Should I transfer to Barnard from Reed?

calmom
Thu, 16 Dec 2010 02:55:37 +0000

Raspberi, you would be coming in as a first year, so you would have the O-week experience, the dorm with other first years, etc – a whole array of activities to get to know people. You’ll probably be in a double or triple your first year in any case.

Terminus is frustrated in part because she didn’t really connect with people her first year at Reed, and now people have pretty much settled into their groups. Well, I don’t think Barnard is much different – and in many ways it is probably harder to meet new people down the line because so much socializing takes place off campus. I don’t know where Terminus would be housed – usually, in the fall, transfers are housed in Elliot, but I don’t know if spring transfers get housed there, or put into whatever rooms open up as students leave campus to study abroad. (That’s a question for the housing office). Elliot is mostly singles, in kind of a hybrid setting between corridor style housing and suites – as they are 12 person suites. See http://www.barnard.edu/reslife/floorplans/Elliott.pdf for floor plan.

I think the key to meeting people is simply being proactive about getting involved with various student groups, appropriate to individual interests. The problem with coming in as a transfer is that by junior year students start getting more focused on their independent interests – maybe they are planning a semester abroad, taking an internship, or getting more focused on work for their majors. So Terminus would be entering as a transfer just at the time when most students are getting more focused on their academics and career aspirations, less attentive to their social lives.

I don’t know Terminus, so I don’t know how much her personality fits into the problem. Is she very introverted? Does she have a very different lifestyle or idea of “fun” than her Reed classmates? etc. Also, I’ve always heard that Reed students tend to be the quirky, intellectual types – so while stereotypes need to be taken with a grain of salt, the typical Reedie might be a very different person than the typical Barnard woman. So it could be a case of a misfit - and Terminus might fit in very well at Barnard.