My fellow students, I agree with Mr. Lanbo Zhang: we’re kidding ourselves. For all of the defensiveness and attacks, for all of the controversy and contention— Columbia and Barnard are one school, and we should make that the case not just in theory, but also in practice.
I think it’s time Columbia became a part of Barnard College.
BROOKE COME HERE AND LET ME LOVE YOU
ALSO, BARNARD LIBRARY IS IN LEHMAN HALL. LEHMAN LIBRARY IS IN IAB.
LEARN YOUR SHIT, COLUMBIA BOY.
Aha.
Ahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhaha.
Hey, shitdick who wrote that absurdly asinine article in the Spec yesterday, I hope you feel my virtual Hulk-smash from all the way downtown.
I just posted this comment:
“You should have done more reading on the mission of women’s colleges in today’s academic culture before writing this. Plenty has been written on this topic for the past 30+ years - your viewpoint is nothing new and is extremely limited to your own experience of what you think Barnard offers its students. Barnard’s having a lot of problems right now, but that does not invalidate its mission to create an educational environment that puts women front and center. I can’t talk you through research you should have done before you posted this, but I hope you do some more reading.
One question: how would you envision this “merger”? Because I’m betting you and most people who are all for this are not picturing a merger, but a takeover - Barnard’s campus, professors, and administration become part of Columbia’s, with “redundancies” eliminated, and the end result is that Columbia can accept more students and Barnard disappears.
And BTW, the overlap in academic and social experiences between Barnard and Columbia students isn’t a reason to merge, but it is a reason for Columbia students to stop disparaging Barnard students. I’d love to see a Columbia College student arguing for that in the Spec instead of a post that’s just another way of saying we shouldn’t be at Columbia.”
i feel a bit better idk
camillekit asked: what's it like meeting boys at barnard? I'll probably be attending in the fall and I'm just nervous about the all-girls thing because relationships with guys both romantically and platonically are pretty important to me.
I think it’s easy to meet guys, though you have be a bit more proactive about it than you might have to be at other schools, at least at first. I had a lot of guy friends whom I met in class and through clubs. I think it’s like anywhere, except the man to woman ratio is a little more skewed towards women. There’s also the problem of perceived stigma against Barnard women, but you can’t let that psych you out, most people do not care that you’re at Barnard rather than at Columbia.
I had less luck romantically, but honestly, my romantic life is a horrible travesty, basically an abyss of regret and sadness. No idea if that’s because of Barnard or because I’m a weirdo or because the people I was interested in in college just happened to be The Worst! It’s hard to tell. I know Barnard and Columbia girls who had good luck with guys and I know Barnard and Columbia girls who had terrible luck with guys.
But I think, like anywhere else, it’s mostly a matter of putting yourself out there. Barnard’s woman-positive environment helped me get a lot better at putting myself out there in any situation - one of the first things I noticed when I was looking for clubs to join first year was that Barnard women were in leadership positions in every single one (except anime club, but they were awful anyway :D)
morgan-leigh replied to your post: Hello! Well I don’t know if this is weird or…
Re. tech & the Eng dept: THEY DO SIGNUPS ONLINE NOW, I feel so betrayed. I had to wait in the fucking hall at 7:30 in the morning, god damn it.
haha
that’s right, barnard prospies on tumblr, the english department used to make people PHYSICALLY GO to the department to sign up for seminars etc. now they do not! o brave new world
epaulettes replied to your post: Hello! Well I don’t know if this is weird or…
GREAT DEPARTMENT!!! My one and only major complaint was that the department as a whole was hilariously technology-avoidant, but maybe in the intervening years since I studied there someone managed to force them into the 2010s.
elizabeth, on the barnard english department, which she knew intimately in her youth.
Anonymous asked: Hello! Well I don't know if this is weird or anything but I've been really looking into applying to Barnard and I just wanted to know if I would be a good place for someone who wants to major in English? :)
Barnard’s English department is very good and very tough and a lot of people major in English. Several of them follow me, so does anyone have anything to say re: Barnard English?
i don’t really know, but i think it would be an excellent place for someone who wants to major in english.
Anonymous asked: hi! barnard is my dream school and i would love to go there. however, im not feminist at all, and i have heard that barnard women in general have a strong sense of feminism. will i be left out or not a good fit if im not a big and outspoken advocate of feminism?
hmm. well. I guess I kind of wonder what you mean or what you’re picturing when you say feminist. i think most Barnard and Columbia students would agree with and support the basic, superficial goals of feminism (the “women should be treated equally to men” level of feminism). Most Barnard students would probably identify as feminists (with various definitions of the word and various opinions and experiences under it); for some that’s a casual statement, for some it’s an activist or academic calling.
I think you would certainly hear more about feminism at Barnard than you might at another school. But, you know, Barnard is a women’s college in a time when most people think that’s an anachronism; the basic tenet of Barnard and other women’s colleges today is that women succeed when they’re surrounded and supported by other women and that this continues to be necessary because women are still disadvantaged by the way our society is structured. This is also a big part of feminism and I view women’s colleges today as essentially feminist institutions (though I am only familiar with women’s colleges in the Northeast US, which are also predominantly liberal, white, and rich - maybe the culture is different in other parts of the country and with other demographics.)
