Barnard Barnard College is a prestigious private women's liberal arts college in the United States, one of the Seven Sisters Colleges, founded in 1889; it was incorporated in 1990 and is part of the Columbia University undergraduate system, along with Columbia College, the College of Engineering, the College of General Education, and the School of Theology (UTS&JTS), whose bachelor's degrees are awarded by Columbia University.ranked 32nd in the U.S. in 2015 in liberal arts and sciences.