DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla., May 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- Platinum Television Group is pleased to announce the selection of Barnard College, the liberal arts college in New York City for high-achieving young women, for its innovative, educational television series, "Today's Family." The school will be featured in a segment on "The Importance of Choosing the Right College" in a three-part series.

A residential college on four leafy acres on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Barnard is the most sought-after and most selective liberal arts college for women in the country (receiving more applications from women than any private liberal arts college) and is unique in all of higher education. An independent college with a long tradition of excellence, it has an historic partnership with Columbia University, a great research university that allows undergraduates at both institutions to take courses at either one. The close mentoring of students on a small campus by faculty committed to the achievement of women, combined with the larger and cosmopolitan atmosphere at Columbia and the immersion in the challenging and sophisticated life of New York City, has a transformative effect on Barnard students. Learning to navigate these unique and complex worlds creates a savvy, self-assured, cultured "Barnard woman."

Founded in 1889 as the first secular college for women in New York City, and one of a very few in the nation then, where women could have the same rigorous education as men, Barnard has become known for its distinctive academic culture. The College was named after Frederick A.P. Barnard, then the tenth president of Columbia, who argued unsuccessfully for the admission of women undergraduates. One of the original Seven Sisters, Barnard was, from the beginning, a place that took women seriously and challenged them intellectually.

In 1900 it was affiliated with Columbia with provisions unique among women's colleges: it was governed by its own trustees, faculty, and dean (later president), and was responsible for its own endowment and facilities, while sharing instruction, the library, and other services. Barnard graduates are trailblazers in many fields and include pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead; Judith Kaye, Chief Judge of the State of New York; entrepreneur Martha Stewart; Ellen Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History; Phyllis Grann, CEO, Putnam book publishers, choreographer Twyla Tharp; cancer researcher Jacqueline Barton; decorated World War II spy Virginia Hall; and performance artist Laurie Anderson, the first artist-in-residence at NASA.

The extraordinary quality of the Barnard experience accounts for the fact that more MacArthur "genius" fellows have been awarded to Barnard graduates (nine) than alumnae of any other liberal arts college. The College alumnie include many admired writers; among these are eight Pulitzer Prize winners. Newsweek columnist and author Anna Quindlen, winner of a Pulitzer for commentary and a 1974 Barnard graduate who chairs the Board of Trustees, has summed up the challenging intellectual atmosphere that she found at Barnard, thusly: "I majored in unafraid." At Barnard, intense intellectual discussions don't end at classroom doors, but spill out into hallways, faculty offices, and dorm rooms. Through these experiences, Barnard students, most of them women, gain the creative and analytic skills, the discipline, and the confidence to take on any challenge.

For more information on Barnard, please visit: www.barnard.edu.