Hi!
So im currently a junior in hs and i was wondering if barnard was worth the money.
My (asian) dad gets on my case TREMENDOUSLY (yells at me multiple times a day…shake it off, right?), obviously about school, and he basically made up his mind: ivy or state. Nothing in between.
However, barnard is one of my top choices (second) and i want to get into their biochem major. Afterwards, i am hoping to go to a state dental school.
Is it worth it?
Thanks!! 
Barnard is part of Columbia University which is an Ivy, same classes, different dorms.
Actually, Barnard has a very different set of curricular requirements from Columbia College (much less the Engineering School), although students may cross-register between the two colleges, and some smaller departments are jointly run. Barnard does not have Columbia’s “Core Curriculum.”
A lot of parents (not just Asian parents) are willing to pay more for one kind of college than for another. That is something you need to sort out with your parents. Will they pay the full cost of an Ivy or of another place that meets some standard (such as rankings in USNWR), but less money for a place that falls lower on their list? If so, then get the amounts that they would pay for the various categories of institutions, and the names of the places that they think are OK within those categories, and start working from there. The truth may be that money is tighter than you think, and the state Us are what really is affordable, but your parents think that an Ivy may be worth them going into hock for.
Every college and university has a Net Price Calculator at its website. If your parents aren’t divorced, don’t own any property other than the family home where you live, and don’t own a business, the NPCs should give them good estimates. Offer your parents some adult beverages and a couple boxes of tissues, and then sit down with them and run the NPCs for the places that are on your list and on theirs.
You need to educate your Dad about Barnard. Barnard IS one of the undergraduate colleges OF Columbia U, and Barnard students DO get diplomas from Columbia U. (And no other diploma – it’s not a dual enrollment thing – one diploma only, with the word Columbia writ large across the top.)
Barnard also does have its own set of requirements, its own profs & courses - but its open & shared enrollment with Columbia. (I don’t even like calling it “cross-registration” because there is no separate or different registration procedures-- just about every course at Columbia will show up as an option in the registration portal when it is time to register for classes, and it won’t always be obvious whether a particular course is given at Columbia or Barnard – you just browse the courses you want and select them. The distribution of your own courses among campuses will depend largely on your major).
Barnard is also distinctly different in atmosphere – but your Dad doesn’t need to know the details. Just explain to him that before 1970, most of the Ivies were for men only-- but Columbia and Harvard also had separate colleges on their campuses for women. When Harvard went co-ed, it merged with its women’s college – Radcliffe – but Columbia did not go co-ed until the early 1980’s, and a decision was made at that time to preserve the structure of a separate undergraduate college for women.