Many questions about Barnard

calmom
Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:23:05 +0000

Employers may receive hundreds of resumes for any given opening - from colleges throughout the country. Those resumes are going likely to be screened by a lower level employee or administrative assistant before they ever make it to the hiring manager’s desk. Adding the two, very truthful words - “Columbia University” - may be the element that draws the attention of the less knowledgeable assistant. Given the current employment market, I wouldn’t go for “subtle” – there were well over 300 applicants for the position my daughter currently holds, and only a handful selected for follow up interviews.

I honestly don’t know what was on my daughter’s resume. A resume that she was using when looking for work the previous year had the words “Barnard College, Columbia University” – but during her senior year she took full advantage of Barnard career services, and I assume they probably gave her input and suggestions as to her resume, and she probably listened carefully to whatever they recommended.

Whether “Columbia University” is included at the top of the resume or not, it would have to show up in the employment section, and wherever she listed other activities she had been involved in.



You would have to be closer to the issue than most people are to know that the degrees of Barnard college students are actually issued by Columbia University and Barnard does not issue degrees. To anyone who knows of the two institutions but does not know about the degree thing, it just seems odd that they are also mentioning Columbia.



Well that would present an opportunity for discussion of the relationship at the the job interview then… though I seriously doubt what you say. I’ve always known that Barnard students received Columbia degrees – and if someone knows of the relationship, then they aren’t going to think the mention of Columbia is odd (any more than they would think it odd if a student wrote “University of Pennsylvania” after "Wharton) … and if they don’t know of the relationship, then certainly it is beneficial for the Barnard student to be able to explain it to them.

The Columbia relationship is a very significant aspect of the Barnard experience. I’m not talking about prestige – I am talking about the resources offered by the larger university, and the experiences it affords.

My daughter went to Barnard AND Columbia. You can pretend that the schools, their students and faculty operate in separate universes, but in reality they don’t. Columbia classes and Columbia activities were an integral part of my d’s experience. There are Barnard students working as writers and editors for the Columbia Spectator; students in leadership roles for various Columbia clubs; student athletes playing in Ivy League sports; students doing undergraduate research in Columbia science labs; students who are taking Columbia majors.

This isn’t something I discussed with her in line with this idiotic CC debate. It never came up in that context. Instead it came up again and again in the context of her social experiences and involvement in on-campus politics. Most of my d’s closest friends from school – the people she spent the most time with - are guys who attended CC or GS.

I actually find it very strange that anyone would expect anything else. To me it is inherent in the idea of a “college” vs. a “university”. (What would be odd in my mind – though I suspect it happens all the time – would be a student who submits a resume saying he or she earned a degree at “Columbia University” without specifying the college. If it was an older student, I’d wonder the resume was trying to to bury the fact that the applicant came through GS rather than Columbia College).