<p>“How many LACs have “top departments,” in your mysterious metric?”</p>
<p>-There are definitely LAC’s out there that have a much bigger abundance of top departments than Barnard. The top LACs can even go toe to toe with many research U’s. Even though the US News ranking is not perfect–far from it in fact, look at how Barnard stacks up in a ranking of LACs (#29-LACs are also a much smaller group than research universities).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/libartco/tier1/t1libartco_brief.php[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/libartco/tier1/t1libartco_brief.php</a></p>
<p>Once again, Barnard’s so-called prestige comes mostly from the Columbia affiliation, not its own traits. </p>
<p>“And actually, as a student here now I’m pretty confident I can say that your back door claim isn’t true.”</p>
<p>Columbia is clearly harder to get into than Barnard. Also, Columbia’s mocking of “Barnyard” has been nothing new. Here is 2003 Fed article of a Columbia student making fun of Barnard pres. Judy Shapiro:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/cu/thefed/v2/archives/19/19.8/schapiro.html[/url]”>http://www.columbia.edu/cu/thefed/v2/archives/19/19.8/schapiro.html</a> </p>
<p>Then of course there was the Columbia U. marching band incident which you may know about…and that actually prompted a response from Barnard’s prezzy Shapiro…seems like Barnard is a little more sensitive than you imply.</p>
<p>But again, Barnard is a different type of school than NYU or Columbia. I would also agree that “quality” is a subjective term…so the issue is what one is looking for.</p>