<p>Hi figureskater. </p>
<p>I’m an international student and am in love with Barnard! My parents are in NYC, so they visited the school a few days ago, they absolutely love it as well. My biggest fear is getting in (I’ll be applying ED this November). Can you just fill me in on the do’s and don’t’s of the app process. I really don’t wanna blow my chances.</p>
<p>that’s exciting! yay barnard!
Barnard takes demonstrated interest pretty seriously. Make them feel loved in your supplement essays. I’ve said more about that elsewhere on this thread. Get your stuff in on time. If you know you want to go to barnard and you don’t need financial aid, I absolutely recommend applying ED. People will argue with me about that, but it is a way of demonstrating interest (to quote the admissions officer from my info session) and it makes your last semester of high school much more chill. Interviews are nice too. Idk if international students do the SAT, but if y’all do, do it a million times.</p>
<p>@figureskater: how is your workload? Doable? how many credits are you taking?</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice 
</p>
<p>Yes following kane688, how rigorous is it academically? what’s a typical day at barnard for you?</p>
<p>How would you describe the average Barnard student? What words come to mind? (I’m just curious about how I would fit in)</p>
<p>First I wanted to comment on the weather - New York City streets and buildings tend to create wind tunnels, and rainboots are necessary simply because you’re going to be walking a lot, but New York isn’t rainier or windier than any other city on the East Coast. (I don’t have data to back that up, but I’m pretty sure it’s true.)</p>
<p>To berries123 who was asking about the double major - major requirements are all over the place. My major, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, was incredibly lax and I could easily have finished it in three years. My roommates were all English majors and they had complex flow charts describing which seminars and classes pre-1800 they had to take and what could substitute for what, and so on. I know lots of double majors and it’s definitely possible, but it definitely depends on WHAT, specifically, you intend to do and whether the requirements are compatible.
(There’s also the question of the thesis - a friend of mine double-majored in theater and history and did two theses: a standard history thesis, and a directing thesis for theater. She certainly survived and I know she loved her majors, but it’s a consideration.)</p>
<p>To kane688 and chaosk: Barnard is pretty academically rigorous, but it’s up to you. I took between 15 and 18 credits every semester, which was about five classes plus a lab or including a 4-credit class or seminar. That’s a lot and there are people who stay in the 12-15 range. I like pushing myself, and I was happy with the classes I took.
Also, once I’d pushed through the science requirement, I took classes I wanted to take. My best semesters were those when I was taking only classes in Medieval history, language and religion. I found that studying was very easy when I enjoyed the subjects.
(I also had internships sophomore fall, junior fall, and all of senior year. My “job” was babysitting. And I did tech work for a show every semester. So you can fit a lot of stuff in. I was busy, but in a good way.)</p>
<p>And to whiteoleander: It’s very hard to describe a typical Barnard student. My advice would be to visit campus when school is in session and just go up to students and ask questions. I’d say that Barnard students tend to be driven and ambitious, but ambitions vary widely.</p>
<p>This thread is so helpful! Thank you figureskater for starting it! I was just wondering about the financial aspect of Barnard. I know the school itself is very pricy, and I know if I do end up going there that I will be strapped for cash like no other. Especially since New York is obviously not the cheapest place. Have you found that you cannot afford most of the things you wish to do or have you had any financial issues during your time there?</p>
<p>No problem!
Ok
Workload: Totally depends on your load. If you’re premed, may god bless your soul because you will have lots to do. If you’re me, you take as many easy classes as you can find. First semester I took 13 credits, made As, and I was bored. 2nd semester I took 16 and made mostly Bs and had more fun in my life. I recommend at least one joke class to balance your life. [CULPA</a> - Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability](<a href=“http://www.culpa.info%5DCULPA”>http://www.culpa.info) is a good resource to consult.
Rigor: Mostly see above. Depends on your schedule and the classes you’re taking. Classes are hard. You will have to think and stuff. If you got in and took the classes you needed to take to get in, you’ll be ok.
