Hmmm . . . Just for fun.
NYC hipness draws students to Barnard? Well, more than half the student body is from the tri-state area. They already live in NYC or are in its backyard. They don’t need to go to Barnard to gain access to the Big Apple. They already have that.
My guess is that the draw to Barnard is Columbia. Last year chances of getting into Barnard were almost double your chances of getting into Columbia, and this year they were almost triple. But either way, you come out with an Ivy League degree since all Barnard degrees are also from Columbia.
Not only that, but no other women’s college offers the kind of full access to an Ivy League University and its facilities that Barnard students have to Columbia literally at their doorstep. The closest comparison is probably Scripps.