Barnard is an all women’s college in New York City. There is a huge sense of community and there has been a 60% increase in applications over the past five years. Barnard students can take classes at nearby Columbia University, but steer clear of writing about Columbia in your supplement. The acceptance rate for the class of 2024 was just under 11%. We’re breaking down their supplements below. Please note that the last question is optional, which is a trap. There is no such thing as an optional supplement when a school’s acceptance rate is 11%. It’s crucial that you submit a response to all three prompts.
Required: What factors encouraged your decision to apply to Barnard College and why do you think the college would be a good match for you? (300 Words)
Great phrasing, Barnard! Let’s focus on the word match. Most supplements ask what you’ll gain by attending X school, but Barnard’s phrasing is slightly different. They are asking about the overlap between yourself and Barnard, which we like to think of as a Venn diagram.
A lot of people think that a short supplement is an easy supplement, which is not true. This is an abbreviated version of the “Why Us” prompt, which means that you should do all of your research before you start writing. Your goal is to prove that there is a strong link between Barnard’s offerings and your interests, AND that you’ll be an asset to the community, so be sure to set aside a lot of time to dive into the website.
There are two primary aspects of life at Barnard that should be included in your supplement: your academic interests and the extracurricular activities that you plan to join.
Academics:
Start by looking at the list of majors and minors offered at Barnard. Ideally, you’ll have a general idea of what you might like to study. Instead of going through the list alphabetically, you should avoid topics that you know aren’t for you and do deep dives into the majors that sound interesting. The major that you pick should be related to coursework in high school that you did well in and truly enjoyed. This is the best way to portray yourself as someone who will be entering Barnard with a clearly defined academic plan. With that being said, should you get in, you can major into whatever you want to. But for the purposes of this writing supplement, you need to pick something that correlates to the classes that you’ve gotten A’s in.
Once you’ve decided on a major, read through the entire course catalogue. Let’s say that you pick Economics. You should now identify 1-2 classes from the catalogue that you’d like to take and make sure that they’re upper-level classes. Write about WHY you want to take them. Because you could take ECON 101 at any college, you want to pick something that is more Barnard specific. You might write about ECON 2010: The Economics of Gender, but only if you’re already familiar with the subject matter. A good reason for wanting to take this class might be the independent study that you did on the gender earning gap or a book that you read about occupational segregation.
When it comes to finding reasons for wanting to take certain classes, we like to pick courses that our clients are already (at least) slightly familiar with, but would like to learn more about. Think about classes you’ve taken, books you’ve read, jobs, and internships to find your reasoning.
While you’re still on the homepage of your major, look through the list of professors. This might require a second Google tab, but research their past and current works until you find an area of their expertise that aligns with your personal resume. Write about why you’d like to be their research assistant, and explain what you’d bring to the table as a new addition to their team.
Extracurricular Activities:
Next up, it’s time to write about how you’ll be spending your time outside of the classroom. We mentioned earlier that Barnard is a tight-knit community, and with that comes an array of student clubs and organizations that students love to get involved with. Barnard refers to these organizations as micro-communities, and you should look through the list until you find something that aligns with your extracurricular activities from high school. Yes, this means that you can’t write about Barnard’s community garden if you are not already doing something similar now. But don’t worry, once you get in you can join any club you want. If you are a writer, HerCampus might be a good fit. If you are the president of your high school, you might want to look for a role in Barnard’s student government association. Anything that you pick should make sense within the context of the rest of your application, and you should explain how your past experiences make you a good fit.
If this sounds like a lot to fit into 250 words, that’s because it is. Once you have all of the hard facts, craft a narrative around the information. Your supplement should not read like a bullet-pointed list of Barnard’s offerings. Instead, weave details about yourself in with aspects of Barnard to show how you’re a perfect match.
Required: At Barnard, academic inquiry starts with bold questions. What are some of the bold questions you have pondered that get you excited, and why do they interest you? Tell us how you would explore these questions at Barnard. (300 Words)
Wow. We are usually huge fans of Barnard’s supplement but asking a teenager to name a bold question is tough. There are a lot of ways to mess this one up. There are probably more ways to mess this up than to get it right. Maybe next time Barnard should test this one on a few teenagers to see how they define “bold.” Anyway, here’s how we’ll be approaching this with our clients:
We’ll start by reading this part of the prompt: “Tell us how you would explore these questions at Barnard” which means “What resources would you use to at Barnard to answer your bold question?”
