<p>Are you limited in how many classes you can take?</p>
<p>I am sure there will be a better explanation than mine, but there is no "limit"...in fact, there is not always a real differentiation between Barnard and Columbia classes....in some departments, they are the same (dance, for example, is offered only at Barnard for both colleges), and in some departments you can either take a Columbia or Barnard class (English, for example). My daughter is currently a Barnard student and finds, I think, when she has a choice, the better option is often the Barnard class for smaller class size and such... this was also expressed to us by a Columbia professor last spring (he urged prospective Columbia students to take as many Barnard classes as possible!!).</p>
<p>So no, there is not a real limit. There a a few classes you must take at Barnard (First year required classes...seminar, English, for example), but these are very few. Hope this helps a little. Look at the Columbia/Barnard websites. It's quite a unique set-up and has worked well for my kid.</p>
<p>I would echo ChurchMusicMom. (Hi, CMM!) Outside of the core at CC and the freshman Seminar at BC there are several options: some classes are offered on only one campus E.g Dance and Theater at BC, unusual languages such as Zulu and Serbocroat at CC; both BC and CC math departments seem to have offices together in the math building and which math class you sign up for has to do with scheduling convenience of the student rather than college of enrollment; Common classes are duplicated on both campuses e.g. sciences, English, common languages etc.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/home.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/home.html</a>
This is the site where you can look up classes and which of the student bodies can sign up for them.</p>
<p>Another handy tool for making class scheduling decisions is CULPA (Columbia University Underground Listing of Professor's Ability, I THINK is what it stands for), which is a website where students give professors a "grade" or rating and give feedback about their teaching style and such. My d has found this useful already. </p>
<p>And good to talk to you, too, Mardad! Hope you and yours are well!</p>
<p>My D has also found culpa.info useful, but the usefulness varies with the number of posters. When there are students who like and dislike a particular professor you get a more complete picture of what the class may be like.</p>
<p>you are not limited in the number of classes you take overall at columbia, and sometimes when you sign up for classes you dont even know which campus it's on. however, some majors do require you to take some specific barnard-only classes.</p>
<p>apart from columbia's core like uni writing, frontiers of science, lit hum.. u can pretty much take whatever u want. it's just as easy as signing up for barnard classes.
i feel in no way limited to classes at barnard.. half of my classes are at columbia.</p>
<p>silver_wavez, how to columbia classes compare to barnard classes?</p>
<p>Barnard students can also take CC core curriculum classes.</p>
<p>Anne, are you certain of this? I thought that the core courses were one of the few exclusions to Barnard students. It's pretty open in both directions but I do recall there were exceptions.</p>
<p>barnard students can take CC core classes, but it's much harder for us to get in and i think you have to talk to a dean about it. usually you can find a similar course or courses that satisfies your interest but isn't core. a lot of the core classes, like arthum, are hard enough for columbia students to get into because of limited space, so they try to discourage barnard students from taking it. that doesn't mean it's impossible, it's just a little more paperwork than other classes.</p>
<p>yeah basically the core is compulsory for all columbia students.. so they get priority.
barnard girls can take core classes but like people said earlier it is harder to get into. it's the same for columbia students trying to take first year english or first year seminar at barnard...
i don't know why anyone would be so desperate to take the columbia core classes though... you can almost always find other courses that are similar. also, if you desperately wanted to take the columbia core, you would have chosen to go to columbia rather than barnard. (cus this is the one main difference the 2 colleges have)</p>
<p>ecape - honestly, i couldn't give u a clear answer to that (because i've only been here one semester).. i can get back to u on that next semester..
but from what my barnard/columbia friends tell me.. there is not a whole lot of difference.
both barnard/columbia classes are demanding and they are interchangeable.
some departments are solely housed at barnard and vice versa...
hope that answers your question a little.</p>
<p>what departments are only housed at barnard and what departments are only housed at columbia?</p>
<p>dance is entirely at barnard, and urban studies, architecture, and theatre are mostly, if not entirely at barnard.. i think (it could be the other way around). engineering (although, i dont know if barnard students can take seas classes) and human rights are at columbia, and i think the math department is mostly at columbia as well. but it doesnt end up mattering except for the physical location of your classes.</p>
<p>Seems to vary by department.</p>
<p>The math departments seem totally integrated. My son took the introductory number theory class listed on the Columbia math department site. It was taught by a Barnard professor, a young female assistant prof with a PhD from Harvard who also taught at MIT. It was held on the Columbia campus and probably had more Columbia than Barnard students in it. </p>
<p>Economics, on the other hand, seems separate. Columbia econ majors can only take one or two designated econ classes at Barnard to count towards the major, I think. I don't know if that works in the other direction as well, since Columbia econ seems more math and less social-science oriented than Barnard's, at least judging from course title.</p>