Should I transfer to Barnard from Reed?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Barnard College
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<p>Using Chrome here, on Windows – but it doesn’t matter. The problem isn’t with the browser, it’s with the link.</p>

<p>Here’s why: The code that you provided wouldn’t work because it directs to an anchor on a different page than the base URL, for anyone using CC with default viewing options. It’s possible that it works for you because of specific options that you have set for viewing. That is – my user settings for “Number of posts to display per page” is “Use forum default” – which probably is what the vast majority of CC users have, since you have to do some digging to even figure out how to change settings. (I believe the forum default is to display 15 posts per page) If you had your settings to allow display of more than 25 posts (either 30 or 40 posts per page, according to available options) … then it’s possible that your link might work for you … but it isn’t going to work for anyone else. </p>

<p>The link you provided in raw form is:</p>

<p>http:// Daughter talking about dropping out - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums</p>

<p>The part that is written as #post1065985453 is an anchored link – the hash mark indicates that the browser should go to a part of the code on the page which bears the notation “id=post1065985453” – but only if that text can be found on the page indicated by the URL above.</p>

<p>Under system defaults, Post #25 is generated on the 2nd page of the thread, meaning that the base URL is:</p>

<p>http:// talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1042025-daughter-talking-about-dropping-out-2.html</p>

<p>(note that it ends in “dropping-out-2.html” rather than “dropping-out.html”). </p>

<p>The link I suggested does not depend on layout – that is, </p>

<p>http:// talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065985453-post25.html</p>

<p>does not have an anchor on the end – it links directly to the single post. (If you click it you will see that only that post shows up, rather than the whole thread.) So my link would work no matter what the default viewing mode. </p>

<p>Again, you can pick that up for any post with a right click to the post number.</p>

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<p>Ok, but I’m not creating or editing the link; I just copy and paste it from Safari’s URL of the specific post I want to point to. So is editing required to get it into the format that works for everyone? Is it a bug in Safari that the correct general format is not automatically created, or a bug in CC’s implementation, or a weakness in html, or ???</p>

<p>I tried switching from 40 back to default, but it didn’t help; the same URL is generated.</p>

<p>Thanks for explaining this! :)</p>

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<p>Safari uses the same underlying engine as Chrome – but I opened Safari just to check and when I use the technique I described (right-click post number on the upper right side of the post; select “copy link”) I always get the link in the same format - a link to a single, numbered page, ending in “post##.html” – so I don’t know where you would get anything else. Maybe you copied the URL from a search results screen rather than from the actual post.</p>

<p>It really can’t be the browser, because when you use the right-click menu to pull up a URL, all you are doing is picking up whatever is in the source code in the page. So whatever is on the page is what will be copied.</p>

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<p>Calmom: you never cease to amaze.</p>

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<p>I myself endured the “castor oil” approach to academics, being in the sciences and not quite smart enough to do what I was doing, and I have quite mixed emotions about it. But I did not face a negative situation socially, or environmentally at the same time. Besides, Barnard academics are suitably demanding to help develop reasonably needed life skills along those lines IMO.</p>

<p>A feature of transferring is that you start all over socially. Wherever you are, the floor/ dorm you wind up in freshman year often sets the tone for your subsequent social experience. If this happened not to be good, whether because sympatico people are not highly represented at your school or by chance you just didn’t wind up among them- it can be hard to get a “do-over” continuing at the same school, once everyone else in your cohort has established their social circles.</p>

<p>The transfer cohort however, represents exactly that “do-over”. Like freshman year, you are again part of a significant group that is receptive to meeting new people, in a new environment. Consequently, if the school facilitates making these connections, its possible that transferring can improve a negative social situation.</p>

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<p>“Maybe you copied the URL from a search results screen rather than from the actual post.”</p>

<p>Something like that. In this case I plugged “hindsight reed ego” into CC’s Advanced Search/Keyword(s) field, clicked on “I can only speak to our own experience (and the…” (which I recognized as the correct post), was taken to post #25, copied "[noparse]<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1042025-daughter-talking-about-dropping-out.html#post1065985453[/noparse]“&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1042025-daughter-talking-about-dropping-out.html#post1065985453[/noparse]&lt;/a&gt;” from the URL field and pasted it into my post. And, of course, it worked for me when I tested it, but I understand why now (thanks!).</p>

<p>So why doesn’t</p>

<p>[noparse]<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065985453-post25.html[/noparse]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065985453-post25.html[/noparse]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>instead of</p>

<p>[noparse]<a href=“Daughter talking about dropping out - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>Daughter talking about dropping out - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums;

<p>appear in the URL field using my sequence? Which entity creates the undesirable URL? Safari? CC? The HTML spec?</p>

<p>For Mac/Safari, instead of right click (we don’t have that), control-click on the post number and select “Copy Link” which copies the proper URL to the clipboard.</p>