Let’s start by discussing bold questions. You could say, “What are dreams?” or “If all the worlds a stage, where does the audience sit?” or “How do I prove I really exist?”– but let’s hold back. These “deep” questions are terrible because they are questions that aim to be profound but miss the mark because they don’t get to the important part of the prompt—the exploration of Barnard.
That’s why we think this prompt is so tricky: asking teenagers to ponder deep questions makes them feel compelled to prove that they are deep, otherworldly, and unique thinkers. And in the quest to seem profound and insightful, really cringy things happen. You have to talk to or know exactly 1 teenager to know that this is true.
So let’s simplify this and try to think of ANY question that you would like to answer, and then find offerings at Barnard that will help you do so.
Figure out your question.
The easiest and most risk-averse thing to do here is to pick something that is related to the major that you wrote about in the first supplement, and then find a question in that neighborhood. For example, if you wrote about wanting to major in computer science, you might tackle a question that is related to machine learning or artificial intelligence. You would then need to find resources at Barnard, aka professors who could work with and classes that you could take, that would help you answer your question about AI or machine learning.
Another option is to pick something that is unrelated to your major. This will add another dimension to your application, and this is the route that we will likely take with our TKG clients. If your question is about languages, you might look to professors from the Italian, French, and German departments. If your question is about a certain type of Gothic architecture, you could start in the Art History and Architecture programs and look for professors and courses that will inch you closer to answering your burning question.
Whatever route you choose, you need to paint a scene. How are you getting to the bottom of your question? Remember that your supplements are all being read together, and this prompt will add color to your application by highlighting one of your unique interests. Draw the reader into the scene by making it an exciting read!
Optional: Pick one woman — an historical figure, fictitious character, or modern individual — to converse with for an hour and explain your choice. Why does this person intrigue you? What would you talk about? What questions would you ask them? (300 Words)
FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK: as we mentioned earlier, this prompt is NOT optional.
In a slight change from last year, Barnard has added “modern individual” to the list of women to choose from. It seems like simply saying “pick one woman” would work, but okay.
Unnecessary list of types of women aside, this is a fun prompt that we love. Instead of choosing a woman first, start backwards and make a list of your interests, hobbies, and passions. Anything that you geek out over should work, UNLESS IT IS REPRESENTED OR MENTIONED ELSEWHERE IN YOUR APPLICATION. Look over your activities, resume, common app essay, and your first two supplements. If something is listed there, do not write about it here. You should write about something new and exciting in order to show Barnard that you a multidimensional person with dynamic and unique interests.
Being genuine is key, so don’t even try to pick something that you think will make you **sound** smart. You need to already be familiar with the topic (hence us asking you to make a list of your interests) to be able to figure out what you’re going to talking to your woman about.
Let’s say that during your free time you love reading and researching raw food recipes, Broadway musicals, and hydroponics. You would then work backwards to find a notable woman in your chosen field. Yes, this research might take a while. And you might need to allocate a sentence or two of BRIEF biography on your chosen woman. But choosing a person first is problematic because you’ll be far too likely to choose someone super mainstream, or worse yet someone problematic in an effort to take a stance or make some waves. Trust us, now is not the time to pick someone controversial in an effort to stand out.
By now, you have your topic and your conversation partner. But don’t forget to explain what you would talk about and what questions you might ask. Two things to keep in mind: you are not ~grilling~ this woman, you are having a conversation with back and forth, and the questions and specific topics that you broach are your opportunity to flex on your own knowledge. Instead of wasting space on surface-level corporate interview questions, go deep and tackle what you’re dying to learn more about.
We are setting goals with our TKG clients to have their common app essays done by August 1st. This is because writing supplements take an incredibly long time, and they require research and thoughtful structure. While the type of writing is different, they require just as much time as the common app essay. They’re also just as important. This blog post is meant to demystify the supplement, but let us know if you need more help.
If you’re ready to start working with someone one-on-one, contact us here.