Hi,
I was hoping any current or former Barnard students (or parents of students) could comment on the workload and work-life balance at Barnard. I have heard mixed reviews- from manageable to grueling. I am prepared to work very hard but I’d like to get a sense of what’s expected- how many hours of studying a night, on average? Is there time to go out on the weekends?
Also, if anyone can estimate the average GPA of Barnard students that would be very helpful- I plan to go to grad school so I’d like to know whether or not it’s exceptionally difficult to get a good GPA.
Thanks!
It really depends on the amount of discipline you have. My d. graduated with a GPA above 3.9 and she worked as well as attended school throughout. She also socialized and went out, and often left entirely on weekends to visit friends at other colleges.
But I think she budgeted time carefully and cut out most of the goofing-off/doing nothing stuff out of her life. She definitely made it a point to stay on top of reading and assignments in her classes. She’s never been a procrastinator in any case, but I think she realized from the start that it was especially important not to let herself fall behind in college.
What’s your planned major? That could make a difference in terms of how hard you need to work.
I think that one thing that helps a lot is a campus culture of students who are serious about their studies. For example, I found the hallways in the first year dorms eerily quiet in comparison with my youthful experience as a student in a public u. There’s plenty of opportunity for students to socialize, but the dorms are not party centers. So you aren’t going to get disturbed or distracted by students carrying on at all hours.
@calmom thanks for the feedback and reply! My planned major is history.
I think you’ll be fine then – just be sure to keep on top of assigned reading. I asked about major because STEM majors can be more time-intensive because of required labs.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help early on if you run into problems.
I see from other posts that you are a transfer student. One problem that you might run into is differing academic expectations between your first college and Barnard, particularly in terms of the quality of written work. Barnard has a writing center where you can go for support if needed.
My daughter took an upper level course her first semester, and was stunned when she got a C on her first midterm – she didn’t know what was wrong, because she felt that she had gotten all the answers right – but she had finished her exam much quicker than the other students in the room. I explained that college profs wanted more than right answers- they wanted in-depth analysis. My daughter learned quickly – she got a perfect score on the long-form essay question on her 2nd midterm in the same class.
So it’s not that you would necessarily have any difficulty. It’s just that you can find that a paper that would be an easy A at college #1 gets a C at Barnard. But in that situation you are probably fully capable of writing an A paper – it’s just that you might not realize at first expectations are higher. Once you get the hang of it, though, it gets easier