hi! i just got off of the waitlist at barnard college. i am in the process of deciding whether to attend, and want to know more about research at barnard. namely:
What kind of research?
Why do you want to or need to do research?
i want to do urban studies and a huge part of the draw for barnard is its association with major urban planning research institutes at columbia. the stuff they are doing at the center for sustainable urban development, center for resilient cities and landscapes, and the center for spatial research is right up my alley, and i want to make sure i could actually take advntage of them in undergrad.
How about contacting these places…and asking them!
Why don’t you reach out to the dept chair and ask.
I’m sure the answer is yes ( at most schools) but ask to get specific answers from the leaders of academia themselves.
Edit. - @thumper1 just wrote this
You show up at office hours to introduce yourself to the professor whose class you are taking and you say “If you know of any opportunities-- fact-checking, editing, number crunching, indexing-- I’d love to hear about them since I’m so excited to be in this class”.
Done. The professor may ask what skills you have (and hopefully, you have some!) but isn’t going to look askance and ask “Are you a Barnard student or a Columbia student”?
If the classes that you are interested in taking are all graduate level courses (and some may be) it’s unlikely that you’ll be “doing research” as a freshman… you’ll need both content knowledge AND actual skills in order to be useful to any professor!
If you haven’t taken statistics or programming yet in HS-- make that a first semester priority once you get to college. You will be much more useful in a research capacity once you’ve got some skills under your belt!
All students at the four(!!!) undergraduate colleges are Columbia University students, and all Barnard professors are also Columbia University faculty.
Students from the various colleges take classes on either campus, whichever fits their schedule best, or where a course happens to be taught that semester.
Neither professors (nor fellow students) care, which particular college you are enrolled at.
That also goes for other resources: As a first-year student, my daughter got a Columbia University fellowship towards summer studies in Venice, that included upper class people, and even grad students!
Yes - my daughter took/picked classes on both campuses, based on various criteria. The choice of course location never impacted her direct interaction with her professors.
She was very conscious about doing “her part”, and then making full use of office hours, and TA resources (in larger classes) and, in all her years there never expressed concerns about accessibility, responsiveness or lack of hands-on support (quite opposite - she often mentioned how helpful faculty had been.)
By the time she had decided on a major, professors suggested internship/practicum opportunities (even at other selective Manhattan universities), as well as sharing first-hand insights into different professional paths.
As far as your specific first-year research opportunities - that clearly is dependent on your field, on the current needs of professors vs. what you bring to the table.