<p>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. </p>
<p>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 <a href=“http://www.barnard.edu/reslife/floorplans/Elliott.pdf[/url]”>http://www.barnard.edu/reslife/floorplans/Elliott.pdf</a> for floor plan.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>