The Women's College Difference

Last semester, I took a basic survey class at Barnard that covered American history up until the Civil War. This is the kind of class that tends  to focus primarily on the experience of white males, so I went in with fairly low expectations of inclusivity. 

But the class ended up surprising me. Professor Sloan, one of Barnard’s wonderful history professors, went out of his way to mention the contributions of women, people of color and other generally marginalized groups. At one point, he even said, “This class has been fairly heteronormative so far, and I apologize for that,” which is not something I ever thought I would hear in a basic survey class that covers the beginnings of American history.

(Side note, coming to Barnard means that you too will soon be able to use the word heteronormative in casual conversation!)

Barnard, by virtue of being a women’s college, is more sensitive to issues of privilege and marginalization. Time and time again, I have realized that professors at Barnard (and I speak only from personal experience here) are more likely to focus on “the other” and, for me, that makes a stronger class. Between the priorities of Barnard professors and the incredible intelligence and passion of every student here, I have learned more at Barnard  than I think I would have learned at another school.

Recently, a prospective Barnard student messaged me on Facebook with some questions about the school. At the end of her message, she apologized for asking so many questions in her message. My first thought was to tell her never to apologize for her questions again. And it was then that I realized what a special place Barnard was. With the recent news about the confidence gap, the continued news about the wage gap, and the media’s annoying focus on the thigh gap, Barnard is a place for young women to learn that their stories are valid and that their voices must be heard. In my time at Barnard, I have become more outspoken, more confident in my ideas, and more convinced of my ability to change the world. And I guarantee you Barnard will do the same for you.

Bella

Why I Chose Barnard

Meeting Gloria Steinem

“Why did you choose Barnard?” 

I have been asked this question since I got accepted early decision. I have yet to come up with one, single answer because there are so many reasons that I fell in love with Barnard.

In my first post, I explained how I found out about Barnard through a professor I had at a summer program at Columbia. Most of you remember writing that “Why Barnard” supplement essay back in the fall when you were applying. I’m going to share mine with you:
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“As I walked through the black iron gates, I knew I was entering an oasis, a place spiritually apart from the business of the city and where the students and faculty represent one body. I honor the idea of learning aside young women who are motivated to become productive and exemplary citizens. I am enthralled by Barnard's devotion to providing young women scholars with foundations in an expansive range of subjects with its Nine Ways of Knowing. I have always envisioned myself walking through those gates once again, as a Barnard student, and being exposed to such a superb academic environment. Barnard will bring my intellectual abilities to a whole new level and enable me to continue challenging myself.”
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My reasons for attending and loving Barnard have multiplied over the past year. I have to admit that the fact that Barnard is a top tier liberal arts college in the City of New York factored into my decision-making. But it was more than just that. I remember as a high school junior, looking through every inch of Barnard’s website and being in awe of what both the faculty and students had accomplished, of how the college expands its connections globally, and of how everyone has a genuine smile in every picture. Most importantly, it was extremely empowering to me that I saw women on all of those pages and postings.
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At my admitted students Open House

I must confess that I was one of those people who came to Barnard despite the fact that it is a women’s college, but that is now one of the major reasons that I call this place my home. Because I’m in a nurturing environment where women are encouraged to go above and beyond their immediate potential, I am a stronger and braver woman than I was eight months ago. I never imagined myself speaking up in class, supporting women’s issues, majoring in economics, minoring in computer science, being elected class vice president, meeting the mayor and councilwomen in City Hall, or chatting with Gloria Steinem. If I weren’t attending Barnard, I probably would not have achieved even half of those things within my first year of college. Seeing women in leadership and being successful really encourages me to go out of my comfort zone and try things that might seem impossible at first, but are absolutely achievable.

Each day at Barnard is like a breath of fresh air: the strong sense of community, compassion of faculty, academic readiness of students, and unlimited possibilities of the future remind me how lucky and honored I am to be a Barnard woman. I chose to attend Barnard, and that made all the difference.

Sarah

My Favorite Professors

Good evening, everyone! The end of the semester rapidly approaches—only a few days of class remain!—and all of us on campus are starting to feel the final push. But I know that all of you are facing a similar feeling as the end of this month approaches, so here is a post to help with your decision making process:

Awesome Professors.

This list will by no means be inclusive—I haven’t been here for so long after all—but I would like to share two of my favorite professors I've had since joining the Barnard/Columbia community. I have yet to have a single professor who would not meet with me in office hours. So take heart: amazing teachers and mentors await on both sides of Broadway!

Professor Casey Blake, Professor of History and American Studies

Blake is the bomb. I took US Intellectual History with him last semester, and I can say in all seriousness that it was life-changing. And I know at least a dozen people who agree with me. 

A quote from CULPA (Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability) reads, “It took a little while to get used to Blake's lecturing style, since he talks a bit like Woody Allen and sort of stares at a point on the back of the room about 10 feet over all our heads. That being said, he's brilliant.” I could not agree more: he is definitely a genuine academic, and he teaches that way. He stands at the front of the room and lectures for the full hour and fifteen minutes; there are no flashy gimmicks, no cheesiness, and no dumbing-down of the material. But he is incredibly passionate and wonderfully well spoken (I frequently frantically copied down whole sentences, with the hope that I could learn to speak like him…though that has yet to happen). 

During the first few weeks of school, I gathered all my courage, marched myself into his office, and introduced myself, just because I was so enjoying his class. He invited me in, and we ended up spending half an hour discussing my classes and interest in history. Not every professor would take that amount of time to chat with a student who came in for no real reason, but Blake is not just any professor.

