During the 2024–2025 admissions cycle, Barnard College reported an acceptance rate of 8.84%, marking one of the most selective years in the school’s history. But a single percentage only tells us so much. How is that number calculated? And what’s actually driving it? While schools like Barnard do release some of the data behind their admissions outcomes, understanding the real story requires digging deeper. We analyze admissions data from highly selective colleges each year to help our students understand the landscape and position themselves as strategically as possible.
So where does this information come from? Most colleges and universities (but not Barnard’s older sibling Columbia, cough cough) in the U.S. complete something called the Common Data Set (CDS). The CDS was created to provide standardized, reliable data to publishers like U.S. News & World Report, the College Board, and Peterson’s for use in rankings and institutional profiles. The dataset includes many different sections, but for our purposes, we’re going to focus on just one piece of Barnard’s 2024–2025 CDS: first-time, first-year admissions.
Trend Spotting: Five Years of Barnard Admissions
Before zeroing in on this specific admissions cycle, it helps to step back and look at the broader pattern at Barnard. Like many highly selective colleges, Barnard has seen application numbers (mostly) climb steadily while admission rates continue to shrink.
| Year | Total Applicants | Number of Admitted Students | Acceptance Rate | ED Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11,836 | 1,046 | 8.84% | 25.62% |
| 2024 | 11,803 | 940 | 7.96% | 27.05% |
| 2023 | 12,009 | 1,056 | 8.79% | n/a |
| 2022 | 10,395 | 1,192 | 11.47% | 33.38% |
| 2021 | 9,411 | 1,280 | 13.60% | 25.69% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: Barnard isn’t getting any easier to get into. While Early Decision can offer a modest advantage, the ED pool itself has grown more crowded each cycle, which means that edge is smaller than many students expect.
To put yourself in the strongest possible position, you need to stand out in an extremely competitive applicant pool full of super-qualified young women. The first part of that? Making sure all your stats are up to snuff.
C1: First-Time, First-Year Admission, Applications
Let’s look at the specific data breakdowns for 2024-2025 admissions:
| First-time, first-year applicants | Total | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women (total) | 11,836 | 1,046 | 8.84% | 718 | 68.60% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Key Takeaways for Acceptance Rates:
While 8.84% isn’t the lowest acceptance rate Barnard has ever had, single-digit numbers like these are incredibly competitive and indicate that Barnard is a reach school for nearly ever applicant
Their yield rate of ~69% puts them in line with other Ivy and Ivy-adjacent schools
Barnard is hard to get into! That’s (hopefully) not really news to you, but it’s important to arm yourself with the most specific stats possible. It’s hard to build a strategic plan if you don’t know the benchmarks you need to hit or the raw numbers of who gets in and who doesn’t. And let’s reframe this a bit: an 8.84% acceptance rate means a 91.16% rejection rate. Those are tough odds, but we can help you figure out the best path forward.
C9-C2: First-Time, First-Year Profile, or Scores and Grades
Barnard is remaining test-optional for at least the next cycle, but we don’t necessarily see that continuing beyond 2026 and 2027. A lot of schools have ditched test-optional, as many institutions have found that the collegiate academic performance of students who didn’t submit scores is much lower than their submitting counterparts.
We always recommend submitting scores if you have them (and if they’re good), but let’s break down the scores and grades you need to be a competitive applicant to Barnard.
| Percent | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Submitting SAT Scores | 35% | 248 |
| Submitting ACT Scores | 15% | 109 |
| Total Submitting Scores* | 50% | 357 |
Breakdown of enrolled students who submitted test scores: *Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: 50% of enrolled students at Barnard submitted test scores when applying – and that means you probably should too!
Now, let’s take a look at the score breakdowns for each section of the ACT and SAT:
| Test | 25th Percentile | 50th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT Composite | 1480 | 1510 | 1540 |
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading + Writing | 730 | 750 | 770 |
| SAT Math | 740 | 770 | 790 |
| ACT Composite | 32 | 34 | 34 |
| ACT Math | 29 | 32 | 34 |
| ACT English | 33 | 35 | 35 |
| ACT Science | 31 | 33 | 35 |
| ACT Reading | 34 | 35 | 36 |
Why This Matters: With middle-50s of 1480-1540 and 32-34, we recommend at least having a 1500+ or 34+ to be competitive – but a 1550+ and 35+ would be much safer.
