1. Yes, there are plenty of girls at Barnard/Columbia who want to go out and you will definitely find places to go and people to go with. Most of my friends dislike going out, and because I mostly interact with them I don’t really have a great perspective on the population as a whole, but from what I’ve observed it’s pretty split. You certainly won’t be in any sort of minority if you go out or a majority if you don’t.

2. I don’t, really. I have one friend on it and she says they drink a lot, but that’s all I’ve got for you.

3. I didn’t find any of my classes this year to be particularly hard, or at least much more difficult than any AP class I took in high school. The biggest difference is pacing: to give an English major-y example, I read eight books in one semester for my American Literature class, which is probably about how many we read in the whole year of my junior year Honors American Literature class. I took Statistics and found it to be fairly easy, definitely around the same level as AP Statistics in high school. However, I imagine this does depend on the high school; in my high school AP classes were pretty competitive and most students got 5s or 4s on the exam, so we were very well-prepared with the material.

They certainly have the option to, but very few choose to because a) Barnard housing is reasonably-priced, and it would be difficult to find something comparable in Morningside Heights, and b) it’s a lot of trouble to find an apartment and (though the process is stressful) it is much easier to just go with the guaranteed housing. 

After your freshman year you no longer have to live in the Quad (referring to Brooks/Reid/Sulzberger, though some people may choose to live in Hewitt or Sulz Tower), and you have the option to pursue apartment-style housing in Cathedral Gardens, Plimpton, 110th, 600, 616, or 620. Generally these buildings are about as nice as the buildings you’d find apartment-hunting and probably about the same price.

Next year I’m living in a 6-person suite and yes, the process was super stressful, but I’m really excited for it! Staying in Barnard housing helps you stay close to your friends and the campus community.

Well, for me, leaving California was really one of my top priorities. I had never wanted to stay there for college and was actually really surprised that so many of my final choices were indeed California schools (Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, etc.) As soon as I was able to remind myself that leaving had always been a majorly important thing for me, the choice became more clear.

However, I was also concerned about the state of the UCs. They’re running out of money, classes are huge, and there is very little student-teacher interaction (unless you seek it out). Because I was a Regents’ Scholar, some of these problems would have been solved, but not all of them. Being a double major (which I was sure I wanted) would have been impossible to achieve in less than five years there, and it wouldn’t have been certain that I would have gotten the classes I wanted.

In addition, sometimes I feel like their selections of students are based too much on numbers. Barnard reads admissions essays first, and in my opinion seems to prioritize putting together a class of truly interesting people with amazing accomplishments and stories. This isn’t to say that you can’t find people like that at Berkeley, because there are plenty of fascinating people there, but just that nearly everyone I meet at Barnard has been (even if we don’t become friends) at least engaging to talk to. This was super clear to me at Admitted Students’ Weekend (I’m not sure if you went), when I met a lot of other people and talked to them.

The main things that won me over in the end, then, were:

1. Going to Barnard would mean leaving California and starting a new, awesome life and having excellent adventures in one of the coolest cities on our fair Earth.

2. I would be able to get the classes I want and most likely be able to graduate with a double major in four years.

3. (Hopefully) I would have the opportunity for my professors to get to know me/at least know my name and to have teacher-student interaction more frequently.

4. The other students would be qualitatively chosen, and from what I observed would at least be interesting people to hang out with.

I also had a special case where I was more or less recovering from an abusive relationship, so I felt like it might be a good time to feel more empowered as a person/woman and spend some time focusing on myself instead of letting guys distract me. This worked, kind of.

Best of luck with your decision! Know that either one of these schools is lucky to have you (as much as I just trashed Berkeley, I still love it. Go Cal!)

Yes, I think that is definitely possible! I’m pretty sure that’s what most people who take a gap year do when they want to reapply to schools they were once interested in. As far as I know, Barnard has no policy against doing that.

Thank you! I’m glad my answers have been helpful to you.

Barnard is definitely not a school to go to if you’re interested in meeting a lot of men easily. It does take some effort to make guy friends (I still don’t have many, then again, I haven’t really put in a lot of effort), and certainly is more difficult than it would be at a coed school.

However, it is not impossible. I have plenty of friends who have lots of guy friends who they have met through classes/on-campus activities/other friends, and you will at least be able to interact with guys on a regular basis, especially if you spend a lot of time at Columbia. If you get involved on campus, you’ll definitely have the opportunity to make friends of the opposite gender, but no matter what the gender ratio will always be a little unbalanced (because there are so many girls in the campus community, most groups tend to have a greater proportion of females). I am a little shy with guys, which has probably affected my ability to make guy friends — some of my friends meet people really easily.

That being said, there are lots of great things about going to a women’s college! Personally, I really like living with all girls and think that it reduces a lot of the stress that living with guys around might bring (I grew up with just my mom and two older sisters, so this situation feels natural to me). Though since you’ve spent your high school years surrounded by only girls, I understand that you might want a greater chance to interact with the opposite sex.

I’d look into Barnard as a school itself and see if you like it for other reasons, putting the all-female population aside for a moment. I think at this point in your life you should make these decisions solely for yourself and no one else — when I chose to come to Barnard, I was just getting out of an abusive relationship, so I really wanted to be able to focus on myself and my growth (which um, kind of worked). And if you’re only worried about applying, it never hurts to do it anyway and consider it more seriously later!

There are more lesbians here than at an average coed school, for sure. However, I don’t think there are as many lesbians here as there are at other women’s colleges like Smith, Mount Holyoke, etc. because of its location in New York and affiliation with Columbia. I think there’s a portion of girls who come here weren’t necessarily looking for a women’s college and Barnard happened to be the only one they applied to, as they knew that guys would be around at CU and in the city as a whole (this group includes me and a lot of people I know). There are definitely a lot of strong feminists at Barnard, and I’d say that for me that population is more prominent here than the lesbian population as far as the stereotypes of people at women’s colleges go.

Barnard and Columbia both have a really supportive gay/lesbian community (it is often joked that there are lots of gay men at Columbia as well), so it’s a good community to be part of if that’s what you’re looking for. New York is also obviously very progressive, so it’s a great city to live in for anyone identifying as LGBTQ.

I only know three lesbians, though admittedly my circle of friends isn’t huge. Clearly I have no actual statistical data for any of this, it’s solely based on my observation, but I think that’s probably enough to give you a good picture.

Re: your first of all, I’ve always written waitlisted. Clearly spell check never applied to college.

I don’t think there is ANY stigma at all against waitlisted people who end up matriculating. Chances are you’ll probably never have to bring it up with your friends and peers (unless you want to, that is) and nobody will ever have to know. Basically once you enter college, people stop talking about things like your high school GPA and SAT/ACT/AP test scores and what schools you got into and didn’t. Sometimes I still talk about these things with my friends, but usually just for fun and to look back on those shitty times and think about how much happier/better off we all are now. In short, don’t worry about it! You’ll fit in just the same as everyone else.

I hope you eventually get accepted too!

Wonderful! That’s about what I had heard, but thanks for articulating it so clearly. Check this out, guys!

I’m not positive, but I believe there is a special study abroad tuition that you pay. I’ve heard that sometimes it’s actually cheaper than your actual tuition because New York is so expensive! It definitely isn’t an extra cost on top of your actual tuition; it just goes in place of it (from what I’ve heard, again, this is not certain at all).

But I’m really not sure of any more than that.