Barnard College · New York

Barnard Merit Aid

Verified Jul 20264 days ago· HX-AUTO

Merit tiers2See requirements

Get merit aid0%First-year students, CDS 2025-2026 (school-estimated)

Last verifiedJul 2026Analyst HX-AUTO

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The merit-aid verdict at Barnard

Barnard offers a range of named academic awards recognizing excellence across disciplines, with particular strength in STEM research.

Who this school is for

Students who excel academically and have interests in scientific research will find Barnard offers meaningful recognition through its named prizes, including dedicated STEM opportunities.

Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $103,000 for 2026-2027. Source

Federal cost and outcome data

Federal reporting on who actually enrolls at Barnard, what they paid after aid, and what happened next — independent of anything the school markets.

Average annual net price by family income at Barnard, academic year 2021-22
Family income	Average net price paid
$0–$30,000	$11,600
$30,001–$48,000	$15,374
$48,001–$75,000	$19,094
$75,001–$110,000	$24,753
$110,001+	$51,378
All income levels (average)	$28,800

Sticker price vs. what students actually pay

Published tuition & fees, AY 2022-23: $69,888
Average net price paid (all Title-IV aid), AY 2021-22: $28,800

That works out to roughly a 68% discount below the federal AY 2021-22 average cost of attendance of $89,538 (College Scorecard — a separate, federally reported figure, not the published cost of attendance shown above).

Outcomes for students who enrolled here

Graduation rate (150% of normal time), 2016 cohort: 93%
First-year retention rate, 2021 cohort: 97%
Median debt at completion, 2020–2021 completers: $18,000 (~$191/mo on a 10-yr plan)
Median earnings, 10 years after entry (measured 2020-21): $80,516
Share of students receiving a Pell grant, AY 2021-22: 15%
Share of students receiving a federal loan, AY 2021-22: 20%

How to read these numbers

Net price reflects only first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who received federal Title IV financial aid — not Barnard's full student body.
Published tuition is the catalog sticker price for all students, not a Title IV-only figure.
Graduation rate reflects the entire first-time, full-time, degree-seeking cohort — not only students who received Title IV aid.
Retention rate reflects all first-time, full-time, bachelor's-seeking students — not only Title IV aid recipients.
Median debt reflects only completers who took out federal student loans — not Barnard's full graduating class, and not limited to first-time, full-time students.
Median earnings reflect Title IV aid recipients who entered college and were working (not enrolled) roughly a decade later — not necessarily the graduating cohort, and not a recent graduate's paycheck.
Pell grant and federal loan participation covers first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students only.
Net price blends need-based aid and merit aid together — it is not a merit-specific estimate. It shows what similar-income families actually paid on average after every kind of aid, not what a strong-stats student could win in merit dollars alone. Treat it as cost context, not a merit forecast — a MeritPlaybook models merit aid specifically for your student’s own stats, which this net-price figure cannot do.

None of this is current-year data — the U.S. Department of Education reports it on a delay, and different figures below come from different reporting years. Net price is an academic year 2021-22 figure. Published tuition reflects the 2022-23 academic year. Graduation rate reflects the Fall 2016 entering, full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking cohort; completion measured within 150% of normal time (~6 years for a bachelor's degree). IPEDS Graduation Rates component (C150_4). Retention reflects the Fall 2021 full-time, first-time, bachelor's-seeking cohort retained into the following fall. IPEDS Fall Enrollment component (RET_FT4). Median debt reflects the NSLDS FY2020 and FY2021 pooled completer cohorts (GRAD_DEBT_MDN, GRAD_DEBT_MDN10YR_SUPP). Median earnings reflect the Treasury-matched cohort entering college in AY2009-10 or AY2010-11, earnings measured 10 years later in calendar years 2020 and 2021, inflation-adjusted to 2022 dollars (MD_EARN_WNE_P10).

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard.

Institutional merit aid tiers

Every tier below is sourced to the school’s own published financial aid pages. Renewal terms apply only if the student maintains the stated GPA.

Amount not published

Beckman Scholars Program

Application

Source

Amount not published

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship

Application

Source

Common Data Set snapshot

From the Barnard Common Data Set 2025-2026 (school-estimated figures):

As filed in Barnard's CDS Section H2A: of 702 first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen, 0 had no financial need and received institutional merit (non-need) scholarship or grant aid. Across all full-time degree-seeking undergraduates: 0 of 3,017. Athletic awards are excluded per the CDS definition.

The 2025-2026 column is marked "estimated" in the school's own CDS filing — school-projected figures, not final audited counts.

Receive institutional merit0%First-year students, CDS 2025-2026 (school-estimated)

Source: Common Data Set 2025-2026 (verified 2026-07-23)

Lesser-known scholarships at Barnard

Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.

Helen R Downes Prize

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Helen R. Downes Prize is awarded to graduating seniors who show promise of distinction in medicine or the medical sciences.

Source

Donald And Nancy Ritchie Grants

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityDonald and Nancy Ritchie Grants are awarded for biological study or research.

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Spiera Family Prize

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Spiera Family Prize is awarded for promise of excellence by a student majoring in biological sciences.

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Hermann Botanical Prize

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Hermann Botanical Prize is awarded to an undergraduate student proficient in biology.

Source

Ida And John Kauderer Prize

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Ida and John Kauderer Prize is awarded to premedical students majoring in chemistry.

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Edna Henry Bennett Memorial Grants

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityEdna Henry Bennett Memorial Grants are awarded for summer study at a biological research station.

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Herbert Maule Richards Grants

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityHerbert Maule Richards Grants are awarded for botanical or general biological research.

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Constance Von Wahl Prize

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Constance Von Wahl Prize is awarded for advanced work in biology.

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Lucy Moses Award

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Lucy Moses Award is awarded to a premedical student likely to provide service to the medically underserved.

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Gertrude Bunger Zufall Award

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Gertrude Bunger Zufall Award is awarded to a premedical student entering her senior year.

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Barbara Ann Liskin Memorial Prize

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityThe Barbara Ann Liskin Memorial Prize is awarded to a premedical student committed to women’s issues and to a humanistic approach to patient care.

Source

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Barnard’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

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