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 The
idea was bold for its time. Founded in 1889, Barnard was the
only college in New York City, and one of the few in the nation,
where women could receive the same rigorous and challenging
education available to men. The College was named after Frederick
A.P. Barnard, then the tenth president of Columbia College,
who argued unsuccessfully for the admission of women to Columbia
University. One of the original Seven Sisters, Barnard was,
from the beginning, a place that took women seriously and
challenged them intellectually. Now, with a more than 110-year
tradition as an independent college for women affiliated with
Columbia University, Barnard continues to challenge the way
its students think about themselves, their world, and their
roles in changing it.
Barnard
students reap all the benefits of a small, independent liberal
arts college - and they are also in the curricular and extracurricular
mainstream of Columbia University. Barnard maintains its own
faculty, curriculum, administration, and operating budget;
its own admissions standards; its own campus. Barnard's general
education requirements help students to analyze information,
think independently, and express themselves effectively. They
include an interdisciplinary First-Year Seminar, First-Year
English, and courses fulfilling the nine ways of knowing:
Reason and Value, Social Analysis, Historical Studies, Cultures
in Comparison, Laboratory Science, Quantitative and Deductive
Reasoning, Language, Literature, and Visual and Performing
Arts.
Students
choose a single or interdisciplinary major, or they create
their own. The junior and senior years are a time to work
especially closely with professors who are at the leading
edge of their disciplines; they serve as advisors, mentors,
and research partners. Many students do independent research
or creative work for their senior thesis. Through these experiences
and with this support, Barnard women gain the creative and
analytic skills, the discipline, and the confidence to take
on any challenge. A particularly well-prepared group, designated
as Centennial Scholars, receives stipends to conduct intensive,
often interdisciplinary, projects starting in their first
year.
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