Barnard College's wording, checked October 26, 2026“At Barnard, inquiry starts with asking bold questions about the world. What is one bold question on your mind and what about it piques your curiosity?”
How to approach it
- 1Ask a question you cannot answer yet, specific enough to be yours.
- 2Use the rest of the words for why it grips you.
- 3Fifty words: the question takes ten to twenty, and the curiosity takes the rest.
A structure that works
One way to shape this answer. It describes moves, not sentences: the words have to be yours.
- 1The question itself, in one sentence.
- 2Where it came from: the moment or observation that raised it.
- 3What about it you cannot stop turning over.
Why do the women in my family apologize before they disagree, and would they be heard if they stopped?
Mistakes to avoid
- A question with a known answer.
- A grand question with no personal hook.
- Answering the question. The prompt asks what about it piques your curiosity.
The checklist our grader uses for this question
When you check your Barnard answers, this answer is read against these 5 areas. Each comes back Met, Partly or Missing with a quote from your draft as evidence, and together with the 50 words limit they set its readiness verdict.
| Area | What a reader looks for |
|---|---|
| Answers the question | The opening sentences answer what was asked, plainly, before background or a hook; every part of a multi-part question is answered. |
| One specific idea | It names one specific topic, question or idea early, narrower than a whole subject. |
| Evidence you pursue it | It shows what the applicant read, built, asked or tried on their own, beyond required class work. |
| Your own thinking | The reader sees how the applicant's mind works on it: a connection, an opinion, a question still open. |
| Barnard's ask | Asks one bold question and says what about it piques the applicant's curiosity, in 50 words. |
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Questions
More on Barnard and this kind of question
- Yale: A topic or idea that excites you · 200 words
- Brown: A class you would teach · 100-150 words
- Dartmouth: What excites you? · 250 words
- Dartmouth: Insight from reading (Matt Haig) · 250 words
- Dartmouth: Celebrate your nerdy side · 250 words
- Stanford: What excites you about learning · 100-250 words