<p>My cantor recently told me abou the Double Degree Program with Barnard College (Barnard & List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary) and the Joint Program with Columbia (Columbia General Studies and List College). At first I dismissed this idea as only for people who wanted to become rabbis or cantors but now I'm not sure. </p>
<p>(For those who don't know, these programs are double degree programs where one can receive a degree in some sort of Jewish studies and another degree in any field.)</p>
<p>Does anybody know anybody who is actually part of one of these two programs? Does he/she like it? What is his/her background in Judaism and Hebrew? </p>
<p>My daughter looked into List College - we attended the Junior visiting day and she attended the Senior visiting weekend there. If you are interested in a program where you can really get a chance to study an area of Jewish study, I would strongly recommend you look into attending one of these open house programs. They do an incredible job of selling the place as well as really answering questions about the program.</p>
<p>One of the things that really struck us was how passionate the kids there were about loving the place. During the junior visiting day we pretty much only saw the students who were part of the program, so you may think that they are a selected group - but when ny daughter was there for the weekend and stayed in the dorms, she felt that everyone there loved it there.</p>
<p>The students represent a broad range of backgrounds - public school and day school, observant and not observant. Hebrew is required, but if you they offer courses at all levels so they don't assume you come in with any level of proficiency. My daughter met a lot of kids there who were involved in USY (something she had in common with them) or had attended Ramah camps, but that was not universal.</p>
<p>It is a really intense program. They require more credits to graduate than any other school we looked at. You are doing two complete majors - one at Barnard/Columbia and one at JTS. Students end up taking a pretty heavy course load and many take summer courses to keep on track for finishing in 4 years. But the kids there love it - they are getting to study their regular college stuff at Columbia/Barnard - one of the finest universities/colleges in the country and to also explore their Jewish studies at the Jewish Theorlogical Seminary - the cornerstone of the Conservative movement (not all kids there are from Conservative backgrounds though). Two amazing institutions!</p>
<p>If you attend the program with Barnard you have a choice of living in the Barnard dorm or in the List dorms. If you are inthe joint program with Columbia, you have to live in the List dorms. The List dorms don't have a meal plan - the students share kitchens and prepare their own meals. This actually seemed to help foster a real sense of community among the kids in the dorm.</p>
<p>My daughter ended up not applying. She loved everything about List EXCEPT the fact that it was in NYC, which ended up being the deal breaker for her. As part of the senior weekend they took the prospective students to see a Broadway show and they travelled by subway - for some kids this was part of the selling point - for my daughter, it convinced her that she didn't want to go to college in NYC.</p>
<p>Bottomline- its intense, its a unique opporunity - if its something you think you may be interested in - pursue it and visit!</p>
<p>I have a good friend whose daughter just finished her freshman year in this program. She LOVES it and couldn't be happier. But, FYI, she does want to be a cantor. I am sorry that I don't know more about her experiences, but if you wuold like more information, I'll see if I can get her email address.</p>
<p>My impression was that the women who chose to be in the program with Barnard rather than the program with Columbia, likely did so because they wanted to be involved at Barnard - most of them, I believe (though not all) chose to be in the Barnard dorms. So my guess is that they are more likely to be involved socially at Barnard too. </p>
<p>They all expressed the feeling that there was a lot available socially -being in NYC and affiliated with Columbia - but I couldn't really tell how much they actually went there as opposed to staying with their community at List. Certainly, Columbia will have much more going on simply because it is so much larger.</p>