How do majors and minors work at Barnard College?

Barnard is pretty flexible academically. As a Barnard student, you choose your major through Barnard, but because of the Columbia partnership, you can take courses across both campuses and often build a program that pulls from both schools.

For minors, Barnard offers its own minors and also allows many Columbia options. Barnard students can often combine a Barnard major with a minor in another field, which is one of the easier ways to mix interests without committing to a double major.

If you want to combine fields more deeply, Barnard also allows double majors in many cases, and some students pursue interdisciplinary majors or special majors with approval. That makes it a good place for students whose interests do not fit neatly into one department.

There are some limits. Not every Columbia program is automatically open in the same way for Barnard students, and certain majors, sequences, or professional school pathways can have specific eligibility or advising requirements. Studio-based, audition-based, or tightly structured programs may be less simple to access than regular lecture courses.