<p>I feel my classes in general are stimulating and challenging . However, socially this school is very strange. Like most colleges there are plenty of drinkers and pot heads but a very unfriendly attitude is the norm among most of the students I've meet. There seems to be little if no school spirit possibly due to the lack of great sports teams and the uptown location. One thing that really annoys me is the overwhelming presence of Barnard students on campus. The library and gym are always overcrowded due to Barnard students. Many of the various clubs are also full of Barnard students.The editor of the spectator is a Barnard student.I have nothing against Barnard students but this campus should really be primarily for Columbia students. Also many of the dorms are subject to a high level of noise due to ambulance sirens and constant garbage pickups at night. So far and I know its still very early Columbia has been a disappointment.</p>
<p>Like:
-Pretty much everything</p>
<p>Hate:
-crapshoot, luck based admissions (unless it works to my advantage, then I'll love it)</p>
<p>I think Columbia is in a real bind when it comes to being overcrowded. They can't really do anything about it. They've got a 32 acre campus (this is small even by urban campus standards...by comparison, Penn's is 269 acres with another 24 acres to be added in 2007 when Penn purchases a large swath of parking lots to be abandoned by the US Post Office).</p>
<p>As for sirens and such, well any urban campus is going to have those problems. I kind of like them in a way....</p>
<p>Columbia will eventually be expanding into Manhattanville, but I worry that in doing this they are going to destroy the unity of having every school on one tight campus. This of course will all be done long after any current high schooler browsing CC graduates from Columbia, so I guess it's all moot...</p>
<p>Columbia isn't "overcrowded." People aren't piled in triples because there isn't enough housing. There is plenty of classroom space.</p>
<p>The problem is more of a long-term thing. They're looking 50-100 years into the future. The main problem now is the lack of facilities for the sciences.</p>
<p>That first sentence is almost orweilian. I read an article in the Spectator about Barbard students having to live in converted student lounges and such because of lack of space (damn high yield rates!)</p>
<p>Barnard screwed up this year. That's all.</p>
<p>indeed they did. poop happens. penn made the same mistake and some kids are holed up in a hotel. Oh the pains of being an urban ivy. poor us ;-)</p>
<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, but there would still be a major problem if a rural college (Cornell?) overenrolled. I don't think any college has an empty dorm that is sitting idle unless the admissions office screws up the yield.</p>
<p>are the ppl really unfriendly at columbia??? =(</p>
<p>Yeah. We're pretentious bastards. And I'm in GS!</p>
<p>Everyone in the northeast is unfriendly. It's how we roll ;-)</p>
<p>Actually I don't notice it, but then again, I moved here from the midwest when I was 5...</p>
<p>"I feel my classes in general are stimulating and challenging . However, socially this school is very strange. Like most colleges there are plenty of drinkers and pot heads but a very unfriendly attitude is the norm among most of the students I've meet. There seems to be little if no school spirit possibly due to the lack of great sports teams and the uptown location. One thing that really annoys me is the overwhelming presence of Barnard students on campus. The library and gym are always overcrowded due to Barnard students. Many of the various clubs are also full of Barnard students.The editor of the spectator is a Barnard student.I have nothing against Barnard students but this campus should really be primarily for Columbia students. Also many of the dorms are subject to a high level of noise due to ambulance sirens and constant garbage pickups at night. So far and I know its still very early Columbia has been a disappointment."</p>
<p>oh god I CANT AGREE WITH YOU MORE... WHAT THE **** IS WITH THE BARNARD STUDENTS COMING ON OUR CAMPUS...I MEAN THEY'VE INFILTRATED THE CAMPUS, JOINED OUR CLUBS, STEAL OUR BOYS...AND BEFORE I CAME TO COLUMBIA I THOUGHT THIS WHOLE BARNARD/COLUMBIA **** WAS STUPID...BUT WOW...REALLY THEY NEED TO STAY ON THEIR OWN CAMPUS!!</p>
<p>Why do single women blame their singlehood on other women? That's not very pro-feminist.</p>
<p>You do realize that Barnard has a joint agreement as an affiliate institution with Columbia through (or up in? I forget which) 2008, right?</p>
<p>See here:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.barnard.edu/about/columbia.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.barnard.edu/about/columbia.html</a></p>
<p>Furthemore, Barnard girls generally ensure a healthy curve in at least most of my humanities classes. Man, I can see the pitchforks from across Broadway now...</p>
<p>And that Barnard students pay the same fees as anyone else for using the gym and student center, and Barnard pays for library access, and all sports and many clubs are funded by both schools at once. And, of course, that Columbia students are all welcome on Barnard's campus, clubs, classes, student center, and dining hall and take great advantage of all that after they settle down from their first year. And that recently, more Columbia students have been in Barnard classes than vice versa. And that GPAs are indistinguishable between schools, so we're not really worried about you skewing our curves.</p>
<p>In fact, we really don't mind you guys sharing our much more limited toys in general. :) The attitude, though...</p>
<p>The arguments about Barnard girls using Columbia's campus are bogus.
