<p>Hey everyone :).
I’m kind of in the dilemma of choosing a college (this great dilemma I am so grateful to have the chance to be in). At this point I’m sort of leaning towards Barnard with Wellesley very close by and I love Smith too (mainly because of STRIDE). I would be really grateful if any students or parents could share insight on Barnard to help me make my decision. </p>
<p>I’m interested in Biology (genetic engineering & biotech) and Creative Writing. I would probably like to have theater and journalism as ECs so I would love it if someone could share their experience with those things at Barnard. </p>
<p>Since it’s NYC, there’s also the safety factor to consider.</p>
<p>Also, from what I’ve read Barnard seems to be a more close-knit, exclusive circle within Columbia with all of Columbia’s facilities which is why I liked it better than Columbia itself. What I don’t get is why USNews insists on ranking Barnard separately because it is an undergraduate college of Columbia. College Confidential forums do make it seem like Columbia College students look down upon Barnard girls but I’m guessing it couldn’t really be like that or the colleges wouldn’t be so closely intertwined. </p>
<p>How is the Barnard graduate school placement?Is Wellesley’s better?Is Smith’s STRIDE the best work-study you could get?</p>
<p>I think it makes a lot of sense to go to Barnard if you want to do something in biology because you’ll have SO many opportunities with Columbia right next door. </p>
<p>Have you visited Barnard? The area Barnard is in is very safe IMO, and NYC is actually considered one of the safest (big) cities in the country. Of course I am a city girl, but as long as you have some street smarts that should be a non issue.</p>
<p>It was only recently that Barnard and Columbia revamped their websites and Columbia included Barnard as one of their undergraduate schools. Before that there was some ambiguity towards whether Barnard was an independent and merely affiliated school or under Columbia University’s wing. Maybe USNews will get the memo soon? I kind of feel like probably not though…but honestly it doesn’t really matter. The ranking is irrelevant because when you get your degree it will say “Columbia University” on it.</p>
<p>Barnard is the only LAC I am applying to, and also the only women’s college I am applying to. Basically it only ended up on my list because of its ideal location (like I said…I’m a city girl.) Only later, did I start to really like it for what it offered. I think your decision comes down to what kind of an experience you want. Obviously, Wellesley and Smith will offer a more conventional women’s college feel with a much larger campus. The first I don’t want and the latter I don’t mind (since Columbia is so close.) But it really depends on what you would like!</p>
<p>As far as grad placement, I don’t really know…although I’m crossing my fingers to get into Columbia’s law school. And I imagine Barnard would have quite a few opportunities in the city of internships, work-study, etc? But I have no clue really…</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses!
Naomikt, that certainly sounds promising :). Ah that recent updating explains some of the confusion!
I should probably have mentioned that I can’t visit since I live abroad far far away and that I’ve never actually been to NYC.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Are you a city person or a country person? What would you rather do on a warm afternoon – visit an art gallery or take a long hike in the woods? Think about <em>fit</em>. Also, think about <em>men</em>. They are very close at Barnard and very much interested in getting to know Barnard women.</p>
<p>really calmom? because one of the only things that kind of worries me about Barnard is the all women aspect…so there is a lot of interaction with guys at Barnard even though there aren’t any? I thought since Columbia kind of feels superior to Barnard, they’d intermingle there and Barnard women would have to look elsewhere…this may not be true, but it’s what I’ve heard/read…yay that makes me feel better!</p>
<p>City I guess because I don’t like being too out of touch with the hustle bustle, technology etc but then there are days when I feel like taking a long walk. I wish i could just go everywhere (yes, too wildly out of the realm of reality lol).