This semester I’m in a seminar with him, and he manages it brilliantly. Many profs have a hard time passing the discussion on to the students, rather than monopolizing it themselves, but not him. What a guy!

Antonio Carmena, Lecturer of Dance (Read: Ballet Teacher)

Antonio is…also the bomb? I thought I’d use a new word, but nothing else quite captures how great he is. Even if you are a less hardcore dancer (like me), Antonio squarely fits the great-professor requisites of being a) inspiring, b) helpful, and c) caring. Also he’s really, really funny.

Antonio is a soloist with New York City Ballet, which is a pretty big deal, and it is really cool to have a teacher who comes up to Barnard for an 8:40 class, and then goes downtown to rehearse and perform. 

I admit that I was rather nervous about taking his class: Am I really at the ballet five level? Am I really cut out to take class with a dancer of his caliber? Technically, the answer to both of those questions may be “no.” But it doesn’t matter, because Antonio somehow manages to be completely welcoming and relaxed, even as he urges us to work as hard as we can. Also, he recognizes that we are not 12-year-olds at a conservatory, and he treats us accordingly: he repeatedly tells us that we are adults, capable of making our own artistic decisions, and pushes us to move away from strictly academic interpretations. And though he doesn’t seems entirely clear on exactly how we spend the rest of our days, he does understand the stress we’re under and is very sweet and funny about it. A quality Antonio quote: “And then it’s spring break, and after that all your…middle-terms and things will be over!”

Ok, folks, that’s all for now. I highly recommend both of these teachers, and if you would like more recommendations, or if you have any other history or dance, professor or class questions or comments, leave me a comment! They make my days spent reading and translating much more exciting :)

Have a good one,

Chloe

Making the most of NYC

Midnight view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge

A huge draw for me when I was considering Barnard was its amazing location – who wouldn’t want to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world for four years?!  However, for me (and for a lot of the prospective students I speak to) this is also a point of concern.  Many students worry that the pull of New York City would be hard to resist.  And when the sun is shining and your friends are going to hang out in Riverside Park and you know you really should start on your Women in Culture paper, sometimes it can be hard to drag yourself to the library.  However, most semesters I found myself wishing I had taken advantage of the city more than I did.  Campus life itself is so fun it’s often easy to forget the wider world outside Barnard’s gates.  Luckily, you all can learn from my experience and go exploring more often than I did!

Here were some of my favorite things to do in the city while I was a student:

View of the Financial District  from the Staten Island Ferry

Field Trips: Classes at Barnard utilize the city as an extended classroom.  As an art history major, I visited museums and galleries in nearly all of my classes.  Friends in Environmental Science collected and tested water samples from the Hudson; my first-year seminar went to the opera.  There’s no limit to the things you can learn from New York City, and Barnard professors make full use of it.

Urban New York: Each semester, students can participate in Urban New York drawings to win free tickets to various New York City events.  Concert tickets, sports tickets, theater tickets… you name it.  I got a ticket to something each time I participated.  You can also buy discounted tickets to many city-wide events through the Columbia University Arts Initiative.  I tried to see a show at least once a semester, and rarely paid more than $30 for my ticket.

Eat: Most of my babysitting cash went directly to various restaurants around New York City.  After a long day, I would occasionally treat myself to delivery Indian or Thai food (you can get basically any type of food you want delivered directly to the Barnard dorms).  Weekend nights often revolved around an adventure to try a new type of food – dumplings in Chinatown, Korean BBQ, Indian frankies at Roti Roll on Amsterdam Ave.  Absolute Bagels (at 108 and Broadway) was a Saturday-morning must. 

Treats from Smorgasburg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Boating in Central Park

Parking: Spring in New York is my favorite time of year (although winter with the lights on College Walk is a very close second).  People emerge from their apartments like they’ve never seen sun before in their lives and the parks are crawling.  Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park was one of my favorite weekend outings, and during the week I would often run in either Riverside Park or Central Park.  In a time crunch or on a weekday afternoon, Lehman Lawn at Barnard is a perfect spot to read (or in my case, read for 5 minutes and inevitably fall asleep for an hour).  A picnic blanket was my first purchase once I got to college, and it got a lot of use over my four years.

No matter where you go to college there will always be things you would rather do than your calculus homework.  But if you’ve gotten this far, you know how to prioritize, and why in the world wouldn’t you want to be at a school with the world’s greatest distractions?!

Melanie :)

Hosting Admitted Students Last Weekend! (Part 2)

Even though I knew that I was going to attend Barnard by the time my Admitted Students’ Open House came around (I applied Early Decision to Barnard), I gained absolute assurance that I had chosen the perfect school for me during that weekend. After that, my love for Barnard kept getting deeper and deeper. As a current student, I really wanted to help prospective students make the decision to attend Barnard and fall in love with it as I have. So, I was super excited to host prospective students last weekend.


With my admitted students at Open House

On Saturday night, I went to the ice cream social to meet the two students I would be hosting over the weekend. I was fortunate enough to be given two amazing ladies, Helen and Jilliann, who were both from Southern California. Even though they were exhausted from their long flight and a busy day packed with events, they willingly stayed up long into the night to hear about the experience of my first year. Just looking at them reminded me of how excited I was at my admitted students’ weekend and couldn’t believe that a year had passed since then. Although I wished I had more time with them to talk about the greatness of Barnard, I was delighted when they told me that this weekend made them put Barnard on the very top of their college choice list and thanked me for being so supportive of them and enthusiastic about Barnard.

 

Helen and Jilliann will keep me posted about their final decisions in the coming weeks. I am really hopeful that I will see them around campus next September!

Sarah