<p>Hi, I am an eleventh grader and I don’t live in US so I don’t know much about Barnard’s reputation around there. But I have searched the programs and really liked them, actually I am considering Barnard as my first choice right now. My only concern is what happens after we graduate from Barnard… I want to pursue a career in business and I wonder if people have any prejudice about Barnard, being a women’s college. Do people tag you feminist or give you a hard time on job applications? Does anyone have any experience on this?</p>
<p>Ambitiousdreamer – Barnard gives really amazing career support to its students. My daughter was able to attend all sorts of career workshops and they even hooked her up with a mentor who held a high position in the area of her interest. My d was a political science major interested in international affairs, so she was delighted because her mentor was a woman working for a government agency focused on international work. But my daughter commented that she felt very lucky because the other students had been assigned mentors in business and finance – something that I am sure that you would consider to be positive, given your own career aspirations.</p>
<p>I don’t know to what degree sexism may still be an issue in hiring in business – it probably depends somewhat on the type of business. But you will succeed or fail based on your own accomplishments – my daughter was hired for her current position based on information about things she did while in college. </p>
<p>Barnard has a very strong reputation in the US and would be instantly recognized by most graduates of prestigious colleges as being affiliated with Columbia, and as being one of the most selective “seven sister” colleges. It would not be considered as prestigious as Columbia or other top Ivies like Harvard or Princeton — but outside the world of college confidential, for hiring purposes, it might very well be considered the functional equivalent of an Ivy like Dartmouth, or a non-Ivy like Tufts, or many of the most well known LAC’s. That is, in general the people doing hiring will probably be impressed but not awed by the degree (if that distinction makes sense to you). Barnard is not generally associated with a business-focused education – and a liberal arts degree certainly is not the same as a business degree. If you look for a job straight out of college, you will find that your <em>experience</em> will be very important – so for a business career at Barnard you would want to make sure that you had summer employment or internships that helped build business-related skills. If you plan to later pursue an MBA, than a Barnard degree along with a strong GPA would be fine for applying to any top program at any school, and employers will focus on the name of the school awarding the MBA, not the undergraduate institution. </p>
<p>My advise to you as an undergrad is to apply to Barnard and a good array of other schools. Make your decision in spring of Senior year – and don’t worry about whether any particular college would look good on a post-graduate job application until after you have been accepted to that college and determined that you are able to afford to attend.</p>