General Questions and Social Environment

A_Persona
Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:34:05 +0000

These are real concerns and I’ll try to answer them honestly. Unfortunately, I am not African American and am not qualified to answer the first one. All I can say is that I have not heard my African American friends complain about being treated differently and I don’t imagine they are. At Barnard, everyone, rich or poor, white, black, or asian, is treated exactly the same. That said, I can’t vouch that there has never been anyone who has said an insensitive comment.

The Barnard-Columbia relationship isn’t as difficult as it seems at first. Admittedly, no one can really explain it to you because it’s complicated, legal, and makes absolutely no sense. However, after the first month, when you make a bunch of Columbia and Barnard friends, you kind of forget about it. On the Barnard side, most Barnard women are very proud of being specifically Barnard students and this pride grows proportionally to time spent as Barnard. They are, however, also very happy to be part of the Columbia community and certainly don’t mind getting a Columbia degree and taking Columbia classes. It’s an odd relationship, I admit, but you get used to it. :)

I did not apply to Columbia (I dislike the core) but those people who did originally apply to Columbia seem pretty happy on this side of the street.