Anyway this is really helping me out and I really appreciate the answers :).</p>
<p>Well, shadowhunter…I must say Central Park is absolutely gorgeous. It might not be quite the wilderness, but you can definitely take a long walk and get away if you want to.</p>
<p>And Columbia guys is another big positive, haha. :P</p>
<p>Both of our daughters had to choose between Wellesley and Barnard and chose Barnard even though I predicted Wellesley. Neither applied to Smith although I loved it on the college tour. Maybe my enthusiasm was what killed Smith. You will get a great education at either. D1 ,currently at Michigan Law, thought Barnard had a more funky feel to it and that Wellesley women were more prepared (in a Stepford kind of way). The information sessions at Barnard’s ASW were 10 minutes of prepared material and 50 minutes of off-the-cuff Q andA. At Wellesley she felt that there was too much prepared material and that during the Q and A the answers had been pre-scripted. D2, Film major and Physics minor, chose Barnard as well. She has taken all of the premed classes, both managed and produced a play, and took a semester in Bologna. (The extra comma is a Vampire Weekend reference.) At Columbia much of the theater activity is at Barnard.</p>
<p>After graduation she will live in NYC. I bring this up in reference to your safety question. I have reminded D2 that wherever she lives it will never be as safe as Barnard, where there is triple coverage.</p>
<p>Work opportunities: both Ds did the baby sitting thing which is lucrative in comparison to our neighborhood. (Getting paid to do your homework) Both also did daytime work taking care of children. In one case it was out of the Nanny Diaries. Later in their careers they got jobs with their major departments. Most of these go to people on financial aid, but later on you can get them because you have some skills in your major.</p>
<p>I would encourage you to go to the ASWs and get a gut feeling. I would like you to choose Barnard because of my ties there, but you can’t go wrong at any of the three. The decision may need to be made on less than objective information. Imagine yourself spending four years at each of the three institutions.</p>
<p>Shadowhunter, you asked about grad placement. I can speak to my d’s experience as a neuroscience major. She graduated form Barnard a couple of years ago and found the faculty to be very helpful and supportive through the grad school application process. She was successful and is currently working on her PhD at her first choice school.</p>
<p>I can also say that she got great experience in labs, both as a Columbia Amgen Scholar one summer and then at her advisor’s lab at Barnard (where she completed work for her Senior Thesis). Oh, and the fact that, as a Barnard graduate, you will have completed an original research project and then written your thesis, seems to be a great thing for grad school applications…</p>
<p>About safety: I never, ever felt concerned at all about my daughter when she was at Barnard. NYC is a very safe place.</p>
STRIDE is NOT “work-study” – it is a paid research position, which is pretty cool – but “work-study” is a program for financial aid recipients that provides a paying on-campus job. That job can also be a research position (depending on how broadly you define “research”), but it is far more likely to be something else, especially during your first year.</p>
<p>Barnard students are eligible to take work-study jobs at Columbia as well as Barnard; the Columbia positions tend to pay a little more.</p>
<p>My d. also did a little bit of work via Barnard Babysitting and a whole lot of work through Barnard Bartending. (lots of work, excellent pay, occasional good tips, free food, free food leftovers, and every once in a while an inside view of a really awesome party).</p>
<p>If you are not eligible for work study (the financial aid kind) – then Barnard wouldn’t offer you anything comparable to STRIDE. There are campus jobs available for non work-study students, but they are harder to come by and usually the work-study students have preference. It’s a funding thing – work-study money is a federally funded program – I believe that the government pays a certain percentage of the hourly salary.</p>
<p>If you are receiving financial aid, then you could expect a work-study grant – but you would have to find the job and work to earn it on an hourly basis. Sometimes, depending on the job and the student’s schedule, it can be hard to find the time to work all the hours needed to earn the full grant amount. I think the Smith STRIDE money is in the form of a stipend, which means it is probably paid out as a lump sum.</p>
Columbia is not a monolithic body with a singular feeling, like the Borg in Star Trek. It is a large student body of young men and women. Most aren’t thinking about being “superior” to anyone – and those who arrive at school with that attitude have it knocked out of them rather quickly. It’s more likely that a typical Columbia student (male or female) arrives on campus feeling kind of intimidated by the whole thing. </p>
