<p>I checked the mail today and I still didn't get it either!
I got a course catalog though.
I'm just going to save myself the trouble and accept that I've been accepted ;]</p>
<p>man...i want a course catalog...congrats!!!</p>
<p>“I think that the fact that Wellesley outranks Barnard by nearly 20 spots on the LAC list probably is indicative of something.”</p>
<p>Yes, it is indicative of the fact that US News has not come to grips with the true nature of the Barnard Columbia relationship.</p>
<p>Anyone who looks at Barnard in isolation without considering its connection with Columbia is, frankly, putting their head in the sand. Columbia and Barnard share resources under an affiliation agreement. Though administratively distinct, the schools are closely associated functionally, contractually, and geographically.</p>
<p>Barnard students take 20,000+ credit hours of courses at Columbia each year, and vica versa. That’s a lot of courses, my friend. Barnard students participate on Columbia teams, clubs, sororities, and social scene generally. Even their degrees are issued by Columbia. </p>
<p>A student at Barnard has wide access to Columbia’s resources to the extent she wants them, yet she can also choose to stay as fully within the LAC confines of Barnard as she desires. The phrase “having one’s cake and eating it too” seems appropriately bestowed in this situation.</p>
<p>Columbia is not a 40 minute bus ride away from Barnard, it is literally across the street. Barnard students can walk to Columbia classes faster than Wellesley students can walk to different classrooms on their own campus. And they do, and often. Furthermore Columbia is not primarily a tech school. These are important facts in considering the relative impact of the Barnard-Columbia affiliation on the average Barnard student’s experience. The cross-enrollment numbers speak for themselves.</p>
<p>Wellesley has awesome resources for an LAC, but I don’t know that it’s resources quite match Columbia’s + Barnard’s. The fact on the ground is that every Barnard student has access to Columbia’s resources as well as Barnard’s. </p>
<p>US News does not address the huge additional resources added to Barnard via this affiliation. Hence the 20 spot differential.</p>
<p>In terms of selectivity, Wellesley has about 15 pts higher SATs , Barnard has higher % top class rank and lower admit %. These different selectivity parameters can be variously weighted. US News weights them, in its assigned selectivity rating, as #9 Barnard, Wellesley # 11.</p>
<p>^^I knew that statement would get me in trouble. I'm not trying to flame Barnard, I'm really not. Actually, looking at the numbers, it appears that Barnard's financial resources and alumni giving ratings are the big difference between it and Wellesley. </p>
<p>I certainly agree that Barnard has the benefit of it's collection with Columbia. I do have to say, however, that a few days ago my father and I were talking about the original Seven Sisters and he asked me if Barnard even existed anymore. I assured him that it did, but we both had to conclude that we don't really understand why it does still exist. Barnard's relationship with Columbia seems to be the same as Radcliff's was with Harvard, and obviously Radcliff is no longer in existence. It also seems odd to me that Barnard College is under the Columbia umbrella, just as the Fu Foundation of Engineering is, yet I could (as far as I know) apply to both Columbia College and Barnard College, even though I could not apply to both the Fu Foundation and Columbia College. This struck me as odd. Lest anyone think otherwise, I don't have anything against Barnard, nor am I trying to disband it as an institution. I just think that it's existence is...odd.</p>
<p>The reason it still exists, besides its own merits, is because Barnard refused to collapse into Columbia a la Radcliffe-Harvard. I think it was in the early 1980's when Columbia realized it would never fully "get" Barnard, and hence began admitting women students. Barnard has stood its own since creation, and while its reputation spans different academic circles than Wellesley's (the more artsy, less political, I would believe), it certainly is an incredible institution.</p>
<p>And I am in no way biased; I've been accepted to both and am going to have an extremely difficult time deciding. Each is the better school in its own way.</p>
<p>IIRC, many of the city-based schools, including Columbia, have relatively low alumni giving rates. Possibly the life of the City is so much a part of the experience of these schools that it competes with the institutions themselves for their student's fond memories. An ironic case of their environment being too good. Also, their roots were as commuter schools, and that's how the old guard of givers may remember them. Probably too, Columbia was, and still is, so much part of the Barnard experience that some Barnard alums may even give to Columbia.</p>
<p>I won't opine as to whether Barnard "should" still exist, in some theoretical sense, but fortunately it does. The Barnard community at the time viewed the Radcliffe experience as a failure not to be duplicated, in that the distinct culture etc of that institution was just brushed away/expunged following its merger.</p>
<p>The relation between Barnard and Columbia IS odd. But yet, there it is anyway. for those who so choose to take advantage of it.</p>
<p>As for financial resources, once again Columbia is providing Barnard students with a lot of stuff that are beyond what Barnard's resources could itself sustain. But its students still get them. This is part of the point I was trying to make.</p>
<p>As an aside: Re post #25 above,"less political", from everything I've heard study of Politics is quite alive at Barnard,and Columbia. (as pointed out before as a Barnard student you get both). Their excellent joint Urban Studies program is domiciled at Barnard.</p>
<p>sorry to interrupt this Barnard-Wellesley discussion but since i am also waitlisted, i was wondering where other girls (who also got waitlisted) will place their deposit, as for me, i don't really have clue right now</p>
<p>should i place a deposit on brandeis since it's so close?</p>
<p>ehh, i wouldn't go by distance alone. was brandeis your second choice?
i'm going by preference (so at this point, either smith or mcgill). hopefully we'll all make it off the list, but in case we can't, it's better to choose somewhere we want to be!</p>
<p>also -- are any of you ladies sending in extra materials or anything? i would like to help my case a little, but i'm not sure how to do it without being <em>pushy</em>..</p>
<p>I agree with you mardou fox.</p>
<p>why don't you write them a letter and also some additional awards...i mean if the letter shows interest and is sincere it could go a long way...</p>
<p>I would write them a letter--that's what I plan to do at the schools that I was waitlisted at. </p>
<p>Of course, writing Yale a letter after my deferral didn't get me an acceptance today, but hey. Better to give it your all than to wonder what if.</p>
<p>well, to mar. fox, i don't really have a 2nd choice because in the end, it'll be based on money if i don't get into wellesley</p>
<p>oh, okay. well, good luck deciding where to place the deposit! and even better luck making it off the list! <em>fingers crossed</em></p>
<p>do we really not find out until 6/30?</p>
<p>is there any difference with respect to the envelops for acceptance, rejection or waitlist? what is the snail mail?</p>
<p>i guess we have to wait until 6/30 but i hope it's earlier this year</p>
<p>*crosses fingers and good luck to you too</p>
<p>it also said that about 400 people decide to remain on the waitlist, but does anyone know how many people they originally waitlist?</p>
<p>yeah there is a difference in envelope size</p>
<p>acceptance: big envelope...like the one you sent your college app in, it has wellesley written on it...pretty hard to miss </p>
<p>waitlisted/rejection????: i dunno, i was accepted but i guess that it would be a small envelope. </p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>Waitlisted/Rejection: small envelope</p>
<p>To people who got WAITLISTED what did yours say? I'm confuse whether might was a waitlist or flat out rejection.</p>
<p>yeah, i don't think i'm going to wellesley because i got in umkc's six year medical program!!!!! oh well....maybe one of you can have my spot!!!??!! </p>
<p>good luck wellesley board/cc</p>