Updated February 11, 2025

Barnard College – Acceptance Rate and Statistics

What is attending Barnard College like?

Set in the heart of New York City, Barnard College is a historically women’s college known for its challenging coursework and famous location, along with alumni like Greta Gerwig, Ntozake Shange, Martha Stewart, and Zora Neale Hurston.

Barnard also sits under the umbrella of Columbia University, which means that students from Barnard College, Columbia College, and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science often cross-register in classes and are integrated in many of their social lives, sports, and extracurricular activities.

Barnard is unique amongst smaller liberal arts colleges because along with offering the environment and resources of a historically women’s college, it’s also connected with Columbia, a huge research university with many resources. For many students, it’s seen as the best of both worlds.

Barnard is one of the so-called ‘Seven Sisters’, a group of private historically women’s colleges.

Barnard College 2023-2024 Admissions Data

Barnard College Admissions Statistics

Over the last few years, Barnard’s acceptance rate has hovered around the 10% mark. If you want to apply, you can choose from two deadlines outlined on their site: Early Decision and Regular Decision. Early decision is binding, meaning that if you apply early and are accepted, you’ll be required to attend Barnard College.

Note that Barnard admits a lot of students in the Early Decision round, over half of their incoming class. With a smaller number of applicants and much higher acceptance rate for the Early Decision round, you could have a much better chance of getting admitted if you apply early.

2023-2024 Barnard College (Class of 2027) Acceptance Rate

Admission Cycle	Number of applicants	Number admitted	Acceptance rate
Early Decision	1,694	585	34%
Regular Decision	10,142	460	4.5%
All Applicants	11,836	1,046	9%

Barnard College Acceptance Rate History

Year	Number of applicants	Number admitted	Acceptance rate
2023-2024 (Class of 2028)	11,836	1,046	9%
2022-2023 (Class of 2027)	12,009	1,056	8.8%
2021-2022 (Class of 2026)	10,395	1,192	11.5%
2020-2021 (Class of 2025)	9,411	1,280	13.6%
2019-2020 (Class of 2024)	9,320	1,097	11.8%

Barnard Class of 2028 Middle 50% score range of admitted students (25th and 75th percentiles)*

SAT Math	730–780
SAT ERW	723–770
ACT Math	28–34
ACT Reading	34–36
ACT English	34–35
ACT Science	31–34
ACT Composite	32–134
SAT Composite	1450–1520

*What does this mean? The middle 50% score range refers to students from the 25th to the 75th percentile of admitted students. So if 100 students were admitted and we ranked their SAT scores from lowest to highest, we’d be looking at 50 students’ stats (from student 25 through student 75).

What is Barnard looking for?

Barnard offers plenty of helpful admissions advice on their website. They mention their holistic and contextual application review process, and emphasize that each Barnard student is “passionate, curious, driven, empathetic, and brilliant.” Along with these traits, Barnard mentions the following questions they ask of Barnard applicants (These questions can even help to inform your application and essays):

Are you academically prepared for Barnard’s rigorous classes?
What sort of interests do you have that you will bring to the Barnard community?
How will you impact your classmates and positively contribute to the living and learning community of our school?

You can demonstrate your unique perspective through your essays, academic profile, letters of recommendation, and activities.

Other colleges you may be interested in:

College Name	Number of applicants (Class of 2028)	Number admitted (Class of 2028)	Acceptance rate (Class of 2028)
Columbia University	60,248	2,319	3.9%
New York University	118,000	9,440	8%
Wellesley College	8,900	1,157	13%

PrepMaven can help you in the admissions process

Wondering how to get into Barnard College? PrepMaven can help you along the way. Whether you’re looking to boost your test scores, write a killer personal statement, or improve your GPA, we can be a helpful resource. With tutors who are graduates of top universities, valedictorians, National Merit Finalists, and National AP Scholars, we’re here to help you no matter what step you’re at in the admissions process.

Give us a call at 609-945-2264 or fill out our website form to learn how our flexible packages can work for you.

Alexis

Alexis is a tutor, writer, and producer. She graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. As a tutor, she loves to help students explore their unique stories and share their personal journeys through impactful essay writing.

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Barnard College - Acceptance Rate and Statistics