26 Comments
Strong, bold and beautiful women take cabs
In the fall Barnard reported a record number of early decision applicants and this year’s round of regular decision applications is just as strong, apparently. Bwog is still waiting for stats on the extent to which it is also bold and beautiful. Barnard’s Media Relations Director Sun Min reports:
- Following the upward trend in recent years, Barnard College received a record-breaking 5,609 applications for the Class of 2017.
- This year’s number is a 3% increase from last year and, notably, a 31% increase from just five years ago when 4,273 applications were received.
- The college also received a record number of early decision applications, 599, a 6.8% increase from last year when we received 561 and a 53% increase from five years ago when we received 392.
- Barnard maintains its standing as the most sought-after women’s college in the U.S.
Regarding the increase Barnard’s Dean of Enrollment Management Jennifer Fondiller writes:
There are so many reasons we continue to attract more and more applicants—the College’s rising profile not only in the U.S. but internationally; our very hands-on and personal approach to recruiting which includes one-on-one interviews during a time when many schools have abandoned the practice; our hugely successful fly-in program that allows low income students to visit the campus; and of course, Barnard’s 124-year history of empowering young women poised to make their mark in New York and beyond.”
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26 Comments
@Fem Fat +1
@RoareeTheLion I wouldn’t mind an all hot-slab-o-MAN school, if you know what I mean. rwar
@Anonymous omg you guys roaree is gay everything makes sense now.
@CC '13 The fact that this “debate” comes up every time Barnard is mentioned is embarrassing.
@Meticulous The existence of Barnard is sexist and unfair. Women have higher average IQs than men, higher graduation rates from high school, and more graduate degrees. Shouldn’t the liberals be trying to help the men in their hour of need?
@you're thinking about it wrong The liberals are trying to help the men “in their hour of need”. It is easier to get accepted into any coed institution as a man, simply because less men apply. So you do have an advantage.
@Good luck... getting housing, ladies.
@Anonymous That’s what a husband is for.
HEEEEYYYYOOOO
pls dont kill me Sherry J. Wolf
@CC 14 go barnard!
@Anonymous Only Columbia, Yale, and Brown’s went up in the ivies (Harvard has yet to report their numbers.)
@Robert Don’t hate me, Barnard is a great school, with great students. But:
The notion that a girl-only school somehow empowers women is down right dumb.
The existence of Barnard is a chauvinistic idea. It means that in order for women to be successful, they must have their own system, one which doesn’t include men who will destroy their ambitions.
@Anonymous Why was the above comment removed? It makes sense.
@not quite I think that Barnard may have started as a chauvinistic idea -that women were not worthy or capable of the same education as men- but I think it has developed and flourished beyond that. Our world is nowhere near equal when it comes to the “battle of the sexes.” Not just in the workplace, but with society’s conceptions (which we of course self-perpetuate). Barnard provides a response to this society, because it lets women reach their full potential in a women’s school, and it teaches her how to do it in the real world. Here’s an example: I’m a woman, and I’m very self-confident, but I would still probably not run for class president if I was a Columbia student. Not because I doubt my ideas, not because I think that people don’t like me or that I wouldn’t be a good leader, but because of some unexplainable self-consciousness that is only present when guys are in the room. Maybe it’s some weird sexual complex, maybe it’s something else, I don’t know. But I second guess myself more around men. I’m not saying this applies to all girls, perhaps it’s just me. However at Barnard, I would definitely run for class president. This gives me the confidence that I would need to do it in the real world. I really don’t think your comment accurately describes what Barnard is about. I think it’s very empowering.
Also, the reason the comment is grey (it’s not deleted) is because when there is a difference of more than five up/down votes Bwog turns grey.
@Anonymous oh come on, that’s silly. why doesn’t history seem to matter to anyone who make these kinds of comment trying to find a ‘logical’ reason for the existence of a woman’s-only academic institution across the street from columbia?: “the existence of Barnard is a chauvinistic idea. It means that in order for women to be successful, they must have their own system, one which doesn’t include men who will destroy their ambitions.” WHAT?
from 1754 until 1983, columbia university was a privileged institute of learning exclusive to men. though founded in 1889, barnard later became an affiliated college to columbia in 1900 to provide an equivalent education to women. equivalent in the sense that there were passionate donors and educators on both side of the street who were committed to reproducing a new generation of thinkers, young ‘men’ and ‘women’ in their respective institutions who would later take their privileged education to other worthwhile pursuits. 1983 was a big year for columbia because it began to accept women into the university. barnard, which had existed for decades with its own independent administration and finances, in fact, continued to exist after this year. because, despite all the changes that happened across the street, despite all the feminists protests calling for gender equality, there were and continue to be people (mostly women!) investing in this college and the use/value/experience/etc that it provides and has long offered for women interested in an education. the legacy of gendered historical institutions IS a reality. therefore barnard exists.
