Barnard College is a liberal arts college for young women located on 4 acres in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan across the street from Columbia University. In fact, Barnard College has a singular agreement with Columbia University that allows Barnard students to cross register in courses and have access to libraries, facilities and activities on both campuses. Barnard students receive a diploma from both Barnard College and Columbia University. Barnard students also compete in the NCAA Division 1 through the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium.

Barnard College was founded in 1889 as a result of Columbia University’s refusal at the time to admit women. Barnard College is named after Frederick AP Barnard, the 10th President of Columbia College, who had supported the admission of women but did not succeed in his advocacy.

Barnard’s student population is diverse with 44% identifying as students of color, 13% as international students and 14% as the first in their family to attend college.

Barnard College’s endowment in 2021 was estimated at approximately $420 million.

Barnard College counts many highly influential and successful women amongst their alumni in fields as diverse as art, entertainment, writing and journalism, law, medicine, scientific research, politicians, non-profit organizations, diplomacy and business.

Costs of attending Barnard College 2022-2023

Tuition costs - $60,478

Comprehensive Fee - $2,047

Health Insurance - $4,076

Housing (Single or double occupancy) - $11,738

Meal Plan (19 meals a week) - $7,626

Other fees (for freshmen) - $650

Total cost of attendance (not including books and supplies) - $86,615

Access Barnard’s Net Price Calculator here

Barnard Statistics at a Glance

Data from Barnard College’s website and Common Data Sets

Sports at Barnard College

Through the athletic consortium that Barnard has with Columbia University, Barnard participates in NCAA Division 1. Columbia and Barnard combined have a total of 15 women’s NCAA sports with 413 athletes.

Potential athlete recruits to Barnard College are subject to the NCAA rules and calendar for Division 1 athletes.

See NCAA Sports Played at Columbia and Barnard

What you can expect from Barnard College

Barnard College is focused on providing a liberal arts education to promising and high achieving young women who thrive on high expectations. Barnard sets rigorous academic standards and supports its students to meet those standards, thus enabling them to discover their own capabilities.

As an all women’s college, Barnard embraces its responsibility to address complex and urgent gender issues and to help students achieve the personal strength needed to deal with the complex challenges they will encounter throughout their lives.

The partnership agreement with Columbia University gives Barnard students unparalleled access to the resources of a world class Ivy League university.

Is it hard to get into Barnard College?

With a single digit acceptance rate, getting accepted to Barnard is challenging.

Based on its Common Data Set 2021-2022, Barnard was evenly split between students who submitted test scores and students who did not submit test scores. The middle 50% range of students who submitted test scores were very high (SAT 1445-1530, ACT 30-33), but Barnard was also able to successfully evaluate and admit almost half of its students from those who did not submit scores.

To maintain its high standards, it is likely that Barnard relied on grades and the rigor of classes taken to determine academic readiness. As a highly selective college with a single digit acceptance rate, we expect that Barnard’s admitted students were also able to demonstrate that they are unique and that they possess the qualities desired by Barnard through their activities and their essay.

Where do Barnard College graduates work and what do they earn?

According to Barnard College, 95% of its graduating class of 2021 were either employed or in graduate school 6 months after graduation.

The top industries that Barnard graduates ended up working in include:

• Law, Government and Politics (15%)

• Financial services and Insurance (13%)

• Healthcare, Biotech and Life Sciences (12%)

• Education (12%)

• Non-Profit/NGO (9%)

• Tech (7%)

• Performing and Fine Arts (6%)

• Ads, PR and Marketing (5%)

• Journalism, Media and Publishing (5%)

• Management Consulting (3%)

• All Others (10%)

You can download Barnard College’s Data and Outcomes Report 2021 here.

Some highlighted employers where Barnard graduates ended up working include:

• IBM

• Teach for America

• Mount Sinai Hospitals

• Vanguard

• The New York Times

• Intuit

• Mastercard

• Google

• The New Yorker

• Federal Reserve Bank of New York

• JP Morgan Chase

• Goldman Sachs

• Amazon

• Barnard College

• Columbia University

• Citi

• Davis, Polk, Wardwell

• Fross, Zelnick, Lehman and Zissu

• Fulbright US Student Program

• Blackrock

• AlphaSights

• Conde Nast

Earnings Data for Barnard College Graduates

With the costs of attending college becoming prohibitively expensive, it is hard to treat the college experience as a strictly educational and developmental one. You have to think about your earnings potential as well. Unless you are very lucky, chances are that you will graduate with some student debt. Whether you can afford to pay it off in reasonable time, and not have this debt interfere with your ability to live your life without a overhanging debt burden depends on what you can earn when you graduate from college.

Knowing what you can earn with the the degree you earn and the college you earned it at is essential for planning your life. The data we provide here is meant as a guideline only as there will be variance between individuals based on many factors including the types of jobs and employers they pursue.

Data from Payscale based on 268 responses

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