Barnard College Top Questions

Just as the admissions office will tell you over and over - Barnard is the best of both worlds, a small college in a big city. People choose to take advantage of this differently. Some people spend most of their time in the Barnard/Columbia/Morningside Heights area while others prefer to spend more time adventuring into the New York. The community can be what you make of it, if you want to find a large, close-knit, group of friends (girls and guys) you will be able to. If you prefer to have one or two close girl friends, you can do that to. The community is a good size, Barnard is small but if you ever feel claustrophobic, Columbia is a much larger community right across the street. Most people hangout on campus in the dorms, or in the Diana Center (newly completed student center). A lot of people also choose to hangout at Columbia, in the libraries or the student center over there. Barnard has a lot of "Barnard Women" pride, but not a lot of pride in the traditional sense. If you really want a rah-rah campus with tons of pride for athletic events and school-sponsored functions, Barnard/Columbia is not the place for you. I love pretty much everything about Barnard, I think its great that you can get the benefits of a women's college (sisterhood and all that jazz) without having to sacrifice men.

barnard prides itself in being small and intimate. there is a nice prof to student ratio making the lecture and learning experience highly gratifying. the profs are really good and efficient. the barnard setup is traditional with a campus, midterms and finals (multiple choice), hardly any papers, major general education requirements and little room for flexibility in terms of academic planning. barnard has a plan and will force you to go by that plan. the lectures are typical lectures but the profs try to be as engaging as possible. this is especially doable due to the smaller class sizes (50 students max). obviously being in nyc is wonderful and makes the entire experience a hundred times better. it is a good feeling to go to a great school made for women that gives every student what they need for their future careers and lives in general.

You really have to go out of your way to form a bond with teachers. Often times, people don't know what/where Barnard is--in the circles where it matters most, your peers will understand (and be impressed with the fact) that you are a "Barnard Woman". Lots of "red tape", crazy course selection processes, millions of mazes and forms and meetings with Deans and Advisers are necessary to get anything done. Recent controversy: Columbia and Barnard students going on a [completely unnecessary] hunger strike in an attempt to demonstrate the need for an "Ethnic Studies" department...even though we already have one... Other recent controversy: Having Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak on campus Other recent controversy: Columbia expansion into a section of Harlem and the effects of relocating housing for thousands of Harlem residents

The best thing about Barnard is that it really is a big family. I know that most colleges hold the same claim, but at Barnard it's actually true. I'm a commuter student who transferred to Barnard. During orientation, I was scheduled to meet with my new class dean. The first thing she did was hug me and welcome me to the school. During my first semester there and subsequent semesters thereafter, she continued to keep in contact me. All of my professors followed suit. Everyone I came in contact with was genuinely interested in helping me succeed.

The big picture is that Barnard is an all women's college in the middle of New York City. It's small, but you still get the big city atmosphere by just stepping out of the gates. For me, this school is just right and what differentiates it to me apart from the other Sister schools is that it is not a) isolated or in a boring location (sorry if you go to one of the other sister schools; the other sister schools are wonderful, but they just weren't right for me) and b) it doesn't really feel like an all women's college because you're in the city and also because Columbia students are allowed to take Barnard classes and eat in the dining halls and vice versa. You really get the best of both worlds at Barnard. You get the comfort of a school really dedicated to helping women be successful and you get to use all the resources of Columbia University. There is a lot of pride at Barnard and I don't see why there shouldn't be. It is discouraging sometimes when people ask me where I go to College and when I tell them they don't even know or they reply by saying, "You go to an all women's college?!?!" But I just set them straight.

