42 Comments
Dean Fondiller, pretty in pink
Remember the neurotic high school senior that you once were and still sort of are? Use that person to generate some empathy, as Barnard is mailing its decision letters today. In an e-mail to Bwog, admissions dean and shatterer of dreams Jennifer Fondiller shared some of the exciting stats. The acceptance rate for the class of 2016 is, at 21% overall, the lowest in the college’s history and a full 3% percentage points lower than last year. Numbers of applications for both early (561) and regular decision programs climbed to 5,440 combined (17.8% higher than just two years ago), maintaining Barnard’s standing as the most selective women’s college in the country. Good luck to all, congratulations to some!
Photo credit to Barnard College/Adrienne Hezghia, BC’12
Loading …
42 Comments
@CONGRATS to all the lovely ladies accepted to Barnard in the class of 2016!
@Anonymous @ the “real college” and 6% commenters: Guess what: the world is full of smart people. In your birth year alone, there are about 120,000 US citizens in the top 3% by IQ. Most of those people are not at the top 10 schools – there isn’t enough room, especially after allowing for recruited atheletes (sorry, obviously some of you fall in that category), international students, etc. (And that is even if we assume that these are the only people with the grades and test scores to qualify for admission to top schools – likely not a valid assumption.) The Ivies best serve the highly intelligent, internally driven, intellectually curious student who wants to pursue his/her deepest interests without worrying about impressing anyone. Unfortunately, those students comprise a small minority of the undergraduates at the very top schools. Most are ambitious students who are very driven by external validation, who have been polishing their resumes with Ivy admissions in mind for years. By boasting about Columbia’s admission rate, you show yourselves to be in that latter category. If you fail to recognize that smart people are a dime a dozen and that they don’t all go to Columbia (or HYPS, or Barnard, for that matter), you will wind up looking uncommonly foolish — and arrogant — as you dismiss the contributions of legions of people who are smarter than you, but don’t have the piece of paper to prove it. Congratulations — with Columbia on your resumes, people will give you the benefit of the doubt for the rest of your lives. Now try to deserve it.
@Anonymous Word
@M Word
@Math This year’s acceptance rate is 3 percentage points, not 3%, lower than last year; 21 is roughly 15.6% lower than 24.9 (last year’s rate).
@John Too true! Fixed.
@The Real Slim Barnard chill out.
yes, we all know columbia is a very prestigious school with low acceptance rates.
yes, barnard is also a very prestigious women’s school with low acceptance rates for a women’s school.
also barnard only receives apps from women, hence the rate might be lower if if was coed.
@omg calm down everyone! seriously. obviously some of the people on here are just trolling after obamanard. bc, congrats on the acceptance rate drop, harvard, go bother your own blog, and everyone else, this is getting kind of old…
@BC '14 Yes, good. You go Glen Coco, this is what I like to see on Bwog.
@Anonymous So BC’s acceptance rate is right around (if not slightly less than) the CC early admissions rate. In that case, we should treat all CC ED admits like second-class citizens because they don’t deserve the Columbia name.
@Anonymous yes. the answer is yes.
@Wowowowow mind-fucking stat.
@Anonymous CC acceptance rate less than 10%
BC more than 20%
Hence proved BC is backdoor to CU and Barnard graduates are dumb.
@Anonymous CC acceptance rate last year was 6.4%, the second lowest in the nation, only after Harvard (6.2%).
@Anonymous failed attempt at sarcasm, or actual stupidity?
@Anonymous Keep talking, Anonymous!
@Anonymous Dramatic unexplained drop? Wonder if anyone will cover real story here: looks like DSpar’s still smarting over Barnard plummeting in the USNWR rankings.
@LOL Did you forget your tin foil hat today?
