Barnard and Columbia relationships

Jchung · 04-09-2008, 03:41 PM

Hi
I had a question on the relationship between Barnard and Columbia U
I have been admitted to Barnard college class of 2012 and I am planning to attend Barnard
I heard from several people that some Barnard girls say that they are from Columbia university and that it is perfectly fine to say this because they receive double diploma from Barnard College and Columbia university (also they can take classes there)and also on FACEBOOK,barnard students need to join COLUMBIA network with their columbia.edu email address since there is NO seperate network for Barnard
But is this true ? What do you guys think about this ?

I am very interested in both Barnard students' opinion as well as what Columbia students feel about this.
Thanks guyz ^^

Congrats to Barnard class of 2012

Snivellus · 04-09-2008, 04:24 PM

Personally, I think it's alright to say that you're going to Columbia University, especially if you're from an area that has never heard of Barnard. You're going to be taking the same classes, and even getting a diploma from Columbia, so it's not like you're lying.

Even as someone who lives close to Barnard, many people give me a totally confused look when I tell them where I'm going. The convo goes like:
Them: So where are you going for college?
Me: Barnard
Them: Oh.... congrats........ Where's that?.......
Me: NYC, it's basically the all women's undergraduate college of Columbia
Them: Ohh! That's awesome! Congrats!!!

And yes, it's true that Barnard students are under the Columbia network because of the shared email address domain.

By the way, the Columbia users on here on pretty rude, pretentious, and elitist. They don't consider Barnard students equal to Columbia students. But you shouldn't really pay attention to them, because Barnard students share so much will Columbia students such as classes, clubs, etc.. If there was really that much hate in real life, no one would be able to do anything!

mardad · 04-09-2008, 09:13 PM

Both of my daughters attend Barnard. They say that they very rarely encounter any elitist attitudes on campus. The professors say they can't tell which students are from CC or BC (unless it's a male). That being said the basic education is different depending on the side of the street ( core Vs. nine ways of learning. Most Barnard students are proud of their school but there is a small minority that claim they are from CC because of ...(well I don't know why). They are described as generally unhappy.
The situation that Snivellus describes is very common here on the West coast. My daughters often mention Columbia to explain where Barnard is. Most people here have heard of Columbia but probably couldn't find it on a map.

churchmusicmom · 04-09-2008, 10:02 PM

My daughter's experience goes along with Mardad's. No worries in "real life" re CC students being elitist/rude, but there are a few on these boards...do a search on the Columbia board and you will find some posts. Don't consider that what they say is anything like what you will actually find on campus.

My own daughter much prefers to say that she is a Barnard student. If you find it necessary to explain that (and we do quite often here in Atlanta), we just say that is the women's college affiliated with Columbia University. It's true!

calmom · 04-10-2008, 06:26 PM

The big difference I can see between Barnard & Columbia, for my daughter, is that it's significantly harder to get an A in Barnard classes.

mardad · 04-10-2008, 10:40 PM

Calmom, that reminds me of a conversation I recently had with a colleague, a graduate of Columbia in the 1960s.
Me, "Both of my daughters are students at Barnard"
Colleague, "I took several courses at Barnard."
Me, "How was it?"
Colleague, "I hated it."
Me, "Why?"
Colleague, "It was so hard. Those girls were always studying. I wanted to play football."

Maybe somethings never change.

honied_dreams · 04-10-2008, 10:48 PM

Hmmm...strangely, perhaps, I've never felt that Barnard courses were harder. There seems to be a good balance of difficulty between my Barnard and Columbia courses; I think it really depends more on the department (for both schools).

calmom · 04-10-2008, 11:30 PM

I don't think my daughter finds the Barnard classes harder... I know in fact that the toughest class she had her first semester was at Columbia, but she ended up with an A. On the other hand, she has complained at that there is just no pleasing a couple of the the profs she has had at Barnard.

mythmom · 04-11-2008, 12:03 AM

Well, NY's new gov. said his most important lesson was learned at Barnard. Hm. I'm glad the school has others to speak for it too. We sure can pick 'em in NY.

panda2 · 04-13-2008, 04:59 PM

when i was signing up for classes this semester, i signed up for a statistics class. only when i got the location of the class, did i learn that it was actually a columbia course, not a barnard one. that's how ambiguous the relationship is, that you sometimes can't even tell which classes are on what side of broadway.

and in regards to the allegedly rude cu students (I don't look at that forum), remember that they haven't even arrived on campus yet, so don't even pay attention to them.

Snivellus · 04-15-2008, 02:14 PM

So at accepted students weekend, I got to meet real, live Columbia students. Not like "propsies" or tour guides and whatnot who had to be nice to me.. but actual Columbia kids roaming the streets of NY.

annd...

They were so absolutely nice! They did not discriminate against me at all... even though I was way younger than them and a Barnard student. One of them told me that he takes most of his classes at Barnard even.

So yeah, those kids on the Columbia board are just abnormally disgruntled for some unknown reason.

churchmusicmom · 04-15-2008, 04:22 PM

Glad you had fun!

It turns out that one of the students that my daughter hosted is a cc-er! Not sure who, though!