<p>My daughter (class of 2015) is considering medieval and renaissance studies as a major. Her goal is to become a college professor and author. Can any current Barnard students (or recent grads) give any opinions on this major? Should she consider a double major of any type? My D also has a great love for languages, particularly Russian.</p>
<p>Hi! I saw your post and I knew I had to join and answer it! I just graduated from Barnard as Med/Ren major and I adored it. There were three of us in the class of 2011, which I think is fairly typical in terms of size. We all concentrated in history, but you can concentrate in whatever you like. The major has pretty easy requirements a certain number of classes in your concentration, more classes that are just Med/Ren but not your concentration, and a third language (which is to say, you have to pass Barnards language requirement and add another language.) Because we all concentrated in history, we essentially wrote history theses with the history majors, which was great.
One thing I would point out is that most of the Med/Ren classes at Barnard/Columbia do have a Western European focus. I took a lot of classes in medieval history and we barely touched Russia. I did take a Russian history class, but that was post 1682.
Also, any medieval studies grad program is almost definitely going to require Latin, German and French/Italian. So I would recommend trying at least one of those if she doesnt have them already in college.<br>
Feel free to PM me with any more questions! I loved the major and I would love to help somebody else who’s interested in the field!</p>
<p>Welcome, mrbc2011! Congrats on graduating and welcome to the Barnard boards on CC. I hope you stick around…</p>
<p>:)</p>