First-time, first-year students with scores in each range:
| Score Range | SAT Evidence-Based Reading + Writing | SAT Math |
|---|---|---|
| 700-800 | 91% | 94% |
| 600-699 | 9% | 6% |
| 500-599 | 0% | 0% |
| Score Range | SAT Composite |
|---|---|
| 1400-1600 | 97.17% |
| 1200-1399 | 2.83% |
| 1000-1199 | 0% |
| Score Range | ACT Composite | ACT Math | ACT English | ACT Science | ACT Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30-36 | 99.08% | 72.67% | 99.04% | 84.11% | 98.11% |
| 24-29 | 0.92% | 27.36% | 0.96% | 15.89% | 1.89% |
| 18-23 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Standardized Test Score Takeaways:
The average Barnard student has a 1510 or 34 on their standardized tests
Submitting less than a 1400 or 30 greatly reduces your chance of admission
The lower score-getters who end up at Barnard are the exception, not the rule.
You need to have as close to perfect stats as possible to be competitive for Barnard. A 1480 or 32 is in the 97th percentile for all test takers! And those are the admitted students on the lower end of the average. This level of excellence extends to GPA, as well:
The average high school GPA of all degree-seeking, first-time, first-year (freshman) students who submitted GPA was a 4.13, and 79% of applicants submitted their GPA:
| GPA Range | Percent(Students who submitted scores) | Percent(Students who did not submit scores) | Percent (All enrolled students) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 58% | 51% | 55% |
| 3.75-3.99 | 34% | 40% | 37% |
| 3.5-3.74 | 6% | 7% | 6% |
| 3.25-3.49 | 2% | 2% | 2% |
| 3.0-3.24 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Why This Matters: The majority of enrolled students had a perfect high school GPA, and students who submit test scores have higher GPAs than their test-optional counterparts.
Key GPA Takeaways:
Anything less than a perfect or near-perfect GPA greatly reduces your chance of admission to Barnard
The vast majority of enrolled students submitted their GPA – so you should too
Students admitted with a GPA less than a 3.75 are the exception, not the rule!
This pattern continues with class rank:
| Class Rank | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Top 10th of HS graduating class | 90% |
| Top Quarter of HS graduating class | 100% |
| Total submitting class rank | 30% |
Key Class Rank Takeaways:
100% of enrolled students who submitted class rank are in the top ¼ of their graduating class
Not all schools track class rank, which is why the submission number is ~30% – this is not uncommon
Being in the top 10% of your graduating class greatly helps your odds
Let’s clear this up first: the tiny slice of students showing ACT scores in the mid-20s or GPAs in the low-to-mid 3s are outliers, not a roadmap. You should not see those percentages and assume I’ve got a real shot!! The truth is, we have no visibility into who those students actually are. They could be athletes or legacies, sure, but they might be first-generation students, applicants from under-resourced schools, refugees, nationally recognized artists or activists, or students with extraordinary circumstances. The point is, you can’t reverse-engineer your odds from the exception cases – and you definitely shouldn’t plan your strategy around them.
TL;DR? For the best shot at admission, you need perfect grades and scores. That’s it.
Early Decision
Barnard has long offered a meaningful boost through Early Decision. ED admit rates have historically been noticeably higher than Regular Decision (approximately 25-30%), but that gap has narrowed over time. As more students catch on and apply ED, the math changes. A higher volume of applicants competing for the same limited number of seats inevitably drives acceptance rates down. ED can still be a smart move, but it’s not the golden ticket some students hope it will be.
| Number of ED applications | 1,694 |
|---|---|
| Number of ED acceptances | 434 |
| ED acceptance rate | 25.62% |
| Percent of admitted students accepted through ED | 41.50% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: An ED acceptance rate of 25% means it might be the right strategic choice for you if Barnard is your #1 choice. And Barnard does accept about 2/5ths of their incoming class from ED, which is a significant portion.
Regular Decision
While the CDS doesn’t have a dedicated section for RD acceptance rates, we can estimate them using the data provided. Keep in mind these are our calculations based on subtracting ED data from overall data, and may not be 100% accurate:
| Number of RD applications | 10,142 |
|---|---|
| Number of RD acceptances | 612 |
| RD acceptance rate | 6.03% |
| Percent of admitted students accepted through RD | 58.50% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: The majority of Barnard’s incoming class comes from RD, but the acceptance rate is much lower than ED. For the best competitive edge, especially if you’re a compelling candidate, ED is probably the way to go!
