Barnard vs. Wellesley and Smith

mardad
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 20:19:13 +0000

Both of our daughters had to choose between Wellesley and Barnard and chose Barnard even though I predicted Wellesley. Neither applied to Smith although I loved it on the college tour. Maybe my enthusiasm was what killed Smith. You will get a great education at either. D1 ,currently at Michigan Law, thought Barnard had a more funky feel to it and that Wellesley women were more prepared (in a Stepford kind of way). The information sessions at Barnard’s ASW were 10 minutes of prepared material and 50 minutes of off-the-cuff Q andA. At Wellesley she felt that there was too much prepared material and that during the Q and A the answers had been pre-scripted. D2, Film major and Physics minor, chose Barnard as well. She has taken all of the premed classes, both managed and produced a play, and took a semester in Bologna. (The extra comma is a Vampire Weekend reference.) At Columbia much of the theater activity is at Barnard.

After graduation she will live in NYC. I bring this up in reference to your safety question. I have reminded D2 that wherever she lives it will never be as safe as Barnard, where there is triple coverage.

Work opportunities: both Ds did the baby sitting thing which is lucrative in comparison to our neighborhood. (Getting paid to do your homework) Both also did daytime work taking care of children. In one case it was out of the Nanny Diaries. Later in their careers they got jobs with their major departments. Most of these go to people on financial aid, but later on you can get them because you have some skills in your major.

I would encourage you to go to the ASWs and get a gut feeling. I would like you to choose Barnard because of my ties there, but you can’t go wrong at any of the three. The decision may need to be made on less than objective information. Imagine yourself spending four years at each of the three institutions.