<p>Thanks again for your help!</p>

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<p>The links that are generated in the search are different than the links that are associated with the individual post numbers. </p>

<p>The “undesireable” URL was created on the fly by the forum software in response to your search request, keyed to your own forum options. Post numbers don’t show up visibly in search results – instead they give you a line of text that you can click on. Since you have your forum options set to view more than the default number of posts per page, the software calculated the URL that you would need for viewing. (It’s math, done on the fly – that’s why sometimes when things are busy around the time that college results come out, the moderators often turn off the search function for a time – it can put a lot of burden on the server to be doing all of those calculations in response to all the search functions)</p>

<p>If I do the same search that you did - (“hindsight reed ego”) - I get this URL:
http:// talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1042025-daughter-talking-about-dropping-out-2.html#post1065985453</p>

<p>(Note that mine ends in “dropping-out-2.html” - signifying that it is creating a link on a different page than the page & link the software created for you. Because this is a web forum, the pages are generated on the fly by software pulling content from a database).</p>

<p>Again, it has nothing to do with the browser, it’s all happening server side.</p>

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<p>Or, the transfer “do-over” can end up being just as bad or worse than the original situation, with the added day-to-day problem of adjusting to a new school as a junior. The problem is that there is no guarantee, and no going back.</p>

<p>I agree with you that housing can be a big part of the social connectedness issues, but my daughter ended up having bad years (socially) and good ones at Barnard, without too much continuity from year to year, depending vary much on the vagaries of room assignments. </p>

<p>It’s not clear to me whether the OP is unhappy with Reed due to social reasons, or if the primary problem is Portland. I think that Portland has been rated as one of America’s most livable cities – but I think that’s for people who like a quiet, sedate life.</p>

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<p>I inferred a social component to the problem from the original post:
“…am generally uninterested in the college culture”, and
“I am rarely actually happy here, past what satisfaction the academics deliver.”</p>

<p>But if that aspect is in fact actually not an issue here so be it.</p>

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<p>“I am in college for the academics, after all.”</p>

<p>If that is most important to you, and you love your current academic environment, I would be cautious about trying to fix the situation, especially if you sense recent improvement in how you feel. If your assessment of Barnard academics turns out to be correct from your standpoint, would that be okay if the rest of your life improved?</p>

<p>Have you been much happier in the past, such that this change to being unhappy is the problem? Is time crawling such that you can’t face another 2 1/2 years of it?</p>

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<p>The problem is that we don’t know what she means by “the college culture”. Reed has a rather quirky culture of its own. Barnard has its own distinct “culture” – which may or may not be a good fit for the OP. (In general, it was not a good fit for my daughter – but my daughter decided early on that the academics were more important than social factors – she has the whole rest of her life to hang out with friends, and that part is going quite well now that she has graduated.)</p>

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<p>One issue to consider is that Nine Ways of Knowing plus thesis give a huge chunk of requirements. It is hard for some transfers to meet their distribution requirements and complete their majors in the allotted time.</p>

<p>I would take a catalogue and see if you can.</p>

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<p>Thank you all for the insight. To elaborate on my social problems at Reed: I have a handful of friends that are scattered in different milieus but I have not integrated into any particular unit, and on a day to day basis it translates into isolation. I think that a lot of bonds are in fact formed in the very beginning, and a lot of the people I still interact with I met then, but when I first came to Reed I didn’t really make as much of an effort as I should have. Thus far I’ve had no luck actually situating myself in any kind of group–though I do try, and haven’t found a fit–and as a result, I’m in the library on Friday and Saturday until I get kicked out at midnight. I think Reed’s small size makes it hard. The odds of finding a fellow and like-minded outsider go down significantly.</p>

<p>vossron’s question stuck out to me:
“Have you been much happier in the past, such that this change to being unhappy is the problem? Is time crawling such that you can’t face another 2 1/2 years of it?”
I guess what I’m dealing with is that I wanted something–to get the hell out of Reed and Portland–for so long and now I don’t feel exactly as I did. And the reason I hesitate is that I fear it’s not stable. I mean, I’ve only reached this point in the past month and a half, and I don’t want it to be just a phase I slip out of after I commit to being here. And also, I mean, I’m content here. I could take another 2 1/2 years of this, I believe. But as I said in my original post, I’m not happy. I feel like I live class to class–and Reed’s all-consuming course work makes this easier. The weekends are harder for me. And when I get sad here, I get really, really, world-crushingly sad. Sometimes I feel like my contentment is not rooted in anything solid but is rather only delicately balancing above a fundamental despair.</p>

<p>But most of the time I feel really, really okay. And I feel proud of what I’m doing academically, which is nice. I kind of don’t want to go.</p>