<p>It really depends a whole lot on you and your interests. My d. likes to go to baseball games; she was active in campus political causes – so she is doing the kind of things that guys also like to do. She was not interested in dating during her first three years, as she was still involved with a boyfriend attending a different school – but she had male friends she could hang out with. Probably more male friends than female. </p>
<p>You really have to keep in mind that it is an urban setting, most socializing takes place on the city streets near campus rather than on campus, and there is no way to know whether a given female student is from Columbia or Barnard unless you ask or that student chooses to tell you. My daughter found faces in her Barnard yearbook after she graduated of women students she had known for years, but never knew that they went to Barnard. Obviously many students tend to make friends with others in their dorm and hang out in the dorm a lot – and that isn’t a very effective way to meet men – but my d. tends to go out and about for her socializing.</p>
<p>D2 took some creative writing courses at Barnard, she liked them.</p>
<p>I think an important element would be to give careful consideration to what your life might be like at each school, and which group you think you might feel most comfortable with. Do overnights, see if the women dress like you do; whether you “fit”. Find out what people do on weekends and decide whether that’s how you want to live.</p>
<p>I don’t know what STRIDE is, maybe that’s a big deal, and would be quite important for you. I’ve no idea.</p>
<p>“What I don’t get is why USNews insists on ranking Barnard separately …”</p>
<p>US News ranks Barnard separately because it is a separate college. However it is a Columbia affiliate, which is an integral part of it and gives its students access to tremendous additional resources beyond the stand-alone college. US News simply does not have the framework to deal with this type of currently-unusual relationship.</p>
<p>Some of you parents have missed this – in post #4 - Shadowhunter lives abroad and CAN’T VISIT – no overnights, no admitted student events – she is depending on us to help her make a decision based on the information she can gather.</p>
<p>So please don’t encourage her to visit – I’m sure she would love to, but it just isn’t practical for her.</p>
<p>Barnard alum and bio major here. I can’t say enough positive things about the bio department and the education I got at Barnard. Even though biology is a popular major, Barnard is a small enough school that most non-intro classes have 30-40 people max (labs are capped at 16 students) and you’ll definitely get to know your professors and fellow majors. Most Columbia science classes are open to Barnard students as well, giving you more options and scheduling flexibility. Research opportunities abound - at Barnard, at Columbia (both Morningside and Health Sciences campuses), around the city (med schools, hospitals, research institutes, science museums, you name it!); many of these internships involve financial compensation through grants. There are also work-study opportunities in the bio department, as well as opportunities for non-work-study compensation as research assistant or lab TA.
Don’t have first-hand experience with the other programs you’re interested in, but Barnard’s writing program is legendary, there are tons of journalism opportunities (writing for on-campus publications or interning off-campus), and the theatre department for all CU undergrads is housed at Barnard.
Wellesley and Smith are also excellent schools - well-regarded, with lots of opportunities, and definitely more of a traditional campus and women’s college feel. While Barnard and Columbia have attractive campuses (surrounded by a pleasant, safe, and student-oriented neighborhood), the city location does mean that the student community is less cohesive relative to more isolated schools. Also, due to the integration with Columbia, Barnard’s social scene feels more like a larger co-ed school than a small, all-female LAC. This contrast is a benefit for many, since you get the inspiration and support of a women’s college, while still being able to have guys in your life, but it’s something to consider.</p>
<p>My daughter had a similar choice and a few others. Barnard felt right for her. She feels very safe there and is absolutely loving it. We were not city folk per say but we live in a mid size area. Only thing she hated was the weather this year, but Boston will not be much better. NYC is really neat and diverse – lots of opportunity between Barnard and Columbia both socially and academically. My advice would be go visit… see which campus appeals to you and then take the plunge. All are excellent schools, can’t really go wrong here.</p>
Of course I am a city girl, but as long as you have some street smarts that should be a non issue.</p>
and that I’ve never actually been to NYC.