I’m thinking of applying to Barnard and I was wondering if anyone knows what type it is? What’s the stereotypical student and is there any truth to the stereotype?
Me also…
Anyone??? Barnard info?
To be more specific, if you went there or know someone that did, was it a good experience? Is it cliquey? How connected is it to Columbia? Does it have the same political climate as Columbia? How are the professors and classes?
I’m applying to colleges this year and need information desperately! Thanks.
My daughter is interested in knowing answers to this too–she’s applying this fall.
You might want to post in the Barnard forum, if you haven’t already:
It is a women’s college in NY that is very interconnected with Columbia. Basically, what that means is that although it is a all girls college you will see students from Columbia (girls and boys) in your classes and you will have to cross the street to take classes at Columbia which also means that if you’re worrying about dating and what not it is not a problem 
. Your acceptance to Barnard means that you are basically allowed to uses resources at Columbia as well, whether it is research or clubs and sports teams. Obviously, it was one of the seven sister that were affiliated with their Ivies, so admissions is competitive. I heard that it can get rough in there with all the competitive girls. :-?
I am a senior as well and I am also considering Barnard, so I applied to Barnard Bound, the Fly-in program, and I will go there in three weeks. Doing my research I found these videos, which I think helped me get the feel of it:
Student prespective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jvXkhFvncY
Residential life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42K159aKbak
Midnight Breakfast: A Barnard tradition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE-2ZAqRcvY
Living and Studying at NYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVpLTiZLPpY
Check Youtube Barnard: https://www.youtube.com/user/barnardcollege for more videos
I HOPE THIS HELPS @rosedancer @smcirish also!!! :)>-
Thanks so much, @Readinger_101 . If you remember, it would be awesome if you could tell me how your visit goes. I live around an hour away from NYC, so I’ll probably visit, but I assume you’d be there for longer. By the way, which other colleges are you considering - I need some ideas!
Okay, here’s the list and reasons why/Chance:
University of Virginia (great public university, close to home, harder for out of state applicants, Reach)
University of Pittsburgh (fell in love with the city, one thing that it has in common with Barnard, Target)
Columbia (Its basically a Co-ed Barnard, Super-reach) :-SS :-SS :-SS
Fordham University (safety)
University of Maryland College Park (closest college to home lol, safety/Target)
Wellesley College (all women’s college, considering)
Johns Hopkins University (Scientific research, still considering, another major-REACH) :-SS
Vassar University (it used to be a all women’s college so I am guessing that it has a female-supportive environment)
Georgetown (in DC, many resources are definitely available, Reach) :-SS
Williams (Heard they have generous financial packages, considering)
So as you can tell there are so many of them I am still undecided about. I am only looking at schools that are on the east coast due to distance from home. Obviously your options might be way wider so I suggest you dig deeper and come up with list sooner rather than later.
GOOD LUCK :-bd
I did not attend Barnard, but I went to Columbia for graduate school and taught at Barnard. So my perspective is only of an observer of students, not a student there myself.
The political climate at Barnard is similar to, but different from, Columbia’s. Barnard’s political climate is even more liberal than Columbia’s and - in some ways - more activist. Many of the prominent activist events that occur in the Columbia community are spearheaded wholly or partially by Barnard students. (This is not to imply that Columbia students are not activist - they can be - but I think Barnard has a deeper tradition of this.)
The introductory and intermediate level classes at Barnard tend to be smaller than Columbia’s - no surprises there. I would also say, in general, that Barnard’s classes tend to be more applied and socially focused than Columbia’s. I co-taught a class in developmental psychology with a distinctive name at Columbia; the majority of the students in the class were actually Barnard students, and when I would tell Columbia undergraduates I supervised what I was teaching I would get comments that it “sounds like a Barnard class.” That was the general vibe of the split I got between the two at least in my department (psychology). I also got a slightly more collaborative vibe in Barnard’s student body and class operations than Columbia’s; Columbia is well-known as a very competitive place, and while Barnard students were definitely sharp and intelligent and could be competitive, there was more a vibe of collaboration and teamwork there than at Columbia.
Barnard has an interesting conundrum with professors. Typically, the professors who go to a small teaching college go there because they want to teach undergraduates primarily and engage in research with undergraduates; most small LACs are not closely affiliated with large powerhouse research universities. However, the draw to Barnard from a professor’s perspective - in addition to the location in a major city - is that Columbia is right there, with all of the resources and collaborations that Columbia offers. Thus, I think your average Barnard professor is more research-hungry and less undergrad-focused than the average professor at another small LAC (say, for example, Pomona or Williams). This can be good, in that a Barnard student might have closer access to more cutting-edge research than an equivalent student at a place like Bryn Mawr or Scripps, where there is not the same kind of close connection with a large research university. At the same time, though, it may mean slightly less engaged professors on average than at a place like BMC or Scripps. (And again, I’m just saying on average - that doesn’t mean that your individual professors will or won’t be engaged).
Also, some departments and classes will be more melded with Columbia’s than others. Barnard has a separate psychology department from Columbia, and there are enough classes in the Barnard psych department that you’d never have to take a Columbia psychology class in order to graduate. At the other extreme, the math department is a joint Barnard-Columbia one, so if you major in math you’ll be taking all of your classes at Columbia with primarily Columbia students and spending a lot of time over there. Same with computer science - I think the department is actually the Columbia CS department, and you just major in CS over at Columbia. Then there are majors like architecture and education, where Barnard is actually the home for that major. So all of your classes will be at Barnard, but lots of Columbia students will still be in your classes because they have to major in architecture or education at Barnard because there’s no equivalent at Columbia.
Anyway, it’s funny, as a high school student Columbia was a dream school for me, and when I attended as a graduate student I remember thinking I was so glad I didn’t go there for undergrad. BUT when I worked at Barnard, I remember thinking that I wish I had heard of it when I was in college, because it seemed like an ideal mix of things I wanted - a small, tight-knit women’s college with access to the variety and resources of a large university across the street.