Many questions about Barnard

monydad
Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:55:38 +0000

The applicant would be inclined to include mention of Columbia University in their B.A. education line of the resume, because Barnard College does not issue degrees, and their degree was issued and conferred by Columbia University.

However I suggest applicants neglect this technicality and just say Barnard College.
When I was interviewing people, years before I knew anything about this, I interviewed a Barnard kid and I thought it was really weird that she wrote Barnard College, Columbia University. Everyone who is interviewing a certain strata of applicants is aware of Barnard and aware of Columbia. You would have to be closer to the issue than most people are to know that the degrees of Barnard college students are actually issued by Columbia University and Barnard does not issue degrees. To anyone who knows of the two institutions but does not know about the degree thing, it just seems odd that they are also mentioning Columbia. Sort of like what pbr was saying,but the other way around, it seems like they are feeling the need to hide behind Columbia’s name which is odd since Barnard is prestigious in itself.

What I believe now is the case is that most of these people are not hiding behind anything, rather they are just being accurate, because Barnard College does not issue the degree, and also this is how they are told to write it. All good points, but I think they really would be better off just writing Barnard College. Otherwise some employers may be left the way I was, scratching my head and wondering about the applicant. Surely you don’t want to be in the position of explaining the arcana of the Barnard Columbia relationship to a would-be employer. Or having them arrive at negative conclusions on their own.