@S Chill out. This level of arrogance is disgusting. Columbia students, it’s commendable that you had the perseverance and self-discipline to make it into such a prestigious institution. Barnard women are equally as commendable. That being said, are the 93.6% rejected from Columbia and the 81% from Barnard worth nothing? Do the janitor in Plimpton Hall and the Dishwasher at John Jay not deserve equal respect for the contributions they’ve made to your education just because they are not Ivy League graduates? You people as much as you may like to believe did not singlehandedly form your future. The people you’ve encountered, the people that make this society function are equally as responsible for your success as you are. These notions of superiority and elitism are hindering your own intellectual growth. You will never be respected by others if you cannot respect others. Your education hasn’t been given to you to gloat about. It’s given to you to see problems and fix them, how are you going to see things and fix them if your head is stuck up somewhere it shouldn’t be.
@BC 2016 I couldn’t agree more. As a high school senior who was admitted to Barnard early decision, and who takes most of my senior year classes at a local university, this kind of mentality makes me wonder if choosing a prestigious school was actually the right choice. Sure, I’m just a high school senior who hasn’t spent much time on the CU or BC campus, but, from what I’ve seen so far, everyone has their heads in their asses about who goes to a better school than whom. People at this public university are so much more down to earth and, to be honest, are just as intelligent as anyone I’ve met who goes to a prestigious school, making it a much more friendly environment. What college you go to has absolutely not bearing on how successful you’re going to be, how intelligent you are, or any other indication of character, and people at public universities realize that. I hope that visiting on newly admitted students weekend will change my mind, but that’s just what I’ve observed so far.
@S I hope you won’t regret your choice, all institutions need this ideological diversity and hopefully you can help people understand that stats and schooling can comprise only so much of a successful person.
I applied RD and we’ll see how things go down ):
@S Got my rejection today, so I guess I won’t be able to meet you ever, but I really hope you have a great time!
@BC '14 You shouldn’t judge Barnard or Columbia by the comments that you read on Bwog.
@Don't worry Barnard ladies, and 99% of Columbians, are great. Stop reading bwog and go enjoy your senior year – college is going to be a blast…
@Anonymous why so many commas in the first sentence??
@Anonymous One of the best comments I’ve ever seen on Bwog.
@Anonymous I think the fact that 20 people liked this comment and no one disliked it shows that the vast majority of Columbia and Barnard students don’t have their heads up their asses, aren’t arrogant and genuinely do care about all the people who have helped them get to where they are today. In other words, I think people’s agreement with your statement proves that it is utterly untrue.
@S I’d hope, for their own sake, that they don’t have their heads stuck up their asses. It can’t be ignored though that a lot of people harbor ill will and insecurity. I don’t mean to insult the communities at Barnard and Columbia, but these silly wars on BWOG perpetuate something students of this caliber should know not to perpetuate. We’ve been raised with the notion that life and everything it embodies is a competition; but there’s a fine line between healthy competition and defamatory rambling. It takes a saint to be happy and grateful for everyone but if people don’t even try how will we accomplish anything or further society in any way (which is ultimately the goal of higher education).
@Anonymous I feel bad for my future unborn children
@Anonymous for christ’s sake, quit being so dramatic! if all your “unborn children” have to deal with is petty bickering, then count them in the lucky few.
@The real college in Morningside Heights What is Columbia College’s admissions rate?
@Anonymous are you kidding me? get over yourself
@Anonymous if bc students gloat about their admissions rate why can’t cc students?
let me rephrase that: why tell cc students to “get over themselves” when they gloat but let bc students do it simply because their rate is higher?
isn’t that offensive to both parties?
@Anonymous when you sign your name as “The real college in Morningside Heights,” that’s when you’re going to be told to get over yourself
@Anonymous obvious troll is obvious
@... (-_____________-)
@The real college in everywhere What is Harvard College’s admissions rate (we even have engineers)?
@Anonymous For legacies, the famous, or for the general population? There is a huge difference.
@Anonymous lolz harvard.
@Anonymous ummm wtf this post is about Barnard not Columbia College. Sheesh you people are self-centered.
@indignant …you people?
@oh right last year it was 6.4 percent. seems a lot lower than 21 percent.