<p>“I’ve heard that many at Columbia and NYC in general look down on Barnard graduates.”</p>
<p>Why would people in NYC in general look down on the second most selective liberal arts program in the area? I’ve lived most of my life in and just outside NYC, and frankly it would be unusual to hear anything of the kind. That is not a sentiment one hears here. Quite the contrary, in actuality it is highly respected here. People who have heard of it but don’t really have firsthand knowledge associate it with Columbia, and most people who did not themselves attend Columbia have only the vaguest notion, if at all, that there’s any distinction to be made.</p>
<p>“Barnard is a great LAC regardless of its affiliation with Columbia”.
Maybe, but that’s a little like speculating on whether my body would still be great without my left arm. The affiliation is an integral part of the deal if you come to Barnard, and everyone knows it. </p>
<p>Everyone, that is, except US News. If you want a rating of Barnard as if it were a stand-alone without the affiliation, that’s what US News does. Though I believe they underrank it even on that basis, for a few reasons. But if one just looks at the difference between their overall ranking and their own selectivity ranking, it is clear applicants are finding value there beyond what they are evaluating. A good chunk of that extra value comes from the affiliation.</p>
<p>“Some tell me that Barnard is simply another undergrad school in Columbia like the engineering school/arts and science. However this seems unlikely because you apply separately to Barnard, the curricula are different, there are different sports teams, etc.”</p>
<p>1) Barnard varsity athletes play on Columbia sports teams, not separate ones.
2)The curricula at columbia SEAS and columbia college are yet more different.</p>
<p>So these are not the reasons, yet it is true that Barnard is not identically another undergrad school exactly like SEAS and Columbia College are, because those colleges are literal colleges of the university and Barnard is set up as an affiliate college of the university, with separate adminstration, trustees and endowment. Nevertheless, in practice it functions within the context of the university umbrella.</p>