927. All three buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
By the mid-20th century, Barnard had succeeded in its original goal of providing a top-tier education to women. Between 1920 and 1974, only the much larger Hunter College and University of California, Berkeley produced more women graduates who later received doctorates. In the 1970s, Barnard faced considerable pressure to merge with male only Columbia College, which was fiercely resisted by its president, Jacquelyn Mattfeld.
Presidents
Presidents and deans of Barnard College from 1889 to present include:
- Ella Weed (1889–1894)
- Emily James Smith Putnam (1894–1900)
- Laura Drake Gill (1901–1907)
- Virginia Gildersleeve (1911–1947)
- Millicent McIntosh (1947–1962)
- Rosemary Park (1962–1967)
- Martha Peterson (1967–1975)
- Jacquelyn Mattfeld (1976–1980)
- Ellen V. Futter (1980–1993)
- Judith R. Shapiro (1994–2008)
- Debora L. Spar (2008–2017)
- Sian Beilock (2017–2023)
- Laura Rosenbury (2023–present)
Academics
Barnard students are able to pursue a bachelor of arts degree in about 50 areas of study. Joint programs for the bachelor of science and other degrees exist with Columbia University, Juilliard School, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. The most popular majors at the college by 2021 graduates were:
- Econometrics and Quantitative Economics (62)
- Research and Experimental Psychology (56)
- History (43)
- English Language and Literature (39)
- Political Science and Government (36)
- Neuroscience (33)
- Art History, Criticism and Conservation (33)
The liberal arts general education requirements are collectively called Foundations. Students must take two courses in the sciences (one of which must be accompanied by a laboratory course), study a single foreign language for two semesters, and take two courses in the arts/humanities as well as two in the social sciences. In addition, students must complete at least one three-credit course in the so-called "Modes of Thinking" series, and fulfill other requirements.
Admissions
2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Applicants | 12,009 | 10,395 | 9,411 | 9,320 | 7,897 |
Admits | NA | 1,084 | 1,022 | 1,097 | 1,099 |
Admit rate | 6% | 10% | 10.8% | 11.8% | 13.9% |
Enrolled | N/A | N/A | N/A | 632 | 605 |
SAT mid-50% range | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1360–1500 | 1330–1500 |
ACT mid-50% range | N/A | N/A | N/A | 31–34 | 30–33 |
Admissions to Barnard are considered "most selective" by U.S. News & World Report. It is the most selective women's college in the nation; in 2017, Barnard had the lowest acceptance rate of the five Seven Sisters that remain single-sex in admissions.
The class of 2026's admission rate was 8% of the 12,009 applicants, the lowest acceptance rate in the institution's history. The median SAT composite score of enrolled students was 1440, with median subscores of 720 in Math and 715 in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. The median ACT Composite score was 33.
In 2015, Barnard announced that it would admit transgender women who "consistently live and identify as women, regardless of the gender assigned to them at birth" and would continue to support and enroll those students who transitioned to male after they had already been admitted.
The college practices need-blind admission for domestic first-year applicants.
Rankings
Academic rankings | |
---|---|
Liberal arts | |
U.S. News & World Report | 14 (tie) of 211 |
Washington Monthly | 61 of 199 |
National | |
Forbes | 73 of 500 |
WSJ/College Pulse | 50 of 600 |
In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked Barnard as tied at 14th of 211 U.S. liberal arts colleges overall. The previous year, Barnard was tied for 25th of 36 for "Best Undergraduate Teaching," among U.S. liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report. Forbes ranked Barnard 73rd of 500 colleges in 2023.