Barnard’s financial aid program is designed to foster quality, access, and diversity. As such, our policies are committed to making Barnard a realistic option for families, regardless of finances, and to ensuring qualified applicants will not be denied a Barnard education because they cannot afford it. To the extent possible, the Office of Financial Aid assists each family using grants, loans, and job opportunities and provides advice on financing a Barnard education.
All Barnard aid is based on financial need. While every family’s income and assets are evaluated uniformly to determine family contribution, special and individual circumstances also need to be taken into consideration. For this reason, we welcome communication from families and look forward to helping each Barnard family make the best financial choices.
If a college or university practices "need-blind admissions," it means that there is an invisible “firewall” between the admissions and financial aid offices. Admissions officers are unaware of a student’s financial circumstances when evaluating an application or debating an application in committee, maintaining “blindness” to financial circumstances until a favorable decision is made.
Here at Barnard, admissions committees make decisions about a student’s eligibility for admission based on many factors, with a firewall separating those decisions from ability to pay. For our first-year applicants who are US Citizens or Permanent Residents, this firewall is opaque until the moment when an offer of admission is being assembled and a letter which stipulates the student’s financial aid award is added.
When considering transfer students, Barnard has limited funding available. Spring transfers are ineligible for financial aid and fall transfers are reviewed with an awareness that need may be a factor in a student’s ability to attend. Furthermore, since international students are ineligible for federal aid, Barnard is limited in it's ability to provide institutional funding, making the selection of financial aid recipients for international students a highly competitive process. For all students, Barnard remains committed to meeting full demonstrated need.
All federal financial aid administered by Barnard College is based on demonstrated need as determined by the Federal Methodology formula. However, need for institutional aid is determined using a Barnard Need Analysis, an Institutional Methodology formula which takes into consideration all sources of income and all assets.
The College believes that the primary responsibility for financing educational costs rests with each student's family, and all College aid is supplementary to family resources. Once need has been established, Barnard meets the demonstrated need of all eligible students with a combination of grant, loan, and employment opportunities. Barnard's policy for awarding financial aid seeks both fairness and the ability to meet 100% of demonstrated need as designated above, therefore we do not offer merit scholarships.
