Ask a Barrett student

Colleges and Universities A-Z Arizona State University
1

<p>I’m a returning sophomore Barrett student and I’d be more than happy to answer any questions about ASU, Barrett, or student life! I’m majoring in architecture and sustainability, and I spent my freshman year living in the honors college dorms on the Tempe campus. </p>

<p>Just to address some FAQs, here’s my experience with the following:</p>

<p>Classes and curriculum - Barrett students are required to complete 36 hours of honors credit and submit a thesis by graduation. They enroll in classes for their majors as well as the Human Event class for both semesters of freshman year. Human Event is a class for Barrett students only, and was by far one of the hardest classes I’ve taken. Most students struggle to get A’s and B’s and it can really kill a GPA. The content and rigor of the class are heavily dependent on the professor, so do your research or check out ratemyprofessor before signing up. There are about 20 kids in this seminar style class with extensive reading on philosophy, religion, politics and history. The class also requires three very difficult argumentative papers so do your reading, go to office hours, and engage in class discussion. For other honors credit, students can create contracts with professors for non-honors classes. For one class I simply had to write an essay, but for another I met weekly in a separate recitation and conducted a semester long research project for honors credit. </p>

<p>Barrett student population - In a large school like ASU (with a 77% acceptance rate) its refreshing to find very intelligent, driven kids in Barrett. I really liked being able to go to my classes around campus with the masses and then come back to a smaller, quieter comfort zone in Barrett. Students hang out on the lawns with their laptops and homework and you’ll often overhear people discussing political theory in the dining hall. It’s obvious to anyone that academics are the top priority here, however social butterflies might not be as thrilled. As expected, students spend a majority of their time studying and are considerably less sociable than the rest of ASU’s student population. From my experience, Barrett students generally enjoy activities like playing video games, throwing around a frisbee, or watching a movie together in a lounge. No one really “parties”; sometimes 5-10 kids will get together in a dorm to drink on a Saturday night, but you will not find wild parties nor their attendees in Barrett. </p>

<p>Faculty - Faculty and staff in the honors college go out of their way to assist students. Expectations are set very high, but professors appreciate the interest and dedication shown by Barrett students. Most professors offer flexible office hours and will set up outside appointments to meet with students. As long as students have a good attitude, instructors will go above and beyond to provide help. From my experience, other professors in non-honors courses are also more willing to help out. Barrett students usually stand out from the crowd with their motivation and intelligence, and professors appreciate students that are excited to learn. They know that Barrett students produce quality work and contribute greatly to their classes. </p>

<p>Dorms and Dining Hall - Barrett is known for its higher quality dorms and excellent food. I absolutely loved the dining hall; daily selections include omelets, french toast, pancakes, sausage, potatoes, bacon, eggs, grilled sandwiches, wraps, pasta, soups, stir fry, salad bar, pizza, burgers, rotisserie chicken, as well as entrees and an extensive dessert bar. The dormitory rooms are also very nice. Dorms are nicely furnished, well kept and modern. Bathrooms are apartment style with double sinks and separate rooms for the shower and toilet. Living options include a private room/private bath, private room/shared bath, and shared room/shared bath. The residential complex itself is very appealing with sprawling lawns, pretty landscaping, patios with seating, a volleyball court, lounges, rec rooms, study rooms, and a gym. </p>

<p>If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!</p>

2

<p>Thanks for sharing that, ctate! Sounds like you had a great freshman year. My D will be there as a freshman in the fall and what you describe is everything she was hoping Barrett would be!</p>

3

<p>Great information. Thanks! My son is visiting Barrett and the Walter Cronkite School at ASU right now! He is an OOS but has been offered full tuition, which makes Barrett even more attractive. So far he loves everything about the school. STEMFamily, is your daughter enjoying her freshman year? My son would be in the downtown Phoenix campus where the journalism school is located. He has also been accepted to the University of Missouri, Fordham in New York, and Indiana Bloomington to their journalism/communications programs. It will be a difficult decision. Any updates about Barrett will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

4

<p>ctate94, Would having a car be useful for my son, or a big headache? Are you familiar with the downtown Phoenix campus, and/or the Journalism school? Also, my son is a member of 2 choirs at his high school and would love to continue singing in college. Are you familiar with the Barrett Choral Programs? Thanks :)</p>

5

<p>ctate, if you are still following this thread, I have a question. Where are you living this year? If you are at Vista del Sol, can you say anything about your experience there? My D is a Barrett freshman thinking about applying for housing next year. Thanks.</p>

<p>mariangelita, my D is at Tempe. I don’t know anything about downtown campus except I think the journalism building is new and I believe they just finished a new rec center at that campus. I know the light rail runs from downtown campus to Tempe campus so it is possible to go back and forth for games and activities. There are parent blogs here:
[ASU</a> Parents](<a href=“http://parents.asu.edu/]ASU”>http://parents.asu.edu/)</p>

<p>They have university reps occasionally commenting as well. If you scroll through the groups, you’ll see a downtown parents group. There is an OOS group, Barrett group, freshman parents group. You can’t comment yourself unless you are a group member. Not sure what requirements they have to join. But just scrolling back through years of comments can be helpful.</p>

<p>I see the student radio station just moved from Tempe campus in to the Walter Cronkite bldg. Good luck with your decision. Seems you have a lot of good options already. The visit really sold my D on ASU. Will your S see Tempe campus also? How are visits organized for prospective Barrett students who would be at another campus?</p>

