High School GPA & Human Rights Program

Question: Barnard is my dream school! But my concern is that my GPA is not very high. Is it okay not to have a perfect GPA? Also, I really want to study Human Rights at Barnard. How is the Human Rights Program at Barnard?

Answer: Barnard takes a holistic approach to reviewing applications, meaning they look at every component of your application: your GPA,  your test scores, your course selection, your extracurricular activities, your writing ability, etc. Barnard is an academically rigorous school, but you can still thrive here even if you didn't have a 4.0 in high school. It's definitely okay not to have a perfect GPA if you want to apply to Barnard! 

- Cassandra Clifford '21

Answer: And some more information about the Human Rights program, since you asked about it ... it's an interdisciplinary program that's designed to be pursued alongside a major in one of the departments with a disciplinary or area studies focus. These include - but are not limited to - Africana Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Comparative Literature, English, French, German, History, Italian, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Slavic, Sociology, Spanish, and Women's Studies. In short, you can't quite major in Human Rights like you would in most other fields, but can do a "joint major" in Human Rights Studies in conjunction with one of the above areas.

- Aydan Shahd '20 

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