Barnard is currently an affilate Columbia undergraduate colleges with independent admission, curricula, and financials.

Students share classes, libraries, clubs, sororities, athletic fields, and dining halls with Columbia as well as sports teams.

Its 4-acre (1.6 ha) campus is located in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Morningside Heights, stretching along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets.

Barnard College alumnae include leaders in science, religion, politics, the Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, theater, and business.

[6] The college was named after Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, a deaf American educator and mathematician who later served as Columbia's president for over twenty years.

[7] Columbia's Board of Trustees repeatedly rejected Barnard's suggestion,[7] but in 1883 agreed to create a syllabus that would allow the college's students to receive degrees.

[10]: 212 When Columbia University announced in 1892 its impending move to Morningside Heights, Barnard built a new campus nearby with gifts from Mary E. Brinckerhoff, Elizabeth Milbank Anderson and Martha Fiske.

[15] Rich designed the Milbank, Brinckerhoff, and Fiske Halls, built in 1897–1898;[15] these were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

[11] Ella Weed supervised the college in its first four years; Emily James Smith succeeded her as Barnard's first dean.

[7] Jessica Finch is credited with coining the phrase current events while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s.

Between 1920 and 1974, only the much larger Hunter College and University of California, Berkeley produced more women graduates who later received doctorates.

[24] In the 1970s, Barnard faced considerable pressure to merge with male only Columbia College, which was fiercely resisted by its president, Jacquelyn Mattfeld.

[29] Joint programs for the bachelor of science and other degrees exist with Columbia University, Juilliard School, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The most popular majors at the college by 2021 graduates were:[30] The liberal arts general education requirements are collectively called Foundations.

In addition, students must complete at least one three-credit course in the so-called "Modes of Thinking" series, and fulfill other requirements.

[35] It is the most selective women's college in the nation;[36] in 2017, Barnard had the lowest acceptance rate of the five Seven Sisters that remain single-sex in admissions.

Barnard was tied for 30th for "Best Undergraduate Teaching," among U.S. liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report.

Zine collections target primarily female, default queer, intentionally of color, and gender expansive topics.

Barnard's McIntosh Activities Council organizes various community focused events on campus, such as Big Sub and Midnight Breakfast.

The event is a school-wide affair as college deans, trustees and the president serve food to about a thousand students.

[56] Big Sub: Towards the beginning of each fall semester, Barnard College supplies a 700+ feet long subway sandwich.

[58] Barnard president Debora Spar said in 2012 that "the relationship is admittedly a complicated one, a unique one and one that may take a few sentences to explain to the outside community".

[58] After Barnard rejected later merger proposals from Columbia and a one-year extension to the 1973 agreement expired, in 1977, the two schools began discussing their future relationship.

Nonetheless, Barnard students participate in the academic, social, athletic and extracurricular life of the broader University community on a reciprocal basis.

Barnard women crossing the street to enter the Columbia campus wearing shorts or pants were required to cover themselves with a long coat.

A student protest included a petition signed by 300 other Barnard women, admitting that they too had broken the regulations against cohabitating.

The judicial committee reached a compromise and the student was allowed to remain in school, but was denied use of the college cafeteria and barred from all social activities.

Barnard College has graduated many prominent leaders in science, religion, politics, the Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, theater, and business as well as acclaimed actors, architects, artists, astronauts, engineers, human rights activists, inventors, musicians, philanthropists, and writers.

Graduates include academic Louise Holland (1914),[86] author Zora Neale Hurston (1928),[87] Grace Lee Boggs, author and political activist (1935),[88] television host Ronnie Eldridge (1952),[89] Phyllis E. Grann, CEO of Penguin Putnam,[90] U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan (1924),[91] Helene D. Gayle, Spelman College's 11th President and former chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (1970),[92] Susan N. Herman, president of the American Civil Liberties Union (1968),[93] Judith Kaye, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1958),[94] Wilma B. Liebman, chair of the National Labor Relations Board (1971),[95] Laurie Anderson, musician and performance artist (1969),[96] Cynthia Nixon, actress, activist, and gubernatorial candidate (1988),[97] Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1989),[98] Amy Hwang, The New Yorker cartoonist (2000),[99] Kelly McCreary, actress from Grey's Anatomy (2003),[100] Greta Gerwig, writer and director (2004),[101] and Christy Carlson Romano, Disney Channel actress (2015).