<p>My D does not have a car and it seems like a headache to me, but that’s just me. Other kids do have cars. In particular, some of the local kids do and sometimes drive groups of friends to shopping and around other places. I don’t know what the car situation is like downtown. Being from the Midwest, to me driving there seems very easy. Roads are designed well- very wide and clearly marked with lots of left-turn lanes so one doesn’t get stuck in traffic. No potholes!</p>

6

<p>I know the men’s Barrett choir is supposed to be very good, but we have no experience with it. They sang at state centennial at capitol, at Titanic requiem in local church, concert at Tempe Ctr for the Arts and do lots of other events like that, in addition to their on-campus concerts. They are doing a choir tour of France this summer. Their auditions are during move-in week in August, and they practice T/Th evenings in Gammage (that’s their Frank Lloyd Wright designed music performance hall), so your son would definitely be going back and forth to Tempe. </p>

<p>It’s a for credit class, 1-2 credits and can get up to 4 honors credits to count towards Barrett requirements.</p>

<p>Another possibility might be a music performance minor. ASU just added that this year. That’s a great addition, much better than the generic music minors not oriented to performance that are most common. Not sure if it is available in voice. It may be you have to ask music dept about it. It requires audition, could be added later after enrolled. Since music is at Tempe, would be more back-and-forth.</p>

7

<p>mariangelita: My D is very much enjoying her year at ASU. She loves living in Barrett and has made several good friends from marching band, concert band, and from her engineering orientation camp who are also in Barrett. Her math and computer science classes are pretty large (she doesn’t seem to mind) but she also really enjoys her Barrett Human Events class and the Honors English class she is taking. She just added the music performance minor that Celeste mentioned and is very excited about that. The website does look like it is an instrumental minor but I agree with Celeste to call the music department. Also, I don’t know much about the downtown campus either.</p>

8

<p>My D also does not have a car and hasn’t missed it. She has become quite comfortable taking the light rail to/from the airport and the bus to local shopping. However, a car might be useful for a student on the downtown campus wanting to save time getting to the Tempe campus. (Although I am not convinced it would be faster than the light rail during rush hour.)</p>

9

<p>Showing up to give my two cents as well. I’m a recent Barrett grad, Spring 2013. Having living off campus is great. I didn’t have one, but my friends who did used it a lot. Phoenix is huge and has tons of urban sprawl, the bus system is kind of awful, and the light rail doesn’t go many places. On campus I think is more of a problem, because the parking spot is expensive, at least on Tempe campus, though it might be different downtown. The light rail between downtown and Tempe is relative fast and easy. So I’d say it would depend on how much time he wants off campus/on campus stuff. For choir, if he is at all interested in a cappella, he should try out for Priority Male. They are completely awesome (as you might be able to see from their 92,000 likes on facebook). And at least while I was there, they had a bunch of Barrett members, it’s through Barrett I knew the group even existed.</p>

10

<p>Thank you all for the insightful information you have provided! My son loved everything about his visit to Barrett, and was very impressed with the journalism school and the facilities and resources in general. I will tell him to look into the music performance minor and also the Priority Male Choir. Barrett sounds more interesting by the minute! Also, my son is thinking of minoring in Spanish (he is already bilingual) thinking it will be a good combination with his journalism major. Do any of you have information about the Spanish minor at ASU. Thanks again!</p>

11

<p>The Barret Choir sounds wonderful, too. So many opportunities! He will probably end up not taking his car, at least as a Freshman. Public transportation there is probably way better that in the Dallas area :)</p>

12

<p>I had a friend who initially considered doing the Spanish minor, and I took two Spanish lit classes, and one was quite good, taught by a grad student who left ASU for a better university because he had issues with the dept. The other was a joke, I didn’t even have to do any of the reading and got an A, and the discussion was really boring. And I say that as someone who really likes Spanish lit. I was very briefly in a 300 level Spanish language class, and I was super unimpressed, first class was telling directions, which I’m pretty sure I learned in middle school. And I am not even vaguely bilingual. My friend also ended up not doing the minor (after also taking a couple Spanish classes) because she thought the department wasn’t that good. So yeah, I wasn’t terribly impressed with my experience with the dept. But that wasn’t as complete an experience as actually doing a minor, so others may have better things to say, and it may depend on the profs.</p>

13

<p>When did you receive your admissions letter?</p>

14

Hi, I just got accepted to the Barrett Honors College as a freshman for the fall of 2015. Can you go into more depth with the social scene at Barrett? I’m a very serious and hard-working student and always get good grades but I would like to “go out” once in a while. I like to party occasionally. Do students go to Mill Avenue? Do the freshman tend to bond and know each other? My older brother is a freshman at a different school and everyone on his floor knows each other and loves each other. They all study and party together. When I visited him, I loved this aspect of college and hope it is present at Barrett. Barrett is an extraordinary honors school and I am so happy to be a part of it. I just don’t want to not have a social life while at Barrett. What do you think?

15

Hello! I just got my Barrett acceptance letter today and will also be majoring in sustainability. Did you ever live in SHAB? How was it like?

16

Hi! I was just accepted and will be attending Barrett next year as a biology major. My one burning question is about the living communities. There is very little information of the difference between the four buildings, Agave, Cereus, Cottonwood, and Juniper, anywhere online. I just really want to know the difference between the four, if there really is any. Which one did you live in, and how much did you like it?