Barnard stereotypes, promulgated by Columbians

<p>And once again I assert that your college doesn't define you. Were you not an intelligent and capable and talented person before you matriculated at Columbia? Would you not have done as well in life if you went to a different school? The point that I'm making is that people shouldn't want acceptances to the most selective colleges out there to feel validated. A girl who knows very well that she's intelligent won't be ashamed that she goes to Barnard and not Columbia.</p>

<p>Again, please read posts #3,#4 and #5. There is no argument here.</p>

<p>I have just gone and read those posts and I do agree with the content--just putting it out there that I don't think a struggling applicant should be deterred from applying to Barnard because the general perception is that Barnard students are slightly less intelligent.</p>

<p>I think it was a damn good contribution. I wish there had been someone to tell me what I just said.</p>

<p>Thanks for the hostility though--talk about constructive!</p>

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I think that an employer will really give due consideration to an entire application. Every Columbia student isn't necessarily better qualified for a job than every Barnard student.

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<p>To many employers, a Columbia student is, ceteris paribus, better than a Barnard student. Drastically immature? </p>

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And once again I assert that your college doesn't define you. Were you not an intelligent and capable and talented person before you matriculated at Columbia? Would you not have done as well in life if you went to a different school?

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<p>I was the heck more intelligent/talented/capable coming out of Columbia than going into Columbia. If I didn't go to Columbia, I have no doubt that my life wouldn't be the same. I was influenced by a couple awesome professors, I made some lifelong friends, learned a ton from all of my peers, grew as a person, yada yada. There are different paths to be successful in life, but they're different paths. And college plays a huge role in shaping you and the path you pursue.</p>

<p>I clarified that I was really talking about student-to-student interaction... I am not an employer or an employee and really don't know anything about the job market, but that statement was just an expectation I have. If I'm wrong... oh well, I'm comfortable making that concession</p>

<p>I'm sure that a college greatly develops its students, my only intention all along has been to say that a woman who loves Barnard shouldn't ixnay it just because it's less selective. Going to Barnard over Columbia (or vice versa) doesn't change the person that she is, even if it may change the person that she'll become (she does not now walk around with "less intelligent" tattooed on her forehead). </p>

<p>It's important for people to hear.</p>

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I think it was a damn good contribution. I wish there had been someone to tell me what I just said.

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<p>No because what you said has already been stated in the other 4 pages of this post.</p>

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It's important for people to hear.

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ok. that's great. I hope your self-esteem is validated.</p>

<p>But this thread was about the extent to which various stereotypes were held around campus. And I think you're doing a bit of a disservice to the "Barnard students are defensive about their choice of school" stereotype.</p>

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And once again I assert that your college doesn't define you.

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<p>-.- I'd like to see a Barnard girl say to when they are being interviewed 3 on 1 and asked "why do you attend Barnard and not Columbia?"
True that the college you attend doesn't change who you are, but you are being way to idealistic if you don't think it affects way other people looks and thinks about you (specifically employers)</p>

<p>^ i have to agree, ideally people should not judge you by the college you go to, but the real world has time constraints and decisions are taken on limited information (and time). Employers aside though, people too do make judgements about who you are from the college you go to, perhaps they shouldn't, I don't condone the prejudice, but for better or for worse it is present, everyone who makes these judgements isn't immature, they've just seen a trend in people they've met from that college, and associate you with the trend.</p>

<p>I think a college definitely moulds you, and if you don't let it mould you, you're an idiot, and i said 'mould' not 'define'. It is true though that you tend to develop characteristics of what your college embodies. I developed a love for philosophy and learning the sake of learning, a function of the core, that doesn't mean i am now a philosopher it means i now appreciate and know about it some more. A friend of mine goes to wharton, and has developed a serious aversion to philosophy and a dead practical mentality (along with many of his peers), which to be fair is really getting him places, a friend studying math at cambridge now writes funny poems with mathematical terminology in them, and a bunch of people who come to columbia ignorant become very left leaning politically. </p>

<p>to circumscribe my argument i'd say that if you're sure you'd be much happier at barnard, hands down don't throw away your ideal college experience and go there (if you get in).</p>

<p>Alright well I'm not going to bother trying to clarify (yet again) what I said, because I feel that it's totally lost on almost anyone who's read this.</p>

<p>I'm not a Barnard student, so I'm not perpetuating any stereotypes about Barnard students being defense of their school choice. I said something which I thought I would have liked to hear sooner when I was narrowing down my college list, because up until now I've been fairly sure that CC exists to help prospective students, and is not in fact a forum for students at elite universities to condescend to anyone who expresses an opinion contrary to their own. My mistake.</p>

<p>"because up until now I've been fairly sure that CC exists to help prospective students, and is not in fact a forum for students at elite universities to condescend to anyone who expresses an opinion contrary to their own. My mistake."</p>

<p>wow someone really is bitter, what surprises me though is that opinions other than your own are treated as condescending, elite and unhelpful. It's bad advice and probably highly inaccurate too to tell a prospective that the college you choose doesn't matter in the eyes of others and doesn't shape you. People perceive you that way and the college does (hopefully) affect you. I am not in anyway insinuating that one should define self worth by the college they go to, i don't think others here have said that either, but it takes more than a little naivety to think that the world removes 'the college you go/went to' when they first evaluate. Perhaps it's not what should happen, but it is what does happen.</p>

<p>You came in here, starting with post #57, talking as if you were a Barnard student. I interpreted it that way and it sounds like others did as well. My mistake.</p>

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Alright well I'm not going to bother trying to clarify (yet again) what I said, because I feel that it's totally lost on almost anyone who's read this.

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<p>Maybe it's totally lost because it's nonsensical?</p>