I really am not at all interested in using any of Barnards facilities.
When I applied to Columbia I had no idea that Columbia's small campus
would be over-run with Barnard students. Again Columbia's
facilities are just too small to accomodate two colleges. Columbia
should sever all ties with Barnard. All Columbia applicants shoul be
aware of this bad situation. This has nothing to do with women's
rights , it has to do with campus space. If Columbia students have to give up taking Barnard courses in return for getting back our campus
,library,gym clubs and breathing room I'm all for it.</p>
<p>Then all I can say is that I'm glad the administration has more common sense. Columbia's facilities have been handling Barnard students for over a hundred years now, and vice versa. And given that there are 2300 Barnard students compared to about 20,000 Columbia University students, and that Barnard students have their own campus as well (which is much smaller and more likely to suffer congestion as a result of the large numbers of Columbia students in classes and events there), the presence is hardly visible. You just notice it more because you feel somehow put out by it. If someone takes your last piece of cake, it's a Barnard girl. The other 100 slices before that, well, those don't matter. It's glaring confirmation bias.</p>
<p>And, like I said, your attitude about Barnard facilities will very likely change, unless you're a strange aberration from the usual trend. Since you're so concerned about space, you should be glad to have a few extra acres at your disposal.</p>
<p>Basically, your entire argument could come from a Barnard student perspective as well- guys (and girls, though not as obviously) filling our classes, eating all of the food in the dining hall, etc., etc. And proportionally, it's much more significant on that side of the street. But, as my point was, people don't get all proprietary. If it makes you feel better, imagine Columbia expanded and took over Barnard, and now the gym is just clogged with more Columbia students. Because that was the other option, and it makes little difference.</p>
<p>Another advantage of the joint campus that Columbia/Barnard has over other schools is the variety of classes offered. DD, a Barnard student, is the only undergraduate in one of the classes she has to take at Columbia, and this is an intro course. This and a lot of other courses would not be offered at either institution if they separated.</p>
<p>In reply to your post:
It could be argued that there are 20,000 Columbia students crowding our campus (including graduate students,) but the graduate students are not in our clubs, have a separate newspaper and their own housing. Primarily, the campus is for Columbia undergraduates. For your information, there are 6,000 undergraduate students on the campus. Barnard College, lacks the College Core Corriculum, and is decidedly a separate entity of Columbia UNIVERSITY no matter what anyone wants to say. The degrees do not lie my friends. Therefore, having these students take up space in our facilities is completely uncalled for when they have, as you mentioned, perfectly good facilities of their own.
I am sure that we would gladly give up your semi-mediocre food or even take our males from your campus, (which I am sure is not something an all-girls college would be thrilled about) just to separate ourselves. In 1982 Columbia College became a co-ed school. Perhaps this policy of a duel-college should have ended there. There is really no need to have any attachments to Barnard now that there are females within our own College. I worked so hard in high school to get my A average and stellar grades. It is an undisputed fact that Barnard is not even a fraction as hard as Columbia College in terms of admissions.The #9 rating of this University does not encompass Barnard, they have their own rating in a separate division (liberal arts schools.) Maybe the administration should be looking at this situation, this might be one of the reasons alumni giving is so low, (one of the worst in the ivies.) The argument that my freshman views taint all that I am saying is also pure nonsense, last week a senior was describing how despised the situation with these Barnard "leeches" has become in recent years, (not my words, but those of an upper-classman of the College.) I really have nothing against the people at Barnard, I am sure that they are very nice girls... who should worry about their own College.</p>