<p>Reed nurtures unhappiness, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. What I’m working with now is: Reed is so isolated in culture, lifestyle, and, somehow, location from anything most students see themselves doing in the future–I know this is true for me and for the people I confide in–that it’s kind of depressing and terrifying. It’s very much a transition period, with a lot of unknowns at the far end, and I think that’s hard to deal with during a part of life that one is expected to associate with adulthood. I think New York represented to me a thrust against that particular phenomenon: unlike Portland, I would be living in a place I would choose to live. Barnard seemed to lack the “bubble” quality that is associated with Reed and seemed like a more fluid transition into “real life” (whatever that is).</p>

<p>I think that what I’m experiencing now is simply fear of regret. It’s more than likely that I would be able to come back to Reed (after having talked to the Dean of Students) in the fall if I didn’t like Barnard. I have some fears about it interfering with the language sequence I need in order to graduate from Reed in four years–still waiting to hear back from the Columbia Latin professor–and some sweet classes lined up for next semester, but other than that, there’s really not a whole lot to lose. So maybe it really does make sense for me to at least try Barnard. At the same time, I don’t know if my heart’s in it anymore. And I don’t know how much I’d learn in a few months; it took me this long to crack Reed.</p>

<p>I know this is highly personal and likely uninteresting stuff–or at least stuff that doesn’t lead to a definite answer, and thus might be tedious by now–but it’s been nice to hear from all of you and I thank you; if you have any more advice I’d still love to read it.</p>

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<p>Listen, I strongly, strongly urge you to transfer. If I were in your situation I would 100% transfer. You sound desperately unhappy and I really think transferring and finding a new social scene would help you. Barnard doesn’t have to be where you transfer to, but Reed doesn’t seem to be where you should stay. Please PM if you want to discuss this further.</p>

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<p>If you can come to Barnard for the spring but hold open the option of returning to Reed in the fall – then it might make sense – you’ve got nothing to lose in that situation. </p>

<p>But be aware: Barnard can be a very socially isolating place as well, depending somewhat on your personality type. (The advantage is that NY is never boring – there’s always something to do, even if you find yourself doing things on your own rather than with a group.) So I think you have to ask yourself what you envision yourself doing when you arrive at Barnard, not knowing very many people there. Are there specific activities you think you would participate in, on or off campus? If you don’t hit it off that well with the other women on your floor or in your suite, what do you think you will do to widen your social net?</p>

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<p>Could you elaborate?</p>

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<p>…threadstalked appears.</p>

<p>I’m curious also. I have a tendency to isolate myself if not pushed a little, so that worries me a bit.</p>

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<p>I was kinda hoping first two paragraphs of post #4 were real, for her.</p>

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<p>Raspberi, you would be coming in as a first year, so you would have the O-week experience, the dorm with other first years, etc – a whole array of activities to get to know people. You’ll probably be in a double or triple your first year in any case. </p>

<p>Terminus is frustrated in part because she didn’t really connect with people her first year at Reed, and now people have pretty much settled into their groups. Well, I don’t think Barnard is much different – and in many ways it is probably harder to meet new people down the line because so much socializing takes place off campus. I don’t know where Terminus would be housed – usually, in the fall, transfers are housed in Elliot, but I don’t know if spring transfers get housed there, or put into whatever rooms open up as students leave campus to study abroad. (That’s a question for the housing office). Elliot is mostly singles, in kind of a hybrid setting between corridor style housing and suites – as they are 12 person suites. See <a href=“http://www.barnard.edu/reslife/floorplans/Elliott.pdf[/url]”>http://www.barnard.edu/reslife/floorplans/Elliott.pdf&lt;/a&gt; for floor plan.</p>

<p>I think the key to meeting people is simply being proactive about getting involved with various student groups, appropriate to individual interests. The problem with coming in as a transfer is that by junior year students start getting more focused on their independent interests – maybe they are planning a semester abroad, taking an internship, or getting more focused on work for their majors. So Terminus would be entering as a transfer just at the time when most students are getting more focused on their academics and career aspirations, less attentive to their social lives.</p>

<p>I don’t know Terminus, so I don’t know how much her personality fits into the problem. Is she very introverted? Does she have a very different lifestyle or idea of “fun” than her Reed classmates? etc. Also, I’ve always heard that Reed students tend to be the quirky, intellectual types – so while stereotypes need to be taken with a grain of salt, the typical Reedie might be a very different person than the typical Barnard woman. So it could be a case of a misfit - and Terminus might fit in very well at Barnard.</p>

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<p>Sorry I have no specific links, but I seem to recall from my years of reading this board that transfers to Barnard (even ones that transfer in the Winter) ARE housed together and that they do have orientation-type activities. In fact, a poster that was very, very active and helpful and enthusiastic about Barnard back when I first joined CC, was a transfer in her Junior year, I believe. </p>

<p>So my optimistic opinion is that the OP will go into Barnard and this new experience knowing that she needs to make a concerted effort to establish ties with people…to look for new relationships and new activities to join. Terminus, I really, really hope that things work out for you!</p>