Haverford vs. Barnard vs Smith

calmom
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 11:34:36 +0000

Re post #15:

Looking at the stats of admitted students to compare schools really isn’t helpful – Barnard is very holistic in admissions and seems to greatly value diversity of background – my daughter’s test scores were terrible - 27 ACT - but she graduated at the top of her class. My daughter was probably admitted because of quirks in her background - she attended a performing arts high school and spent a semester as a foreign exchange student in Russia— she also had a strong GPA but far fewer APs than many student, because of the impact her half-year abroad had on course scheduling, and also weak STEM offerings at her artsy high school. But the point is-- the ad com wasn’t looking at her test scores, they were looking at her essay about her experience living in Russia. And they were assembling a class full of diverse, interesting, and often worldly students. These are not students who prioritized studying for standardized tests. You can look at the Barnard results’ threads and see that there are plenty of very high stat kids who get turned away.

In fact, I’ve been watching the Barnard forum for more than 10 years now–and while I avoid weighing in on “chances” threads, I can always tell which ones are the most likely to get in by the way they describe their EC’s.

Also, if your daughter wants to find clubs and activities on campus, she’ll find them. It’s just that It won’t be a situation where there is some event on campus and every student on her dorm floor is attending it – because there is so much to do, on campus and off, that the students are likely to be going different ways and doing different things.

And keep in mind that “off campus” includes all the cafes and shops immediately adjacent to the campus – whenever I visited and walked with my daughter down Broadway we’d run into people she knew at just about every street corner Physically that is not part of the campus, but it definitely has the feel of being part of the campus.

All that being said, however, I’m not sure that Barnard would be a good fit for your introverted daughter. You know that essay prompt, “majoring in unafraid”? – to me that really captures something quintessential about Barnard – and while I think an introvert could thrive at Barnard, I do think the student needs to be proactive and take initiative.