Typical Barnard day: wake up at 7 because no one else is up and i can focus, facebook, work some or go skate, throw things at my room mate at 10 and tell her to go to class, go to hewitt for food, come back, watch a show/work/internet, figure out what I’m gonna do over the weekend, go to hewitt, take lunch back to my room, eat in the hall with my floor, go to my first class at 1pm (because I’m awesome), 2 classes in a row, 1 hour break for tetris and netflix, one more class, out at 5:30, go to dinner with my best friends at John Jay, come back, whine about my life, think about working, take a nap, whine some more, come up with a brilliant plan for the weekend, decide to work later, paint my nails, use my points in the basement at the vending machine, sleep.
Typical Barnard student: does not exist. If she did, she would probably wear hunter boots and red lipstick. Bold, beautiful, busy, stressed, curious, ambitious Barnard. My typical day is above.
Money: Barnard is expensive. New York is very expensive. Get a summer job and don’t touch your pay checks. Barnard babysitting is awesome. Get a work study if you can–especially the type where you sit at a desk and don’t do anything. I’ve still managed to see 12 broadway plays since august, but I rush them all. Even so, that’s 500 bucks or so. The subway costs 2.25 a swipe and that really adds up.</p>
<p>Another question: my friends are primarily guys, and 9/10 people agree that I’m a bit of a tomboy (i.e. I couldn’t care less about fashion and usually just wear ratty band t-shirts).
Do you think I’d have difficulty adjusting to the all-girls thing (I applied to Barnard in spite of the fact that it’s a women’s college)? Thanks</p>
<p>What would you say are the benefits of going to an all girls college? I know that you still get male contact of course, I mean come on Columbia is across the street and NYC is at your fingertips, but in your dorm or any other times it seems to effect you, how does it?</p>
<p>How’s the theatre program? Can Barnard Students audition for shows at Columbia?</p>
<p>Hi megs37! Actually, Columbia College doesn’t have a theater department - the Columbia theater major is based at Barnard. So there aren’t any Columbia shows to audition for!
[Theatre</a> Department | Theatre](<a href=“http://theatre.barnard.edu/]Theatre”>http://theatre.barnard.edu/)
I didn’t major in theater, or do anything with the department, but I knew a lot of theater majors. It’s a popular major and a very good program. </p>
<p>Or are you asking about student theater groups? There are a lot of them, and they’re all open to Columbia and Barnard students. (Many are recognized as official groups by both campuses, and perform on both campuses, depending on what space is available. Both Barnard and Columbia have black box theaters available for student groups.)
Each theater group has a different focus - the Columbia Musical Theater Society, Columbia University Players (no musicals and no Shakespeare), The King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe, NOMADS (New and Original Material Written and Directed by Students), Latenite (student written short plays) and so on. There is also the Varsity Show, a major student-written musical that goes up the last weekend of classes.<br>
Here’s a link to the Columbia University Performing Arts League, which is a kind of umbrella organization that covers all of the performing arts groups on campus, including theater groups:
[[C]olumbia</a> niversity [P]erforming [A]rts [L]eague](<a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cupal/][C]olumbia”>Home | CUPAL)
The Columbia/Barnard theater community is wonderful.</p>
<p>Hello every one my name is tom and i am from india i am new in this form…So please suggestion for me</p>
<p>What other schools did you consider when applying?</p>
<p>Hi, I have a few questions.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How generous is the financial aid"? Do you still need t get a job?</p></li>
<li><p>How does it feel to go to an girls school? Is there a lot of drama? Or are the girls at Barnard to smart for that?</p></li>
<li><p>How would you describe the Columbia Barnard relationship?</p></li>
<li><p>As of now, my grades are pretty decent to get into Barnard but they’re nothing special. How can I make my application stand out?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>So, I know it’s a women’s school, and this is a very shallow question but…how’s the dating scene?</p>
<p>this might be a slightly off-topic/creepy question, but I noticed that your username is figureskater, which leads me to assume that you are in fact a figure skater (lol). Do you still skate, and if you do does Barnard/Columbia have a skating club? Or do you have to just join another club and skate unaffiliated with the college?
