<p>I’m a parent, not a student, but I can answer some of your questions:</p>
<p>1 – My daughter has a very ethnically/culturally diverse group of friends at Barnard. It’s possible that just her – she also had a diverse group of friends in high school, and one reason that she liked Barnard after visiting was that she felt it was far more diverse than some other campuses she had visited. But my impression when visiting was basically that there were no divisions that I could perceive. </p>
<p>2 – Yes there are boys in classes at Barnard, particularly in the larger classes – but there tend to be a small number compared to women. (Example: you might have a class with 40 students, 35 women and 5 guys) There are probably some exceptions to that, but I think it is a result of several factors. One is that because of the Columbia core, first year students at Columbia don’t have a lot of flexibility in terms of electives. At advanced levels student tend to take more classes within their own major, which usually is within their own department – so basically, Columbia students have a lot of required courses they have to take at Columbia – making it a little harder for them to fit in courses at Barnard. Plus they have plenty of options at Columbia – so there is no particular reason for any Columbia student to want to take a lot of classes at Barnard. They probably just sign up for Barnard courses when there is a particular course that interests them, or a particular professor they want to take a class from – or if some needed course fits their schedule better if they take at Barnard. Also, of course, almost half of Columbia students are women – so if 10 Columbia students sign up for a Barnard course, that could just as easily be 7 women and 3 men, as the other way around. </p>
<p>Barnard students can take any courses they want at Columbia, with the exception of the Columbia core classes, and a few courses with enrollment limited only to majors in whatever departments they are in. There are so many courses available, however, that I don’t think as a practical matter you would notice a limitation. Barnard students are allowed to choose from any courses they want, at any level, from their first semester – I know of students who enrolled in graduate level courses as freshmen. (I’m not saying it is advisable – I think my d’s GPA for her first semester would have been better if she hadn’t insisted on enrolling in 2 course geared to upper level students) – but the point is that the course catalog is pretty much wide open. (It is somewhat limited for pre-enrollment for first year students, but students can change classes during the shopping period at the beginning of the semester so that’s only a temporary barrier).</p>
<p>Columbia is located directly across the street from Barnard. It isn’t a “commute”, it’s a crosswalk. (But even if they weren’t that close people would walk – New Yorkers do a lot of walking. If you want to go to a place 10 blocks away, you’ll walk. If you want to go 20 blocks away, you’ll probably walk. Farther than that that or if its raining, you might take a subway. But walking is pretty much the main way of getting around. No one has cars and I don’t think there is any parking provided anywhere on campus). </p>
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<li> When I visited my daughter, the thing that amazed me the most was how accessible the profs were. The first time I visited, my daughter invited me to attend a class with her – I deliberately sat in the back so that I wouldn’t disturb the class. After class the professor came up to me and thanked me for visiting, and started chatting about how much he enjoyed seeing parents come to visit. Then my daughter needed to pick up a book from another prof for a project she was working on, and I thought I would stand outside the prof’s office to wait politely - but again the prof. was really friendly and invited me in to chat. The next year my daughter actually invited both me and her father out to visit at separate times just so we could attend one of classes because she thought the prof was so amazing - and I felt like I was visiting royalty or something, the prof was so gracious and welcoming.</li>
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<p>But lest you think that Barnard profs just like to show off for parents, my daughter has also commented on how accessible many of her profs are. If I were to list the things that most impress me about Barnard, I think the high level of engagement of the faculty and the high regard they seem to have for their students would probably be #1 on the list. </p>
<p>I cant really answer the “what it’s like” part of #4 because I’m not a student.</p>