Barnard College
What Barnard College's own numbers say, from its Common Data Set 2025-26.
See your odds at Barnard College →All 4 insights at Barnard College PRO
Early DecisionBarnard College
Barnard College's ED number is inflated.
33% of Early Decision applicants get in, but that pool includes recruited athletes and legacies, admitted at far higher rates. Without them, our estimate is about 27%. Everyone else: 6.4%.
ED, as reported33%
ED, without hooks (estimate)≈27%
Everyone else6.4%
Source: Barnard College's Common Data Set 2025-26; hooked share is an estimate (A12)
Getting harderBarnard College
Getting into Barnard College is 1.4× harder than in 2018.
The admit rate fell from 14% (2018-19) to 10% (2025-26).
2018-1914%
2025-2610%
Source: Barnard College's Common Data Set 2025-26
MoneyBarnard College
Barnard College meets 100% of need.
The average need-based grant is $72,461 a year, against tuition of $73,120.
Average grant$72k
Tuition$73k
Source: Barnard College's Common Data Set 2025-26
Early DecisionBarnard College
68% of Barnard College's class is filled in Early Decision.
That leaves about 226 seats for 8,989 applicants outside ED.
Admitted Early Decision68%
Everyone else32%
Source: Barnard College's Common Data Set 2025-26
9 more things the data says PRO
- ED applicants were admitted at 33%, against 6.4% for everyone else: 5.2 times the rate.
- 49% of applicants applied without a test score, but only about 46% of the class enrolled without one.
- Early Decision filled about 68% of the 2025-26 first-year class, more than 89% of similar colleges.
- After ED, 226 of 702 seats were left for 8,989 other applicants: about one seat for every 40.
- The admit rate has moved down steadily, from 13.9% in 2018-19 to 10.1% in 2025-26. If the trend holds, expect about 8.1% in 2026-27.
- 67% of admitted students chose to enroll, higher than every similar college.
- It reports meeting 100% of financial need for first-years who have need.
- 1,644 students stayed on the waitlist and 150 were admitted from it (9.1%).
- Applications rose 32% from 2018-19 to 2025-26 (7,897 to 10,426), faster than 53% of colleges here.
What students say PRO
From students' own posts on Reddit and admissions forums: self-reported, unverified, never used in your odds.
- Of 10 admits who named a round, 7 applied Regular Decision, 2 Early Decision and 1 Early Action.
- About 12 admits had a politics, debate or Model UN focus, often as captain or president.
- About 11 admits did research or a field-related internship, from labs and policy nonprofits to museums.
- About 7 admits had serious writing or publishing work: published pieces, magazines, op-eds or creative writing.
- About 5 admits founded something: a nonprofit with chapters, a magazine, a civics group or an AI startup.
- Students report waitlist calls and emails start in early May, a priority call is a good sign, and the waitlist can run to August.
- Students say an ED deferral keeps a real chance in regular decision, since Barnard reportedly defers only about 10%.
- Barnard has no merit aid and is need-aware for waitlisted, international and transfer applicants.
Every number, year by year: Barnard College on Open College Data. Something wrong? Suggest a correction.