I figure skate competitively right now and would like to continue in college (but in a less intense way).</p>
<p>I think this girl is done answering questions</p>
<p>Hi guys! I thought I’d try and tackle the women’s college questions.</p>
<p>My favorite way of defining the Barnard/Columbia relationship is this: Columbia University basically has four undergraduate schools: Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of General Studies, and Barnard. Each college is a little bit separate - each college attracts a different kind of student, each college has different requirements, etc. But, at the same time, all four colleges share a lot, since they’re all under the Columbia University umbrella.
(I know that the relationship is more complex than that, and that they’re separate financially, but that doesn’t help when you’re trying to figure out how it actually WORKS.)
Practically, this means complete cross-registration, it means that extra-curriculars are completely shared, it means that Barnard students can live at Columbia and vice versa.<br>
So really? It’s entirely what you make of it.</p>
<p>Personally, I took about 50% of my classes at Columbia. I studied medieval history, so I went where the medievalists were. Barnard has one or two, Columbia has four or five. I could have taken French classes at either school, but I stuck to Barnard’s because I liked their French department better and the classes sounded more interesting. I took a Latin class that was listed as “V” which meant it was a shared class, so I’m not really sure WHERE I took it. I took a Barnard class that was physically located at Teacher’s College, which is completely bizarre.
(Most of my Barnard classes had men in them, but certainly more women than men. My Columbia classes tended to be more evenly split. But this is a gross generalization. I think the only classes I took that were entirely without men were my first year seminar/first year English and my PE classes.)
I did theater and my theater group was probably split pretty evenly between Barnard, CC and SEAS students with a few GS and grad students thrown in just for fun.
I lived at Barnard, with Barnard friends, all four years. Because the Barnard dorms are nicer and I liked my friends.</p>
<p>So there are plenty of guys around, in case you’re concerned about dating. Like I said, it’s really what you make of it. I’m a proud Barnard alumna, and I’m very glad I went to Barnard and not Columbia. But I also appreciated having Columbia’s resources available to me.</p>
<p>Sorry I was gone, my summer just got interesting. Collegeconfidential isn’t exactly my facebook.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How generous is the financial aid"? Do you still need t get a job?
I wouldn’t know from personal experience, but I hear it’s good. If you don’t get a job, and you have time for a job, you’re probably wasting your work study which makes me jealous because I want a campus job but can’t really get one because people who have work studies get to pick first. The good ones are usually gone. </p></li>
<li><p>How does it feel to go to an girls school? Is there a lot of drama? Or are the girls at Barnard to smart for that?
I actually really love going to a women’s college. I’m establishing my identity as a woman while still being integrated into a world with men. When people said that when I was still applying, I had no idea what it means. Now I do. Just wait and see.
Drama has not been a huge part of my life accept with my sassy gay friend across the street. No girl is **too smart to have drama, but I perhaps we bypass some pettiness? nahhh we’re still girls. </p></li>
<li><p>How would you describe the Columbia Barnard relationship?
The most confusing thing in the world. Never try to <em>define</em> it, just try to understand your boundaries and how you fit in. That being said, my best friends go to CC (excluding my roomie), more than half my classes are at columbia, my professors treat me the same, students almost always do (and I’ve found ways to take advantage of the ones who dont cuz i’m sassy like that), and i eat all my meals at columbia. You will probably be on the columbia campus every day. if that’s something you think is important, you can plan your classes accordingly. Also, extracurriculars other than dance ones are probably at columbia. </p></li>
<li><p>As of now, my grades are pretty decent to get into Barnard but they’re nothing special. How can I make my application stand out?</p></li>
</ol>