<p>Hey everyone,
I was wondering if someone could shed some light on the course selection process at Barnard /CC. I know a lot of my friends who area already in college have trouble getting into the courses that they want (i.e. they fill up quickly, and then they’re shut out.) In this way, they have trouble getting the credits they need for their majors in time for graduation. Is this a problem at Barnard? (I am also asking about Columbia because BC students undoubtedly take SOME of their classes at CC.) </p>
<p>I’m a sophmore and in my experience, like a like of other schools, getting a perfect schedule is nearly impossible. In the summer before registration you will get a booklet with a listing of classes that are appropriate for freshman. You are not limited to these classes but most of the classes you would want to take are in the book for example Gen Chem, Bio, Intro Economics, languages etc. are included. Some of the classes in the booklet are BC and some are CC. The good news is that they actually reserve spots in these major courses for freshmen. So you can get most of the courses you will want as a freshman. I did have a problem with my language course but that was an unusual situation because of my language placement.</p>
<p>The bad news is that some of the freshman classes are quite large. I expected to have mostly classes of less than 30 and in fact most have been 80-100. That’s the downside of the pre-med curriculum. Sophmore year was actually more challenging in terms of getting classes, and housing for that matter, because I didn’t have the guaranteed spots reserved for freshmen - but it worked out. I think getting the classes you need for your major is not that hard. (the possible exception is psych - I haven’t taken this track but have heard horror stories about it)</p>
<p>Number of people in class: This occurs in many schools that advertise small classes. Classes with lots of students have more students. We tend to forget that. Let’s say for example we survey a school with only ten classes. Nine of the classes have ten people; one has 90. Ninety per cent of the classes are small. The average class size is 18, but 50 per cent of the students are in a large class.</p>
<p>Classes that require student participation are small: freshman seminar, language classes etc.</p>
<p>TAs tend to be in writing classes or as back-up to a prof in a large class that has small discussion groups.</p>
<p>The premed requirement classes do tend to be large.</p>