Lessons Learned from Barnard Women

I came to Barnard for the first time for a tour and interview rather reluctantly. Convinced that a women’s college was a place where students marched around burning bras and hating men, I had no interest. I stepped out of the taxi with my father and a notebook full of questions that I was sure would confirm my thoughts. When I stepped through the gates I had an instantaneous terrible feeling—I could tell I was going to be wrong. The feeling only continued as I took the tour of the beautiful campus, listened to an admissions counselor speak during the information session, and interviewed with a senior who I wanted to be my best friend. But it wasn’t until I sat in on a class that I knew I would absolutely have no choice but to give in and accept that I did not, in fact, know everything.

A first-year seminar course taught by Timea Szell, Director of the Creative Writing Program.

It was a first-year seminar and the students were discussing Hamlet. A debate ensued over whether Hamlet’s mother was a symbol of female strength or of female weakness. It was so intense that I was scared one young woman was going to lunge across the oak seminar table. The professor let the students debate, only occasionally asking one of them to clarify her point. When the class ended, the students all broke into laughter and headed to Hewitt to grab lunch together. I desperately wanted to return for the next class. At the end of my day on campus I decided to apply and Barnard became my first choice.

While all of you might not have had the same gut feeling when you visited, or may not even have had a chance to visit, you can still get a feel for Barnard. When you look on the website at the students, do you envision yourself spending time with them? Can you look at the list of clubs and decide which ones you would want to join? Does our course catalog make your head spin when you think about how you will fit in all the interesting courses? When you opened that letter, what was your first thought?

I’ll leave you with one final story.

My sophomore year at Barnard I took a course entitled “Reading Barnard Writing.” It was a course entirely dedicated to reading the books Barnard alumnae had written. The syllabus: Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, and Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying. Major topics were being discussed—Greenwich Village bohemianism, sexual liberation, the rise of the ethnic American identity—and all by Barnard women. While I sat hunched over my desk attempting to write a decent paper on Eve as a feminist hero in Paradise Lost, I envisioned Zora Neale Hurston sitting out on the lawn penning early drafts of Their Eyes Were Watching God. I was in awe.

English Department Book Swap

As the semester came to a conclusion and finals loomed, Professor Sharpe, in his very unique style that always stressed love of learning over academic convention (the requirements section of the syllabus read, “The only real requirement is that you find something in this course useful to you in your own life”) announced our final assignment: create a project to present to class that is meaningful. A classmate of mine and I decided to contact as many Barnard authors as we could and requested brief interviews that we planned to compile into a sort of homemade documentary.

We began to discover patterns forming in the interviews. All of the interviews evolved into intimate conversations. They all said Barnard had an immense influence on their lives, and greatly credited the institution for their successes. They all fondly remembered professors who had made an impact. But amongst all these commonalities, one struck me as particularly powerful. When discussing their favorite things about Barnard, all the women had virtually the same answer. Their favorite things about Barnard were the women studying beside them.

Each writer, as writers do, coined this sentiment in slightly different ways. Cathy Horyn called it spunk. Erica Jong said they had a sparkle, a pizzazz. Mary Gordon said they were simply the best women around. Anna Quindlen called them downright inspiring. I remember sitting listening to these women speaking. Suddenly, I was not in awe only for their beautiful writing, I was in awe of the “Barnard Woman” they described. This woman seemed vaguely familiar, the woman I had dreamt of being while I read the Barnard brochure anxiously awaiting my interview in the Admissions office. I knew she was who I wanted to be, I just didn’t know how I would get there.

Looking at the friends that I made at Barnard and who we all are today, I can confidently say that we have become “Barnard Women.” Barnard women are brave and independent, fiercely intelligent, hard-working, creative, and we know how to have fun. When I meet another Barnard alumna I always feel an instant connection.

They have all become downright inspiring women.

Now the question is, will you?

Alexandra

Why is Barnard a women's college? Does it really matter?

Barnard Commencement 2012

When I meet with prospective students and their families I often get asked, “What was your least favorite thing about Barnard?” It is a difficult question but also a good one. I have two answers that I usually give.

1. Barnard is incredibly hard. I mean really, really hard. At Barnard you will read more than you thought humanly possible, write so many papers your fingers will literally ache, and stay up into the wee hours trying to figure out what exactly it is your professor wants from you. However, this will eventually lead to a feeling of accomplishment that will make it all worth it. And it will lead to your incredible growth as a scholar and as a woman.

2. Sometimes I get sick of defending the fact that I went to a women’s college.

My extended family didn’t get it, my father was thrilled because he thought this meant less college men interacting with his little girl, and my friends just thought it was weird. I myself wasn’t entirely sure if I’d love the all-female aspect of Barnard, but I loved so many other parts of the college that I figured I’d give it a try. Throughout my four years my appreciation for single sex education grew, and looking back I cannot imagine attending a school that was not a women’s college.

A discussion group at the Barnard Center for Research on

Women’s 2013 S&F Conference

We focus a lot on all the ways that Barnard is not your traditional women’s college. Due to our close relationship, both physically and institutionally, with Columbia, it can often feel like a co-ed school. We focus on the “normal” social life you will have, the number of men in our classes and on our campus, and how you can make Barnard as much of a women’s college experience as you’d like. All these things are true, and they all do make Barnard incredibly unique, but let’s not let this take away from the fact that we are a women’s college, and there are some completely amazing things that go along with that.