The best thing about Barnard is that whatever interest you have, you will always find means to develop that interest. If you are interested in a certain career, you can use the funding that school provides through the Office of Career Development to attend conferences or get paid for a non-paid internship. Another great thing is that if you don't have enough money to pay for your tuition, they will try to do everything to help you in terms of scholarships, grants and low interest loans. The school is just the right size, it is small enough to provide personal help and support, however, it supplies lots of resources within big campus of Columbia University. Most of my time on campus I usually spend, in libraries, of which there is plenty, beautiful college lawns in spring, campus caffe's and in nearby restaurants. Barnard's administration is really great-everyone is very helpful. The most frequent complaints are about housing-even though the dorms are very nice, you can live in a student's hall or an apartment, further or closer to campus, the administration often has trouble in placing everyone where they want to be, however, the older you get, the better chance you have of getting what you pick.

barnard is full of amazing women who get over the unfortunate fact that their school is not widely known and never gets the credit it deserves, but revel in the great opportunities barnard, columbia, and new york city are able to provide for them, anyway.

liberal, eclectic, prestigious, access to many exciting events and experiences, open-minded

The best thing about Barnard is choice. You get to choose how you want your experience to be. Barnard is a small liberal arts college within a larger universtiy which is then within New York City. So, if you want your experience to be small and communal it can be. Barnard's dedication to creating a sense of community on campus is unbeatable at any school I've seen. But, if you want to feel like you're at a bigger school you can spend more time at Columbia. In regards to the city, you can stay on campus or go out and explore. I personally think it would be a waste to come to school in the city and not use it to your advantage, but you have that choice. New York City is the most incredible place to go to college. There is so much culture and thanks to our student IDs a lot of it is free or heavily discounted. You can have fun in the city doing nothing. My friend and I once had the best night walking around times square for 3 hours. As for administration, the deans work hard to be available as much as possible. That's the beauty of a small school. You can really get to know your dean if you want. They have appointments all the time, but it is often difficult to snag a time that fits your schedule, especially during the first two weeks of every semester - program planning season. Administration is very hands-on at Barnard. There is a lot of school pride rather than school spirit so to speak. Women are proud to be Barnard students, but the bleachers are pretty empty at football games. My biggest complaint is in regards to registering for classes. There are 97 different ways to sign up for a class and different classes require different things. Some have a simple online sign up. Some are limited enrollment so you can be shut out. Some require instructor permission. Some require applications. Any number of them require combinations of these requirements. It can be confusing until you learn to double check everything. Also, Barnard advertises small class size. Seminars and language classes are always small. However, I've found - and maybe it's because I'm pre-med and I am stuck in science classes - that too many of my classes are big lectures. I still have to wait until my upperclassmen days to take specialized classes that will inherently be smaller. The best night of the semester by far is midnight breakfast. The themes get better as the years go on. The event just oozes with Barnard pride - and half of Columbia crashes. Who can refuse free food at midnight?

I have never once thought twice about my decision to come to Barnard. The small classes allow you to make more personal connections with both the professors and the students. Sometimes it may be annoying to have to meet with your adviser at least 4 times a year, but I much prefer that than being at a school where you never once see your adviser.

Barnard is really caring and community oriented. The administration tries to be open, transparent, and available to the student body. Right now we are transitioning to welcome our new president, which may change how the administration operates. I feel that sometimes this community feeling is undermined by the diversity programs at both Barnard and Columbia that seem to split people up into religious, ethnic, and racial groups rather than make people feel like they are forming one group with many different traits. A lot of people don't really know what or where Barnard is. Some people recognize that it is affiliated with Columbia University, but many of those who do don't know that it's right across the street. I definitely feel like Barnard has a campus, and you are either on or off it. The Barnard campus feeling for me is so strong that being on Columbia's campus warrants a distinction despite the close proximity; I am at Columbia, not on campus.

The best thing at Barnard would be the size of the school, not just in mass but also in faculty. Barnard has a really comfortable campus and the faculty there takes the time to get to talk to and know the students. If I could change one thing about Barnard, it would be the tension between Barnard and Columbia students. I remember that as incoming freshmans once, during the Blaze where Barnard and Columbia students were to come together and have fun, had a Columbia girl stop talking to us because she found out that we were from Barnard. It is this type of tension that I talk about and wish it didn't exist, but it does. Even in my sophomore year at Barnard, this tension still exist. I used to spend most of my time in Macintosh before it was torn down. There, students could hangout and listen to live performances as they ate, sit and chat with friends, and watch movies on a projector screen. Now, I don't really hangout anywhere except for my room, where most of my friends come and hangout with me. The biggest recent controversy I heard was about a girl who wanted to have a sex change operation. And with Barnard being an all girls school, well you could see how that wouldn't have worked out. I have lots of school pride and quite often I find myself defending it when it is attacked by Columbia professors and students who didn't know that I was a student who went to Barnard out of the many Columbia students in the pack. It's a tough world out there for some Barnard students.