@BC15 Barnard’s role as an educational institution is constantly evolving. There are plenty of reasons to choose single-sex education, beyond “women can’t take the heat, so they should stay out of the kitchen” [and yes, I realize I have just invited a sandwich-making rebuttle…eat your heart out bwog]
For women of certain faiths (myself included) an all-female living area just makes life much easier. Barnard offers women from many different cultures the opportunity to get an Ivy League education without drastically altering their lifestyles.
Secondly, over the last 5 years more women have been admitted to college than men (57% to 43% nationally, according to the NYT). Co-ed institutions have an incentive to keep their numbers 50-50 (that’s a can of heteronormative-worms that I won’t even try to open), so I don’t think it’s unfair to say that there is still a place for all-female education in America, to accomodate the qualified females who are not being offered admittance at Co-ed universities/colleges because they don’t fit into a quota.
Finally, let me just point out how much easier it is for a man to get a college education than a woman (I’m speaking globally here). I HOPE that some day Barnard won’t have a purpose. But for now, if it removes even one religious hurdle or allows one more qualified woman to get an education than would have otherwise (and by accepting a woman, allows another to take her place elsewhere, etc. etc.) I don’t think you have any right to challenge its purpose on moral grounds.
ik… tl;dr …sorry guys
@Anonymous sigh @ “ivy league education.” it’s just way too reminiscent of that whole cornell-school-of-whatever-back-door-to-an-ivy thing. barnard is great but it is not an ivy league school.
@Well... …since the Ivy League is an athletic conference (that unfortunately includes Cornell and Dartmouth) and Barnard women compete for Columbia, NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT THEY ARE AN UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE OF COLUMBIA, I’d say that….
You should just shut the fuck up.
Nobody fucking cares except insecure Columbians. Get over it, whiner.
@Anonymous ugh seriously i know it’s confusing, but barnard specifically identifies itself as an affiliated school and not as an undergraduate college of columbia. the undergraduate colleges are CC, SEAS, and GS. this is not me being an insecure columbian, this is you not having your facts straight.
@BC15 The opportunity to take all (or all but a handful…thanks-but-no-thanks on the FroSci) our classes at an Ivy League Institution = getting Ivy League Knowledge = an Ivy League Education, in my book. You can choose to look at it on a more superficial level if you would like to.
That said, I don’t know why you would want to, except to elevate yourself at the expense of….no one? Because I don’t take your patronizing tone personally. A school full of your friends, classmates, neighbors? well enjoy.
@Also @Anonymous, you have miraculously managed to skim over all of the salient points in this debate (a debate that I believe had something to do with promoting collegiate education for women?) and take it straight to the lowest-common-denominator of “my school can beat up your school” kudos sir/madame.
@Anonymous i’m not trying to elevate myself nor do i wish to do anything at the expense of my friends (because i have friends who go to barnard and believe it or not i don’t harbor archaic, social darwinist ideas about my genetic or intellectual superiority). i’m honestly just trying to clarify the columbia-barnard relationship which is so fubar it’s an embarrassment to both institutions.
@Thanks I appreciate your sentiments (genuinely, no /s intended). But let ME clarify. I didn’t say that Barnard is an Ivy League School. I said that the women here get an Ivy League education. And I stand by that statement, based on the rationale provided above. We may have to agree to disagree on that point.
But I wish you had read past that line, and that we were debating the merits of a women’s institution as a means towards greater international equality in higher education, rather than arguing semantics in the same tired circles.
@Anon It is not about an “Ivy League” education, but rather an “Ivy League” acceptance rate. The acceptance rate is all that matters. Education is a secondary consideration.
@hmm “our hugely successful fly-in program that allows low income students to visit the campus”
that’s really cool but what happens when low income students actually get in
@BC '13 As someone who hinged her attendance to Barnard on her financial aid package, I can say that Barnard is very generous with FinAid with those who really need it.
@BSGS I love to see all of the undergraduate colleges and undergraduate college affiliate(s) succeed!