<p>I’m sure similar posts surface with every new incoming class, but recently I’ve begun worrying about how easy/difficult it will be to transition from high school life and work to Barnard. </p>
<p>To be completely honest, I don’t really considered myself a “totally dedicated, hard-working student” mostly because while I enjoy learning, being disciplined about studying diligently has always been a challenge with a wide range of distractions. I know, though, that my peers will be studying very hard and already used to a balance between school and fun that works for them and so I’m concerned that it’ll be difficult to keep up.</p>
<p>As it appears that many people on the Barnard forum have quite a bit of experience/knowledge on the first-year experience, I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on:</p>
<li>If it’s difficult at first to get acclimated to amount of work given, and how the work is different from high school</li>
<li>Finding a balance between schoolwork and leisure when there’s so much to do in NYC</li>
<li>About how many hours per day is dedicated to studying</li>
<li>How often students go out during a typical week</li>
<li>The “anxiety” (for lack of a better term) about not being able to keep up with the other students</li>
</ol>
<p>We have two daughters at Barnard, so I think I can answer some of you questions.
1) Amount of work: DW, the teacher of the family, says that the number of hours of the class should be multiplied by two to yield the number of hours outside the classroom that should be spent on homework. Probably not everyone is doing that much work. The serious pre-meds are probably doing more.
2) The curve tends to push you toward a "B". In her first year D1 worked as a tutor 12 hrs a week, saw 6 operas and 5 musicals and pulled all Bs. The next semester she did almost nothing entertaining and got all Bs. Pulling As requires some effort except for math if you are a math genius. It's not a linear relationship. Doing home work easily yields a B. Getting an A requires much more work.
3) D2 does something entertaining two nights a week. That is probably average.
4) Neither is anxious about keeping up, but the younger mentioned a friend who pulled a 185 out of 200 in organic chemistry at a state university where the class average was 95/200 and said she wished she had more people in her class at Barnard who didn't care.</p>
<p>I think mardad is on target. My D has received As her first semester, but worked pretty hard. She works 12 hrs/wk and has a couple regular extracurricular commitments each week. She’s attended plays with classes or professors, but has commented that she could be attending school anywhere since she works so hard.</p>