columbia with a diffent feel. barnard almost feels as a sorority. it's an amazing combination of a large school and small school setting. most people don't really know about barnard so when you tell them you go there most won't know, at least from my home. in new york, people regard you with much respect because they know barnard is a great school. i'm not sure what the reactions are from people around the US if they're not from the east coast. it's amazing to have a campus but at the same time have the freedom to explore manhattan. it's very well balanced in that way.

It's a great liberal arts college focused on goal oriented women's success. We're in Manhattan, the train is right at our feet. Our school is small (but not too small-i.e, if you're involved, you'll get to know a lot of people and many people become familiar to you, even if you dont' remember their name. If you're not involved, you can be friends with who you want, and maintain your distance) and caters to the individual rather than having a bureacracy that deals with no one. All of the administration wants to help and be accessible to the students. Barnard students, for the most part, while having a competitive edge, want to help each other. People think it's great when you tell them you go to Barnard, although initially between Columbia College Students and Engineering students, there may be a little tension. THere is always controversy on campus. Always. WE love it, breathe it, eat it, and sleep it. I don't spend all of my time on campus, there's lots to do in the city, and I view seeing the city as part of my education. Lots of school pride.

The first thing anyone will tell you about Barnard (if you ask someone more official than a student) is that it is a college devoted to empowering young women. This is certainly true, but I dont generally find it to be something that gets rubbed in my face the way you think it might be. From a more student-based perspective, some good things: -discounted tickets to movies and broadway shows -midnight breakfast (the night before exams start, in the gym in Barnard Hall, a HUGE* breakfast is served from 11:30 to 1am) -its a good size. I went to a school where there were 90 kids in my grade, and I was slightly nervous about being able to find my own niche here. Because its not an overwhelmingly large school, its relatively easy to settle in. The campus itself is kind of small (especially now because of the construction going on), but the Columbia campus is right across the street which has a lot of open space to relax. There are also a few parks near by if you want to leave campus without having to go too far away. -its in NYC. you'll never be bored. ever. there is always something to do no matter the time of day or year. this also means that Barnard feels less like an all female college, so it kind of takes away from "oh my god, too much estrogen" feeling that I would imagine you get from attending a women's college in the middle of no where. personally, without a big city like this, I would go crazy. -no core curriculum. thank god. if I'm paying an arm, a leg and my first born child just to be here, I had better be able to pick my own classes thank you very much. barnard just has general education requirements (See below). Not-as-good-things: -I feel like the administration (deans, the bursar, housing people, I'm just going to lump everyone together under the heading "administration") oscillates between being very helpful and as inefficient as possible. generally speaking, housing will screw you over fairly regularly, but this applies to any college (anyone who tells you differently is lying to your face). Here I am speaking of the housing PROCESS though, as in how you go about getting a room after freshman year. its never fun and it always sucks. this is a universal rule, I suspect, and really its an every-man-for-himself situation (or woman as the case may be). outside of housing, things can take a while to process, and while I'm not on financial aid, I've heard that the financial aid office has the same sort of polarity going on in terms of how useful they are. -While the food here isnt terrible, the meal plan is kind of annoying. Its definitely better to get as many points as you can, but for whatever reason Barnard points dont work at columbia, where as columbia dining dollars (their equivalent) work here. Basically its designed for maximum confusion and all around annoyance. Get a meal plan your first year because its required, but after that just open a dining dollars account at columbia instead so you can eat wherever you want. -there is construction going on right now on campus because they're building an enormous student center (I suspect this is some sort of "mine-is-bigger-than-yours" competition going on with Columbia), and while I'm sure it'll be nice when its done, for now its just bothersome. Funny anecdote about the student center: The last name of the woman who donated the bulk of the money to build the student center is Vagilos. One of the proposed names for the student center was "The Vag". I wish I was kidding. When they were celebrating her donation and the student center on Spirit Day, they had the name Vagilos constructed on this big wooden frame, and then sparklers and fireworks went off all around it. This has spawned a number of speculations as to whether there were will be libraries devoted to Kant, and if the new cafeteria will be called the Va-John-Jay (john jay being the columbia cafeteria). Talk about perpetuating a stereotype...