Waitlist
While many schools don’t publish waitlist data, Barnard does! We can say from personal experience, and from looking at these stats, getting off the Barnard waitlist is hard but nowhere near impossible:
| Students placed on waitlist | 2,055 |
|---|---|
| Percent of applicants offered a waitlist spot | 17.30% |
| Students accepting a spot on the waitlist | 1,567 |
| Students admitted off the waitlist | 148 |
| Waitlist acceptance rate | 9.44% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: Not many students are offered a waitlist spot at Barnard, and fewer still are admitted. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible!
When students land on the waitlist, reactions tend to swing wildly. Some immediately assume it’s a dead end, while others convince themselves it’s basically a soft yes. Be a realist! A waitlist decision means Barnard sees you as capable of thriving there, but they just don’t have the space right now. And while only a limited number of seats typically open up each year, that doesn’t make movement impossible. We help students navigate waitlists successfully every single cycle.
Considerations
Another tricky piece of the Common Data Set, and admissions more broadly, is the section devoted to a school’s “considerations.” Yes, there are concrete academic elements like coursework, grades, and testing. But layered on top of that are softer, less quantifiable factors that are harder to pin down and even harder to optimize for directly. In our opinion, the nebulous, vague part is where the heart of your strategy lies.
| Academic Factors | Very Important | Important | Considered | Not Considered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rigor of secondary school record | X | |||
| Class rank | X | |||
| Academic GPA | X | |||
| Standardized test scores | X | |||
| Application Essay | X | |||
| Recommendation(s) | X |
Key Takeaways for Academic Factors:
Everything but the stuff your school may not report (like class rank) or the stuff that’s optional (test scores) is very important to Barnard
While scores are “considered,” we maintain that they are very important when submitted
Getting perfect (or near perfect) grades in the hardest classes your school offers is non-negotiable
| Nonacademic Factors | Very Important | Important | Considered | Not Considered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interview | X | |||
| Extracurricular activities | X | |||
| Talent/ability | X | |||
| Character/personal qualities | X | |||
| First generation | X | |||
| Alumni/ae relation | X | |||
| Geographical residence | X | |||
| State residency | X | |||
| Religious affiliation/commitment | X | |||
| Volunteer work | X | |||
| Work experience | X | |||
| Level of applicant’s interest | X |
Key Takeaways for Nonacademic Factors:
Barnard TRACKS DEMONSTRATED INTEREST – many Ivy/Ivy-adjacent schools do not. Take advantage of that
You should take everything on this list you can control (except those listed as Not Considered) seriously. Competitive applicants have it all: impressive resumes, paid jobs, internship experience, community service work, etc.
Some of those nonacademic elements are fairly objective, such as where an applicant lives or if they’re first-gen or legacy. And you can’t really control that, so we don’t recommend stressing too much there. Others, like “personal qualities” or “talent,” are far murkier. Admissions officers are likely pulling insight from essays, recommendations, and the overall tone of an application, but there’s no exact formula for engineering something that subjective. They’re trying to read for personality fit, so make sure you feel that your values and ideals are in line with a school like Barnard.
Another thing to note is that Barnard tracks demonstrated interest. Go open another tab, like right now, and get on their newsletter list. Read that newsletter (they can see who opens it!). Sign up for a tour – and if you can’t go IRL, virtual is totally fine. Go to information sessions if they come to your high school, and email the AO a thank you note. If they don’t have information sessions, email your regional AO with thoughtful questions about the school. These are easy ways to score some points for demonstrated interest.
Okay, also, we’re not buying the idea that extracurriculars are merely “important” at a place like Barnard. For students who are truly competitive, what separates them isn’t surface-level involvement. The strongest applicants aren’t just stacking clubs or padding leadership titles. They’re pursuing focused, often niche commitments that clearly connect to their academic interests and future goals. Helping students build those kinds of compelling, differentiated profiles is literally what we do every year.
Conclusion
There’s no question that Barnard is an extremely selective institution. That’s not new information, but now you have clearer benchmarks and reference points to help you understand what competitiveness actually looks like as you set your sights on Barnard.
At the same time, numbers alone don’t tell the full story. Data can’t fully capture what Barnard values as a community, and it certainly doesn’t define you as an individual applicant. When we work with students – whether they’re legacies, applying ED, navigating recruitment, or just applying RD – our strategy is always personalized. Your interests, strengths, and goals drive the plan. There’s no single formula for getting into Barnard, and no two applicants follow the same path. And we can help you figure out your own path.
One way to increase your odds? Working with college consultants who are experts in the field and have a high rate of success getting students into Barnard. We help countless students gain admission to top universities every single year – reach out to us today to get started.