The Rival Rundown: Barnard vs. Wellesley

Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown@collegecandy.com!

By Sara C

We’ve featured many a sports-related rivalry in weeks past, but what would College Candy be if it were not for our strong, beautiful twentysomething female readers? With that in mind, let’s pit legendary women’s colleges Barnard and Wellesley head-to-head (er, tit-to-tit?).  All my single ladies…

1. Mascot Matchup

Barnard- Millie the Dancing Bear is the official mascot for Barnard College, but given the athletic consortium between Barnard and Columbia University, Barnard athletes are lady Lions.
Wellesley- School pride is exclaimed in enthusiasm for the Wellesley Blue–simple, but true!

Three credits to: Barnard which has not one but two mascots!

2. Terrific Traditions

Barnard- Pre-meds (and their roommates) the world over dread the required organic chemistry final exam, a rite of passage about as painful as, say, childbirth.  On the evening before the exam, called Orgo Night, the boys from the Columbia band march over to the Barnard quad to play music to disrupt Barnard girls’ studying.
Wellesley- Every year, the course of the world’s most prestigious marathon, the Boston Marathon, snakes through the Wellesley campus. Known to runners as the “Wellesley Scream Tunnel,” the deafening shrieks of Wellesley girls cheering can be heard from miles away. Classes are canceled on the day of the marathon, and many girls stand roadside with signs offering kisses, bottles of water, and a whole lot of school pride.

Three Credits to: Wellesley, since kissing sweaty strangers is about as type-A collegiate as it gets!

3. Where to Find the Boys

Barnard- Literally across the street from Columbia University and the Union Theological and Jewish Theological Seminaries, Barnard girls are a stone’s throw from all types of co-eds.
Wellesley- Wellesley has cross-registration privileges with MIT and has a bus that travels between the two campuses several times a day. Another bus travels into Boston every hour.

Three credits to: Barnard…where being across the street beats being across town.

4. Ass-kicking Alumni

Barnard– Joan Rivers, Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City), Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls)
Wellesley- Hillary Clinton, Diane Sawyer, Madeline Albright

Three credits to:  Wellesley for boasting TWO secretaries of state. Seriously, would you want to mess with either of them?

5. Acceptance Rate Agony

Barnard- 28.5% for the class of 2012.
Wellesley- 36% for the class of 2012.

Three credits to: Barnard, no question!

And the diploma goes to: Barnard! It seems the sun shines a little brighter on Barnard’s Morningside Heights campus in New York.