<p>I would like to hear testimony from students who have taken classes at both institutions, what classes those were and how they have found them to compare?</p>
<p>Can you be more specific in your question? I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. It is impossible to make any sort of generalized conclusions about schools that offer thousands of classes. Nobody can fairly say "Barnard classes are like ___ but Columbia classes are more/less ___." There are substantial differences between the various classes at Columbia, depending on both the subject and the professor, so you'd likewise expect substantial differences between classes at Columbia and Barnard. I took two Barnard classes (one history, one science), and my "testimony" isn't really going to add anything to what I've already said.</p>
<p>hmm... I guess workload, teacher quality, student in-class engagement, difficulty to make As to start with... ?</p>
<p>workload - varies from teacher to teacher no matter which school you attend; some teachers from Columbia and Barnard give a very heavy workload and some teachers from Columbia and Barnard don't give as much work.</p>
<p>teacher quality - there are great teachers at both Columbia and Barnard and there are some not so great teachers at both Columbia and Barnard.</p>
<p>student in-class engagement - some teachers at both Columbia and Barnard encourage student engagement and some teachers at both Columbia and Barnard prefer lecture style. typically, at both schools, if the class is a seminar (and both schools offer seminar classes), there is more student participation.</p>
<p>difficulty making A's - some teachers at both Columbia and Barnard are harsh graders and some teachers at both Columbia and Barnard are more forgiving and don't grade as harshly. depends on the individual teacher.</p>
<p>I think you are looking for generalizations to your questions and there aren't any. If you are interested in a particular teacher's workload and quality, check out CULPA.info. It's impossible to generalize about these things. There is good and bad everywhere -- including at Columbia and Barnard. If there is a teacher/class you want at Columbia, as a Barnard student you can take it. As a student at Columbia, if there is a class/teacher you want at Barnard, you can take it. </p>
<p>I understand that you are trying to make as informed decision as possible, but, unfortunately, nobody can give you the assurances you are looking for.</p>
<p>Well, in my OP, I asked about SPECIFIC courses/teachers students had... b/c that's all I'm asking for, is specific individual experiences.
But to make your job easier, I'm most interested in Environmental Biology, Environmental Policy, Anthropology, and Africana studies.</p>
<p>Have you looked at <a href="http://www.culpa.info?%5B/url%5D">www.culpa.info?</a> You can enter the class name and it will display all of the teachers of that subject that people have reviewed. While the reviews only cover a small fraction of the teachers at both schools, it'll give you a start. </p>
<p>Having people respond on this board with antedotal information about a class they took isn't really going to be very helpful. Even if you read reviews on culpa, the same teacher can get both awesome and terrible reviews depending on who's writing the review.</p>
<p>Columbia Mom (who had a great post) and I have told you everything you need to know. What are the odds that someone on here took a class in African Studies or Environmental Policy at Columbia/Barnard? Virtually none. I think it is time for you to give up this line of questioning.</p>
<p>yes ma'am.</p>
<p>I guess you're in luck :) I'm at Barnard and I have a friend at Columbia who's majoring in Environmental Policy. She's only in her second year but from what I've heard the faculty is great. Aside from that since the environmental science department at any school is smaller than the other physical sciences, you're bound to run into difficulty in gaining popular opinion.</p>
<p>For African studies, I have some friends who are interested in African literature so they go through the Comparative Literature dept and a couple who pursue African studies through the French dept and its studies. I'm not sure if this is a major but I would say it's more of an interdisciplinary study.</p>
<p>So for these two majors, just their existence and faculty at Barnard/Columbia shows that there's resources available to a certain extent.</p>
<p>And of course for your general question, I would have to agree with everyone else. I've experienced good and bad faculty both for Barnard and Columbia faculty and Barnard/Columbia classes. I think it's most important to realize the distinctions of Barnard and Columbia classes. Yes, some are defined as one or the other but there are the Interdepartmental Faculty members and the classes that are open to both schools equally so it's sometimes hard to distinguish one from another. Any additional q's, I'd be delighted to answer to the best of my knowledge.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>