Barnard Transfer Acceptance Rate and Requirements — 2024

For those applying as first-year applicants, Barnard College has a single-digit acceptance rate. The standards for this Columbia-affiliated women’s college have reached full-blown Ivy League levels. More promising for prospective applicants is the fact that Barnard remains an extremely transfer-friendly school. In fact, they ultimately accept an encouraging 150-250 transfers per year. This blog will share the Barnard transfer acceptance rate as well as other essential pieces of information like the Barnard transfer deadline, the transfer application requirements, the Barnard College transfer decision date, and much more.

Barnard Transfer Acceptance Rate

Below we present the most current available Barnard transfer acceptance rate as well as historical data.

For entry in the fall of 2022, there were 1,011 transfer applicants and 250 individuals were accepted. This means that the Barnard transfer acceptance rate is 24.7%. For entry in the spring of 2022, there were an additional 171 applicants, 47 of whom were admitted for a slightly higher 27.5% mark.

When trying to get the complete picture of how difficult it is to transfer into a given school, it is important to also look at historical data. Some colleges have wild fluctuations in transfer acceptance rates from year to year. As you can see, the acceptance rate usually hovers between 22% and 28%.

Historical transfer rates are as follows:

Barnard Transfer Application Deadline

The college offers a fall as well as a spring transfer option. The Barnard transfer deadline for fall applicants is March 1. The deadline for spring applicants is November 1.

Barnard Transfer Application Requirements

The Barnard transfer application requirements are as follows:

• Completed Common App for Transfer, including Writing Supplement
• Final high school transcript
• Official college transcripts
• Course descriptions in a Word document
• SAT or ACT scores (optional in 2023)
• College Report & Mid-Term Report
• One letter of recommendation from a college instructor (who taught you within the last year)
• Relevant financial aid documents

Barnard Transfer Acceptance Rate (Continued)

Students who have the best chance to gain admission to Barnard have done the following:

• Earned between 24-60 college credits.
• Earned exceptional grades at a community college or 4-year university.
• Pursued relevant (and rigorous) coursework. As the college states: “To strengthen your profile as a transfer student and ensure that you will be more competitive in our applicant pool, we recommend selecting courses in college that might be transferable to a liberal arts and sciences college like Barnard.”

Barnard Transfer GPA

While there is no official minimum GPA to be considered at Barnard, we find that students with a 3.75 or better have the strongest chance of earning admission.

Barnard Transfer Writing Supplement

All transfer applicants must respond to three required (and one optional) prompts:

• Required: Please provide a statement (250 words minimum) that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve.
• Required: Our backgrounds and experiences shape how we navigate the world and see ourselves. Tell us about when, where, or with whom you feel your most authentic, powerful self. How might Barnard College further cultivate this version of you? (300 word max)

Barnard Transfer Acceptance Rate (Continued)

• Required: If you could plan and lead a semester-long college seminar, what academic topic would you choose and why? (300 word max)
• Optional: Barnard College’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion mission statement says “Our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity has the potential to disrupt and transform entrenched practices and thinking.” In what ways have you challenged ideas, practices, or spaces? What did you learn from these experiences? (2000 character max)

Barnard Transfer Decision Date

The Barnard transfer decision date for spring enrollment occurs on a rolling basis after December 1. Fall applicants are notified after May 1, also on a rolling basis.

Final Thoughts – Barnard College Transfer Acceptance Rate

In conducting a holistic review of your application, the Barnard admissions staff seeks to answer the following questions:

• Why are you interested in transferring to Barnard?
• Are you academically prepared for Barnard’s rigorous classes?
• What sort of interests do you have that you will bring to the Barnard community?
• How will you impact your classmates and positively contribute to the living and learning community of our school?

Ultimately, the admissions committee looks for “students of proven academic strength who exhibit intellectual voracity and strong potential for further scholarly growth.” If that sounds like you, Barnard could very well be within reach.

If you are 100% committed to leaving your current college, you’ll want to apply to other schools in addition to Barnard College. Even if you have a 4.0, admission into Barnard is far from a guarantee, so you’ll want to create a balanced list of institutions that include safety schools.

If you are looking for information on how to apply to Barnard as a first-year student, you may find the following blogs to be of interest:

• How to Get Into Barnard

Those searching for application info on other institutions may wish to visit our Dataverse pages/blogs:

• Transfer Admissions Deadlines
• Transfer Acceptance Rates