Hello friends!
I was a deferred ED applicant for the class of 2020 who was ultimately accepted during the RD process. As far as I remember from scouring the Barnard website when I was in the same boat years ago, Barnard deferred about 10% of the 787 people who applied ED. In my time, I’ve met two other people who were deferred and then accepted, and although I’m sure there’s more, I doubt there’s very many. Not to get your hopes down, but it is true that more people who are deferred ultimately get rejected rather accepted. That being said, don’t give up hope, but open yourself up to other schools.
Another thing to say, I highly highly recommend thinking very strongly if Barnard is what you want. As soon as I was accepted, I accepted my offer, even though I had been accepted other schools that I had loved but Barnard was my original. Ever since my first days, where I had to fight with administration over their screw ups with classes, to a terrible roommate situation my first year thanks to their matching process, to the incredible lack of good psychological services, to the stress inducing policies involving finals and move out, and I could go on, I find myself completely hating Barnard and every aspect of it. The point of this is not to scare any of you or to say that Barnard isn’t for you because I know many people who are in love with it. But if you are one of the ones to be accepted, do not just go because it was what you originally wanted. I’ve had the most miserable two past years of life and I don’t know if I’m even going to finish at Barnard.
@mayaic4 I’m sorry you’ve had such a terrible experience with Barnard, Ours has been precisely the opposite. My advice is that you do seek to transfer since it seems that you have a very negative attitude and also seem to blame the college for almost every aspect of your college experience, including finals and “move out,” two things that are not that different from any other university.
College should be an enjoyable experience. College is also a time to accept responsibility. In your case, accept responsibility for making a poor decision and move on. Blaming the institution isn’t helpful or that impressive.
@mayaic4 thank you for your thoughtful and honest answer. And don’t listen to other judgmental comments. I thought it was very helpful to hear your experiences and definitely gives food for thought for deferred ladies. I have known of two recent Columbia students who were pretty miserable there. Both stayed but took different ways to change their environment. One went to london for junior year. The other took a single room on Broadway to get away from roommates who were horrible and threw herself into finding a job. Shes now got a great first job on the west coast and is really happy. It is really important for colleges to provide good services to students and im sorry you are having this experience. Perhaps there are good clinics in the area where you can get some support. And thank you!
Ah yes, let me just not blame the college for things that are their fault. Great advice. While finals and move out are parts of every college, Barnard’s policies are not the same as everyone else’s and do make an already stressful time more stressful. I have learned of much better policies from conversations with my older sister who went to a public state university and completely agrees that many of Barnard’s policies are complete baloney. I also noticed that you only picked the easy things to target instead of the actual problems tha The fact is that you have no idea how I have attempted to change my college experience for myself and how Barnard has been completely unhelpful and unsupportive in the two years I’ve been there. I was providing my experience for potential students because I never see negative experiences posted but I know plenty of people at Barnard and Columbia who are miserable. Thank you for your blame and unsolicited advice, but as I’m assuming that you had a family member who had a good experience and you yourself did not go to these schools, please do not be a self-righteous parent to me on the internet.
Edited for language
ED
Hey everyone! Can’t believe it’s March and that decisions come out shortly. Is Barnard still your top school? It is for me! Have you guys sent other supplementary material?
@moxi99 It is for me too. I’ve sent a deferral response letter and a letter of recommendation.
Yes! I’ve sent out a deferral response letter and a recommendation letter as well
Yeah I sent out a deferred letter, three recs and a video I made in response to the women’s march in January.
Yes, it is! I’ve sent a letter of continued interest, one recommendation letter, some writing and photography samples, and a copy of a bill fighting for student journalist rights in New York that a group I’m leading is working to get passed this spring.
Hey just want to check in. How many of you who got deferred got in?!