As Hannah Montana says, its always best to get the best of both worlds, and that's what makes Barnard amazing. The small size- about 2500 students- make professors accessible, classes intimate and the community connected. Barnard students love their school and their traditions and embrace the small, all-women environment with traditions that go beyond the typical Midnight Breakfast to include, for example, free massages, manicures and Sex and the City viewing during reading week. (There are, of course, less "girly" student traditions. But I personally love the environment in which I can act unabashedly girly without losing respect or IQ points!) On the other hand, Columbia University, a prestigious Ivy League research university, is right across the street. Barnard students cross-register to take almost any Columbia classes (and it works both ways: many Columbia students take advantage of Barnard's classes), participate in any Columbia club, student group or team and treat Columbia's beautiful campus, including massive Butler Library, as their own. Barnard students are Columbia University students as well. Having every advantage of Columbia's academic and social resources but a close-knit community to take care of you makes life at Barnard incomparable to life at any other school in the country.

the best thing about barnard is the advising system, the internship opportunities, being in the city, the career development office, and the academics. i don't think i would change anything about it; although, some people say that they wish the school had a greater sense of community. i think, however, that the city takes away from a sense of community that you would find at a bigger university in the suburbs. and the city adds to barnard, so there's no way to really fix that. i think the administration is great: they're more personable and approachable than other administrations (JShap singing, or serving breakfast to students at midnight).

Barnard is the best of both worlds- small liberal arts school with the benefits of a large city and Columbia. We have an all women's environment, but a co-ed one with columbia men!

The friction between Barnard and Columbia is always present, it just depends on how much you ignore it. I'm sure it subsides as you get older as well, because Columbia freshman are so stuck up that they'll put anyone down to boost their pride. But it's hard at first- I felt like I had to prove to myself that I was smart, and constantly justify my choice to go to Barnard. Lots of people don't know what it is, but when you say it's affiliated with Columbia University, well then obviously they know. For this reason some shameful girls only put "Columbia" on their facebook profiles and not "Barnard", which is misleading. But these are the types of trivialities that occupy some girls' minds, I know. You have to love it, because you have to constantly defend your position there. But besides all of this, it's great school. Girls go there not because it's all girls, or because they can say "Columbia" but because it's simply a great school with amazing resources, professors, and surroundings. You couldn't ask for a better location. And ultimately in college it's about what you do with your time, what you make of it, and being at Barnard definitely shows that to you by instilling each person with a sense of inspiration but also extreme focus, dedication and hard work ethic. It's quite a stimulating place. Also the fact that Barnard itself is small and Columbia University is large gives it the feeling of both sizes simultaneously. You can feel the cozy environment as well as the expanse of all the different schools.

Enjoying the Barnard experience, for me, was a lot about enjoying the feeling of living in New York, particularly in a more subdued neighborhood like Morningside Heights (not as busy and over-stimulating as, say, the neighborhood around NYU). I liked the balance between having an entire city at my doorstep (the subway stops right outside the gates of the college) and having the quiet, intimate retreat of the Barnard campus to come back to. The campus is physically very small, but it doesn't feel this way, because you have access to space, activities, and resources across the street at Columbia. One potentially uncomfortable aspect of going to Barnard is the ambiguous relationship between Barnard and Columbia, which the administration does a pretty poor job of defining. When I tell people I went to Barnard, I often get the question, "Oh, so, is that like, the same thing as Columbia?" The answer I give them is no, it's not, it is its own college with its own philosophy of higher education. But, being affiliated with Columbia University, it offers students the opportunity to take Columbia courses, participate in Columbia student groups, use the Columbia libraries, and just hang out on the Columbia campus. The way I see it, every student can choose her own balance between Barnard and Columbia life and find some satisfying meeting point between the two worlds.