<p>Okay, I love the Barnard course-selection, and the fact it’s easy to take courses at Columbia, but frankly I don’t really like living in cities. I find traffic noise especialy distracting. Because I’ve never visited Barnard, it’s right in the city, right? Are there any green spaces? Can you hear traffic noise from inside the dorms and classrooms? (that drove me nuts about UChicago)</p>
<p>I visited the Barnard campus, and was not bothered by the noise. There's actually a surprising amount of green space and trees, they have a small quad-type thing in the center of campus with nice grass. Barnards also way uptown in a semi-residential neighborhood. And a couple blocks away there's a park.</p>
<p>IMHO UChicago is less metro than Barnard or Columbia.</p>
<p>Morningside Heights is very low key and calm for New York.</p>
<p>This is true but the city of NY is such a part of the experience. I cannot imagine spending 4 years there and hating city life.</p>
<p>oh well... darn</p>
<p>Yeah, liking NYC is not sufficient but it's necessary if you're going to Barnard. What cities have you lived in? NYC is sui generis.</p>
<p>Barnard is not your only choice. For example:</p>
<p>Wells College (rural- Aurora, NY) can cross-register at nearby Cornell.
Wellesley (suburban, Wellesley MA) can cross-register at MIT.
Chatham (residential section of Pittsburgh) can attend classes at Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>I can only speak as a visiting parent. In the dorm, quad and classroom one seems to be away from the city in a more suburban environment. Perhaps the trees filter out the noise. One returns to the bustle of the city when crossing Broadway to the quad and classes on the Columbia side, but once inside the gates of Columbia one returns to again to a more classic "college" environment.
We were surprised when our daughter chose Barnard over more suburban and rural campuses, because we had always assumed that she preferred those situations over the city. You might consider the city to be "on tap" as it is so convenient to the college. If you want a dose of New York, it is just down the route 1 subway line. In her first semester our daughter has attended four operas, four musicals and two plays. (I hope she's going to class as well)
I would echo the recommendations of the posters above that you visit the campus and see if you like how one can change readily from suburban to urban environments so quickly.</p>
<p>Heh, I didn't really like NYC. Other than having a 24 hour grocer downstairs, that is.</p>
<p>Ecape, as the board's well known Smith honk, I'll say if you don't like the city but are open to a women's college, do take a look at Smith. Northampton is only 30,000 and my D was coming from the opposite point of view...was NoHo big enough? Columbia had been her original #1 on paper but she wound up not even applying, though she did apply (and was accepted) to Barnard as well as Wellesley.</p>
<p>She's having a spectacular time at Smith and wouldn't be anywhere else if she could.</p>
<p>Thanks, but I'm already attending Smith. I'm looking to transfer out as a second-semester sophomore or as a junior, b/c I am interested in finding a more challenging academic situation and better resoures for research and environemental studies.</p>
<p>Ecape, if you're finding that Smith is not Academically challenging you may have a similar problem at Barnard or Columbia in terms of the scholastic demands or the intelligence of your peer group. The "stimulation" is often in the hands of the student and how she approaches the professors and other resources. If on the other hand you objection is not the depth but the breadth of the challenge, the transfer is worth doing. The Barnard/CC/Fu combination will have have little niches that the smaller LACs can't afford such as Zulu or Pulaar, the language of north Senegal.</p>
<p>ecape -- I don't know if Barnard is the best choice for you then. Although the college might be in a residential part of NYC, Barnard utilizes the city in many courses. Quite frankly, being in the city is one of its unique aspects. With that, you should apply, visit (again) and see if you like it. Smith is a lot more quiet, Wellesley is in the suburb of Boston, etc.</p>
<p>if you're a transfer then you wouldnt be living in first year dorms, which are right on broadway and, i have found, do experience a lot of noise. the ones on the broadway side get traffic, the ones on the quad side get screaming drunk people at 3 a.m. and all other times. i dont think this is so much the case in the upperclass dorms, particularly elliot, which is the transfer dorm. there is a lot of green space here - imagine smith or vassar with a wrought iron gate around it condensing it into four city blocks. not as much as you may be used to, but still there. you can escape noise if you want, but it would probably interfere with your quality of life. maybe find something that's halfway between the isolation of smith and the urban locale of barnard?</p>
<p>i feel like morningside heights is a safe haven in a big city called new york. whenever i come back 'home' from downtown i always feel safe and relieved to get away from the mad hustle bustle.
my dorm faces broadway and u can def hear the traffic but it kinda just becomes soothing background noise. :)
it's fun sometimes.. you can hear all the wild kids outside.. or the marching band coming to disturb your studies.
i haven't been to uchicago but i got in there and chose barnard. one of the best choices i have ever made.
but anyway, nyc is def a big part of barnard/columbia.. if that doesn't appeal to you then it might not be the best choice.</p>
<p>I absolutely ADORE Barnard, as silver_waves could tell you, seeing as she's my next door neighbor. Maybe I'm not the right person to give my opinion...but I have been in love with New York my entire life. (My house is in the suburbs). So, on TOP of the fact that Barnard is an amazing school, it was its location that really drew me in, and separated it from other small LACs. This said, being in Morningside Heights is VERY different than going to say, NYU. It's just a different experience- more quiet, like a neighborhood to come home to at the end of the day. Also, the Barnard propaganda is definately true...Barnard is an incredibly unique college experience in that one can feel like they are part of both a small, incredibly caring community, and also part of a large, ivy-league research institution. </p>
<p>Another poster said something about cross-registering at Cornell or other colleges at other women's schools, but Barnard is very different. Taking classes at Columbia is not what I would consider cross-registering; it is far more common than that and when looking at the online course book, everything is listed together. In fact, I think that with scheduling and such, it would be quite difficult to NOT take classes at Columbia. </p>
<p>...And finally, I'm sorry Thedad, but I somehow find some of the things that you say to be very offensive. Why are you so obsessd with proving that Smith is better than Barnard? One of my best friends is at Smith, and she likes it, but the two schools are COMPLETELY different. Calm down! I won't ask why you (or any other parent) is on this site, ESPECIALLY after their children have gone off to college, but I can't help thinking that it's very strange.</p>
<p>As for the poster- if you want to do an overnight, definately call Barnard, or I could even take you in for a night!</p>
<p>BG7, I continue to be on this board because a) I've developed a lot of useful insights to applicants and parents about LAC's in general and womens colleges in particular, b) TheMom has worked in university administration for 25 years and I have useful information from that direction, and c) the owners of CC asked me to stick around. I hope that's good enough for you.</p>
<p>And I'm not particularly hung up on trying to prove Smith better than Barnard. It's all a matter of fit. My D was admitted to Wellesley, Barnard, and Smith and found things to like about all three. And after visiting both Barnard and Columbia, applied to Barnard but not Columbia, which had been #1. My suggestion in this thread to consider Smith was apropos of a poster saying she didn't like big cities...which would make Barnard a very odd choice, imo, as so much of its distinction comes from the way that NYC is your back yard. Imo.</p>
<p>I apologize, thedad- didn't know they asked you to stay. I hope they pay you! :)</p>
<p>Apology accepted. And no, not directly...though they did give some useful advice about my D's essays, etc., and one of the owners (Sally Rubenstone) is a former <cough!> Smith admissions officer who was extraordinarily helpful during my D's process.</cough!></p>
<p>I can say that I'm so happy that year of application/selection is left behind...it's the least I can do to help a few other people through it. Even if they're not even applying to Smith. ;)</p>