Making sense of Barnard’s drop
Barnard didn’t fare as well as Columbia in the most recent US News and World Report rankings that were released yesterday. While Columbia held strong at number four, Barnard fell seven spots from #26 to #33.
Barnard is the last of the Seven Sisters schools on the list. It also falls below Scripps, an all-women’s college in California that is a part of the Claremont Schools, despite Barnard being the most selective women’s college in the nation.
The ranking is disappointing, especially when considering Barnard’s low admissions rate. However, when looking into the methodology behind this year’s rankings, it can be seen that the statistics are from 2010, not 2011, and therefore don’t take into account the record low 24.9% acceptance rate for the Class of 2015.
It’s also important to consider the fact that Barnard is anything but a typical liberal arts college. The rankings fail to take in account our access to New York City, as well as the complexity of the relationship with Columbia.
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember how little these rankings matter. It’s too easy to get caught up in numbers and competitions that don’t actually affect us day to day. Our classes are still awesome and interesting (hopefully), we still study with wonderful students and professors, and we live in one of the greatest cities in the world.
Barnard should join Columbia College! It is obvious and very important for both Barnard and Columbia to reach their full potential.
The male to female ratio for undergrads is crazy as things stand. That is not fair for Female Columbia College students or Barnard students.
Barnard is not able to attract the same calibre student as Columbia as things stand.
And, this is also not fair for Barnard or Columbia.
The faculty of Barnard is holding Barnard hostage. It is time for students to demand that Barnard College and Columbia College unite. We have a very pathologic situation now and we need to change it.
:l … I think not.
Oh yeah, I’m BC by the way.
There’s something strange: If you look at the “Best 400″ ranking (http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/top-400-universities-in-the-world), Columbia would come 7th in the US and 11th in the world. Yet, in the US ranking (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities) Columbia is listed as 4th. Does anyone understand this?
In the end I agree with Rebeka. This ranking takes into account many things that are important, but not necessarily for the students. It matters that people at Barnard and Columbia are highly motivated and willing to make something good in life. It also matters to be embedded in an environment rich in culture, art and science, to be able to scape and walk into the Met, the MOMA, LIncoln Center, and why not? Stroll at Central Park, and skate in winter at Bryant Park :-)
Barnard does not market itself as a national university the way Wellsley, Smith, Bryn Mahr, etc do. They also depend on Columbia and Columbia’s facilities too much.
100% true!
Barnard’s administration needs to step up and do something. We are spending well over 50k to attend this institution. We spend this money as an investment in our future, assuming that a degree from Barnard is going to get us a good job and pave the way for admission to a good grad school etc… Yes, many people might not care about the ranking and understand that it does not account for Barnard’s relationship with Columbia. Many however, will, and I fear that companies, schools abroad for instance could be among them. A lot of us also gave up offers at “higher ranked” schools to come here, we are all highly distinguished women. The ranking does not do us justice at all.
Sarah Lawrence actually pulled out of the rankings, US News and World report puts it in the “unranked” category, why can’t Barnard ask it do the same?