I’ve seen a lot of posts about Barnard/CC, but they all seem to be in defense of Barnard instead of the other way around.
It seems to me like the only thing that Columbia College students have over Barnard students is prestige, and only kind of, because Barnard students get Columbia University diplomas.
So what are the advantages? What do Barnard students not have access to?
Columbia College students must take “The Core”—a set of set-in-stone classes revolving around the classics. So every single CC student has this shared experience and “grounding”, if you will. Barnard students actually cannot take those core classes, or at least would have a really hard time getting in to them if they wanted to do so…
It does not need to be a debate about one school having something “over” the other…the two undergraduate experiences have differences that are meaningful and certainly one probably will appeal to an applicant more than the other (“the core” vs Barnard’s “Nine Ways”, to name one of the largest differences)…and each applicant should consider those differences when deciding where they would want to be.
One is a small liberal arts college, one is a major research university with top graduate schools. They are completely different. Columbia would have greater class selection and variation, more majors, more famous faculty, more resources, and more opportunities for research. I think Comumbia currently has the most Nobel Prize winning faculty teaching.
My friend at Barnard is always saying that a major pro of Barnard is being able to take classes at Columbia/participate in Columbia activities… seems to me that just being at Columbia would be a better choice. (FWIW though, she absolutely adores everything about Barnard).
Barnard students have access to almost all of the Columbia courses-- in fact, I felt that my daughter had a greater opportunity to take Columbia classes specifically because she did not have the schedule-dampening impact of the Columbia core. In other words, she had more freedom to take elective courses while at the same time filling her requirements, because the 9-ways-of-knowing was so broad.
So I don’t think the classes or the faculty would be a particular advantage of CC. Barnard students actually have considerably more flexibility because they have less restrictions overall on which courses they can take – whereas CC imposes some limits on the number of Barnard courses its students can take.
The difference is that one is a women’s college and one isn’t. There is a huge experiential difference between them for that reason, I’d say. You live only with other girls and the vibe is very different because of that. So if you got into both and all things held the same in terms of money, I think it’s more about what you want out of the experience. You would of course make male friends either way, but all the Barnard girls I know are much closer to girls than guys, which is to be expected.
Not quite, but I understand what you mean by the vibe being different.
But the dorms have a constant presence of male visitors. Many Barnard girls are dealing with the same problems of being “sexiled” from their rooms because of their roommate’s romantic life, just as kids who are on co-ed campus or co-ed dorms experience. Every floor on the quad has both women-only and co-ed bathrooms – and women who choose to use the co-ed bathrooms may very well encounter males emerging from the showers in the morning.
But you are right, it’s not quite the same as living on a co-ed floor in a co-ed dorm.
My daughter’s closest friends while she was in college were guys, especially her first year. That’s consistent with her high school & adult friendships as well.
I think most of off-campus dorms where most students live after the first year are not in single-sex buildings.
@calmom I am sure you are right - I am speaking from the limited perspective of a male Columbia first-year. I would still generally say that the experience is different, but not necessarily in a bad way. There are some opportunities afforded to Barnard girls that I (think) are not open to Columbia girls, like the Barnard Babysitting Agency (correct me if I’m wrong? I don’t know if Columbia girls can work through that).
Aside from what I said, I still talk to and interact with Barnard girls quite often, and though I don’t have particularly close friends from Barnard, people in my friend group do. Some major requirements are different between the two schools AFAIK, and I know some Columbia majors are offered only on Barnard campus (theatre and architecture come to mind) so I would assume some Barnard majors are offered mostly on Columbia campus (though they are generally considered the same campus).
I’m pretty sure that the agencies – Barnard Babysitting / and Barnard Bartending - are only for Barnard students, as tey are essentially student run agencies. My daughter worked for both, but mostly Bartending – and loved it. She definitely was said to have to stop taking those gigs when she graduated. Columbia has its own agency http://columbiabartending.com/join-us/
Anyway, I think that the difference really depends more on the student and what they are looking for, as well as intended major. In terms of overall student life, my daughter moved pretty freely between both campuses. She didn’t have a clue as to which school many of her female classmates attended. She hadn’t applied to Columbia so there never was any subjective feeling of competition on her part.