Leticia

Hi everyone,

So I'm a dissatisfied unhappy WashU camper because of a terrible freshman year (i seriously hit all the bumps in the road) and am considering going as a visiting student first to barnard spring 2010 and then possibly transferring.

Can someone tell me more about the dorm situation? The science classes (premed)? Gender studies (my projected major)? Theater/visual arts extracurriculars? NYC living?

Thanks!

churchmusicmom

Sorry you have had a "bumpy" first year.

Have you tried searching the Barnard boards for info about any of your questions? They are pretty broad and have been discussed before I am sure, so you might try that. What exactly do you mean by "dorm situation" and "NYC living"? Any specific concerns??

I can tell you that the pre-med/science classes are very good as my daughter just graduated with a neuroscience degree. She elected to do her PhD rather than the med school route, but many, if not most, in her class were doing pre-med. The advising is excellent and the departmental support superb. She got several great offers for grad school and is attending her first choice.

She originally chose to attend Barnard because she is a dancer and was interested in continuing to study dance as well as do some musical theatre auditions in NYC, while getting a great "academic" education. She actually landed a summer musical theatre job at a regional theater after her first year at Barnard. She chose to do work in labs after that during the summers for her neurosci major, though she did continue auditioning occasionally just for fun. So I can also say that the theater/visual arts (museums) opportunities in NYC are unparalleled.

She also absolutely adored living in NYC....

Leticia

Information about premed would be perfect! I absolutely HATE premed at washu and all the people affiliated with premed because of competition and the airs of the students...it's not a helpful atmosphere to me. Can you give me information about bio classes? And chem too (although i'm finishing chem this summer)? Is it possible to make A's in bio/chem classes? It seems impossible at WashU...Our gen chem classes had 25% making under a B, 60-70% making B's, and 5-10% getting A's...it was nearly impossible with the curve.

I'm very interested in dance and visual arts. However I am unable to do any of that at washu and st. louis is such a stifled place for artistic growth. I am a photographer, painter, and sculpter and information about art classes would be great as well.

I am going to apply as a major in gender studies with a minor in film. Any information about that would be awesome.

My dorm situation was awful last year because I had 2 roommates, both who were absolutely terrible to me, and I moved out into a single finally in March. I would like to know more about the housing? How big are the rooms? Do people get singles? How are the closets? Showers? Do transfers live in a transfer dorm?

Leticia

And also, can anyone tell me if you can apply as a transfer while you're a visiting student?

Thanks!

liaku

Is there a reason you'd rather apply first as a visiting student and then to transfer? It seems like it'd spare you the trouble (and the sanity) of applying twice in such a short period of time if you skipped to the transferring bit.

As for housing, Elliot Hall (Elliott Hall - yeah, I forgot how to code a link) has two floors reserved for transfers, and you can see from its floor plans that there are a respectable number of singles. They offer floor plans for every residential hall, I believe, so click around. Iirc, a lot of the halls have photos of the rooms too, though I kinda doubt any have photos of the bathrooms.

calmom

I checked recently, and as far as I can tell neither Barnard nor Columbia offers studio art majors, and the course offerings for visual studio arts are limited..

The reason I was checking is that my daughter had taken a print making course while studying abroad and absolutely loved the class. (Loved it enough to get up early on a Saturday morning in the dead of Russian winter to attend) So I thought since she has most of her major requirements met, she might enjoy taking a couple of introductory studio art classes her senior year, just for fun. And basically I found that there were only a handful of courses available.

This surprised me, as I had assumed that any large university would also have a strong art department. You can check course offerings yourself here:
CU Directory of Classes

Given that it is New York, there is probably a wealth of courses you can take off campus, perhaps through various museums-- but I'm not sure Barnard is going to be the answer to the frustrations you are feeling at Wash. U. I don't know anything about pre-med, but in general Barnard/Columbia courses are very demanding and students tend to be very focused & hard working. My daughter reported that her pre-med classmates tended to be overwhelmed with work and quite obsessed about their grades, but that may just go with the territory of pre-med everywhere.

Dance & film offerings are extensive, so you wouldn't have any problem there.

I'd suggest spending some time with the actual course catalog and the course directory I linked to above to get more of a feel as to what is likely/possible.

shoshi

Hi Leticia,

You cannot attend Barnard as a visiting student and then transfer. It's one or the other.