First, you will never have to defend your choices at Barnard. We assume that you will figure out how to balance your career and being a mother if that is the path you decide to take. We assume that you will become a politician, a CEO, a chemist, a computer programmer if that is what you so choose. We know that you will be able to sit at a boardroom table as the only woman and speak your mind.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of a women’s college is that a huge percentage of our faculty are women. The chair of our economics department is a woman. The chairs of our biology and chemistry departments are women. This is hugely helpful for the women who attend Barnard and hope to move forward into a field where women are grossly underrepresented. You will have women to model your careers after. It also happens to be pretty inspiring.

Barnard College students traveled to Johannesburg facilitate the 2011 Young Women’s Leadership Workshop and participate in the Global Symposium “Women Changing Africa.” © Zute Lightfoot

You don’t need to be breaking metaphorical glass ceilings in order to reap the benefits of a women’s college. I was an English major at Barnard. Women have been studying English for decades. Regardless of if you want to be a chemical engineer or a stay at home mom, there is something unique about studying at an institution that has the singular goal of educating and empowering women. Speakers who come to speak at Barnard come to speak to an auditorium full of women. Our career development office focuses on placing women in the workforce. The Athena Center works to foster women’s leadership. At Barnard women are the default setting, and it’s pretty refreshing.



I was at a college fair recently when a father of a junior prospective student came up to me and said, “I don’t get it. If there are men in your classes, men in your library, men all around your campus, then why are you a women’s college? Does it really matter?”

My resounding answer is yes. Yes it does matter. It matters an incredible amount. I hope you will come to Barnard and experience that for yourself. I can promise in four years you will be answering that question in the exact same way.

Alexandra

Congratulations! And welcome to Barnard.

About six years ago, when acceptance letters still came by mail and Facebook was a world almost exclusively inhabited by college students, I drove ten miles an hour behind the mailman as he made his way through my suburban Chicago neighborhood. In that large USPS envelope that he handed me with an understanding look of confusion on his face was the answer I had been agonizing over for a year; I had been admitted to Barnard, and it truly felt as if with that offer, the life I had dreamed of for myself was finally beginning.   

You have all been chosen from the largest and most talented pool of applicants Barnard has ever seen. As our staff listened to your teachers rave, marveled at the incredible organizations you founded and led, read about the amazing instances where you stepped up and majored in unafraid, we felt awestruck, inspired, and so excited to meet you. You have all done incredible things in the communities you live in, and we cannot wait to see the impact you will surely have on Barnard’s campus.

So now you’ve done it. You have been admitted. What you thought would be the hardest part is over. Barnard wants you. Hopefully you have taken time to celebrate with your friends and family, have taken what may feel like the first deep breath in over a year, and have given yourself a great big pat on the back. Now the power is in your hands and you simply have to decide if Barnard is the place for you.

The prospect of figuring out where to spend your next four years is daunting, but we are hoping we can help. If you have the opportunity to come for one of our Admitted Student Open House events in April, I really encourage you to go online and register. Open House is an opportunity to visit campus free from college admissions fears you may have had during your college tours, and a chance to focus on what really matters. In two jam-packed days you will meet the other amazing young women who will be your future classmates, you will listen to current students, faculty members, alumnae, and support staff speak about this special place, you will tour campus and our neighborhood to see what it would really be like to live and go to school in New York City, you will spend the night with a current student in our dorms, and you will sit in on a class of your choice.

And, perhaps most importantly, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. Questions that will be hugely helpful in making this decision. The entire Office of Admissions staff will be on hand to share information with you and hopefully guide you through this overwhelming process. You will leave Open House exhausted and armed with more information than you’d ever need to know about Barnard. Hopefully, you’ll leave knowing that Barnard is the place for you.

We know that coming to campus for Open House isn’t necessarily going to be possible for all of you, but rest assured that there are ways to learn about Barnard that don’t involve an airplane or train. If you won’t be able to visit us for our events we are still available to answer your questions via email. This blog will be a place where you can read about various topics you might want to learn more about. You are welcome to email barnardstudent@gmail.com with questions, and current Barnard students will get back to you. Join the Barnard College Class of 2018 Facebook page to meet your future friends and classmates. 

While on this journey do not be afraid to ask the tough questions. We want you to spend the month of April really thinking about the big picture. Close your eyes and try to imagine where you see yourself this September. Do you see yourself wandering into Riverside Park with a book and a cup of Joe’s coffee? Do you see yourself meeting in Hungarian Pastry Shop with your English professor to discuss your first literary analysis assignment? Do you see yourself surrounded by brilliant driven young women in the center of one of the most exciting cities in the world?

I started this post by saying that being admitted to Barnard made me feel like my life was finally beginning. While this certainly sounds dramatic, it ended up being rather true. College is an opportunity to do things you never thought you would do and become the person you always thought you would be. Who do you want to be for the next four years? Who do you want to have become in forty?

We hope you’ll let us help you get there.

With warmest congratulations,

Alexandra