Many questions about Barnard

calmom
Sun, 19 Dec 2010 02:48:15 +0000

Barnard provides need-based aid only. Your GPA, etc. do not factor in. It was my experience over the 4 years that my daughter was at Barnard that the financial aid office was much more helpful and easier to work with during the years when my daughter qualified for a Pell grant. This is anecdotal only, and I may be very mistaken, but I had the impression that somewhere inside the office there must be a directive to “maximize Pell eligibility”


If Barnard is a reach for you, then it is likely that the aid award you get from Barnard will be as good or better than many other private colleges. If, on the other hand, you’ve got a good chance of getting into a super elite college like Harvard or Stanford – you might expect better aid from them. I’d say that if financial aid is very important, then cast a wide net and be sure to apply to schools where you are highly likely to get merit aid as well as colleges like Barnard.


The diploma says Columbia University at the top, in big letters… (in Latin). Then somewhere in the middle of the page, under the big letters, it says Barnard College (also in Latin), and at the bottom the diploma is signed by the President of Columbia University and by the President of Barnard.


This drives students at Columbia College and SEAS nuts, but the diploma (and degree) comes from Columbia University. Barnard does not issue any degrees – all it can do is recommend to Columbia that the degree be issued. They make it very clear around graduation time that the degree is not “officially” awarded until after the Columbia ceremony.

(Side note: one very nice thing about Barnard is that you get at least 3 days’ wear out of your graduation robe, if you attend the Baccalaureate as well as the Barnard & Columbia commencements. Barnard pays for the robe. It looks exactly like the robes worn by all other Columbia grads. )

However, you will probably not put “Columbia University” on job apps – that would be misleading and could backfire if an employer calls CU to verify enrollment or graduation date. Instead you will either write: “Columbia University (Barnard College)” – or “Barnard College, Columbia University” or something equivalent.

As far as the difference – the schools have different sets of requirements for degrees and an overall different ambiance. Barnard students can enroll in just about any course offered by the University, but there may be varying requirements over whether a course taken in a Columbia department can be applied to satisfy a major requirement in the parallel Barnard department. So if you attend Barnard you will almost certainly take some of your coursework at Columbia, but in most majors you can expect to be focused more and more on Barnard coursework as you progress – unless you happen to chose a major housed wholly at Columbia or offered via the auspices of a joint department. (One thing I don’t think high school students get is quite how important a role the specific department of your major(s) plays at just about any college. If you know what you are likely to major in, it’s worth doing some checking to compare what the path may be like at each college.)


Your degree doesn’t get you a job – YOU get the job. Barnard’s career services provides an amazing level of support to seniors, if you opt to take advantage of what they offer. My daughter has a dream job, in her field of study – I don’t think she could have imagined a better position - she received a phone call informing her that she was hired on the morning of her Barnard commencement. But my d. was hired on the basis of her internship experience and her graduation honors status – I know that because the agency that employs her posts little bios of its employees online, and I can compare my d’s bio with the bio’s of the people who preceded her in the same position and with her co-workers who have the same position – right now she has one co-worker who is a Stanford grad and another who graduated from CUNY. But they all have really amazing internship experiences. (And my d. got her internships completely outside of anything that Barnard offered - that is, she could have gotten those internships no matter what college she attended).


There’s a really good [url=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1066094780-post44.html]post by USofArgula/url in another thread, that I think is absolutely perfect in describing the atmosphere:



There are tremendous opportunities for growth and exploration, but goddamn if you don’t have to work to find and develop them. You’re forced to figure out what you want/need, to formulate plans on how to get it, and to pursue it with persistence. That’s actually probably among the most rewarding parts of the Barnard education–it fosters self-awareness, poise, resilience, and reasoning that will serve one well in the future.



I think the same would apply to Columbia students – in fact, it might be tougher for them because they don’t have the benefit of the more supportive LAC-like atmosphere cultivated at Barnard – but the point is, the question in 4 years won’t be where your degree came from, it will be what you did a along the way. Obviously a degree from a top tier college or university is going to command more respect in the job market than from some lower-level public college, but there is a very broad equivalence between all top schools, including public flagships. That is, they will note that you went to a really good college – they won’t really care which one it was (unless they have their own ties – alums tend to look kindly on those who come from the same college).

And just about anyone who would be doing the hiring knows Barnard’s reputation just as well as they know Columbia’s. Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia for 120 years. People tend to equate the names.

That being said, don’t pick a college for prestige. Pick the college for fit and for what it offers in relation to educational goals.