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<p>Barnard (and, I think most elite colleges) is essentially geared to prepare its students for grad school or professional school. Your major will probably require a senior thesis. You will form close relationships with profs who will be able to write recs for grad school. Berkeley graduated about 130 anthropology majors last year – if you multiply that by 4 you get 520 students overall in the department (though of course first & second year students may not yet have settled on their major) – there were 32 anthropology majors at Barnard the same year (46 at Columbia). So you will definitely get more personalized attention at Barnard.</p>
<p>Also, Barnard seems to have more of a focus on cultural anthropology – if you look at the required courses at [Requirements</a> for the major | Anthropology Department](<a href=“http://anthropology.barnard.edu/majors]Requirements”>http://anthropology.barnard.edu/majors) you can see that they are focused largely on language & culture. (Also note that with the exception of the senior thesis seminars, all of the courses are joint Barnard/Columbia courses – the “V” designation tells you that)</p>
<p>The Berkeley major seems to be broader, requiring foundational courses in archeology & biological anthropology as well. See [How</a> to Declare Major/Minor - Anthropology Department, UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/programs/undergraduate/declare.php]How”>http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/programs/undergraduate/declare.php)
Nothing wrong with that – i took undergrad courses in physical anthropology and archeology and loved my classes – but it seems to be a somewhat different focus than your interest, as you’ve stated it. The required intro classes are large lecture format (up to about 450 students). </p>
<p>Obviously you might change your major, but the point is that you are probably going to find that classes in general are going to be smaller at Barnard and you will have more of an opportunity to develop strong relationships with the faculty, especially early on. </p>
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Unless you decide to wear a Barnard sweatshirt wherever you go, there is no way at all that anyone can tell which women attend Barnard and which attend Columbia. So there is nothing awkward or weird, except for the minor annoyance of dorm entry. </p>
<p>When my d. was in college, she often griped to me over whatever was bugging her. If someone said something to her that made her angry, I heard about it. Not once did she ever raise any issue about Columbia students or the Columbia/Barnard relationship. She had more guy friends than female friends in college & was active in several Columbia associations.</p>