<p>Thank you for your input, everyone. B-mom I plan to ask you some questions as we go further in the process. calmom you make some good points, very helpful, thanks. </p>
<p>D will visit both again - we’re in NYC fairly often. She’s also interested in SEAS though I may discourage that since it essentially locks her in to engineering/applied science. She thinks she may like engineering but I am not sure she needs to lock herself into a program she can’t easily get out of if she decides to go a different way. She’s a young junior as it is - only just 16 - and still indecisive about major. I think the core or the ways of knowing would be a good idea for her, it would allow her to explore disciplines before committing.</p>
<p>She didn’t like the idea of the core coming into this at all - like your D she also loves the Brown open curriculum, did a summer course there - but she warmed up to the core when our tour guide talked about how cool it was to share that experience with all the other students, it was something they all had in common.</p>
<p>Did I mention our Columbia tour guide was great and our Barnard tour guide not at all great? The Barnard guide talked a lot about what she could do at Columbia as a Barnard student, didn’t go into many buildings - mainly stood outside them and talked. It was boring. Our Columbia guide was an SEAS student and very animated about her courses, student life, dorms…and didn’t mention Barnard courses at all. </p>
<p>So I think D should see both again, perhaps with a better guide. We also couldn’t stay for the Barnard info session that time, maybe that would have given a better sense of things.</p>