If you saw my posts about Columbia guys last night, what I was trying to get at was this: if you do not want an education focused on women, advancing women, supporting women, where you spend a lot of time with only women, you should not go to Barnard. If you do want that, then I think you will be fine as a non-feminist if you’re prepared to have your views challenged (and to challenge other people’s views!)
Barnard is more open-minded about this than some comparable institutions, I believe, and Barnard women have a lot of reasons for attending Barnard beyond just an all-women education, but it is still a women’s college.
i have more specific thoughts about Barnard’s brand of feminism (which I have issues with as a feminist myself) but i don’t want to overcomplicate this. if you want more info, though, let me know - it might help if you go off anon, give me more specifics about your concerns, and I will reply privately!
maddishraddish replied to your post: are there cute guys at columbia
stick to the engineers :)
maddie has had success with the engineers at columbia, everyone! :D
certainly better than EALAC, where all the guys are Asian fetishists! D:
morgan-leigh replied to your post: I just saw Mel’s response re: Comp. Lit. Yr anon…
FYI, you can def study abroad with a science major (my old roomie went the whole year, doubled in French & bio), but she planned to do so from DAY 1 & basically had no electives.
plan your study abroad from the beginning! :D
ourladyoflazarus replied to your post: I just saw Mel’s response re: Comp. Lit. Yr anon…
Proof Humanities is better. That’s all I’m getting from this.
objectively true! it’s scientifically proven that humanities is better. :D
grajing replied to your post: are there cute guys at columbia
LOL, NO yes, there are aesthetically cute guys, in the classically Greek sense, also the frat Greek sense. Do not date these guys. Go outside of Columbia to find real people with whom to have relationships.
yeah i mean, i am honestly struggling to remember any guy from columbia i think would have been good relationship material in retrospect. even my casual hook-up/dating experiences with columbia guys were pretty shitty, in terms of how they treated me.
it’s just like. okay, first of all, a lot of 18-22-year-old guys suck. i’m pretty sure this is a developmental fact. second of all, columbia guys are often really full of themselves (because hey, they got into columbia! that’s special. isn’t it. so special.)
third, the barnard-columbia weirdness makes dating somewhat difficult, at least at first. a lot of rude things are said about barnard girls, you can probably imagine. barnard women are sluts, dumb, lesbians, “barnard to bed, columbia to wed” etc. there’s a lot of bullshit. and a lot of columbia people buy into that, at least at first! there are also just a lot more girls than guys around because of Barnard, so heterosexual dating can be competitive.
it’s not really the school to go to meet guys, but it does offer an all-women’s education (which was really important to me in a lot of ways) with men around, which was nice.
ourladyoflazarus replied to your post: would it be possible to take 3 foreign languages…
It’s very possible, and if you have the ability even encouraged. The comparative literature major, for example, would have you taking two foreign languages and as many as four by the time you graduate. We’ve got a lot of options, too! :)
mizbingley replied to your post: would it be possible to take 3 foreign languages…
I did two years of French and one year of Russian, and I’m not yet graduated SOOO…
testimonials!!
i also tested into intermediate french as a first year and decided not to take it - i had four years of french from high school. so if you have some language from high school, you can test into a higher level in that language and start another language.
mizbingley asked: I just saw Mel's response re: Comp. Lit. Yr anon should probably be aware that their flexibility with languages is gonna be super dependent on what their major is? Like Comp. Lit. or a Specific Language major will probably have a lot more wiggle room than anyone for three languages. I'm an English major and I've done two so far but on a pretty tight squeeze. Something to keep in mind when figuring course loads out.
Oh, shit, yeah, good point, this was something I was going to add.
FYI: If you’re a science major or pre-med, you are probably basically screwed for taking multiple languages or going abroad (from observing my friends, haha.) If you think you are going to major in a science or do the pre-med requirements and you want to take a bunch of languages / go abroad for a semester (summer is doable), you should talk to your first year advisor about it right away and plan a way you can do it.
Anonymous asked: are there cute guys at columbia
literally none, sorry.
actually i go back there now and i’m like “look at all the cuties!!” but now i’m a sexually frustrated 23-year-old and they’re all 20-year-olds who would probably tell me at length about the life-changing book they just read in CC or something.
jk, jk. yeah, there are cute guys, i knew a few, i tried to form romantic connections with some, mostly they turned out to be Evil. i’m a bad person to ask this! men at Columbia did not treat me well! my romantic history is a horror story! but you will definitely meet guys, though it takes some proactive Barnard spirit in some cases - go to club meetings and events, talk to people you think seem interesting, put yourself out there.
maybe other people had different experiences? like… positive ones with dating Columbia guys?
Anonymous asked: would it be possible to take 3 foreign languages at barnard?(taking note that school's curriculum already requires foreign language, gives elective space, etc)
do you mean at the same time or over the course of your time at Barnard? depends on the languages, but the latter is definitely possible and the former is possible with dedication.
I technically took three languages while at Barnard, but probably not in a way that really counts, haha. I took Japanese for four years plus two summer abroad programs (so I finished with Fifth Year Japanese), I took a year and a half of Classical Japanese (grad level, but not really the same as learning a “living” language), and a semester of Chinese. I didn’t continue with Chinese because Japanese and Chinese were each five credits at the level I was at at the time, i.e. a lot of class time and work. I think I could have added a romance language instead of Chinese and I would have been able to do more of it.
(My friend did three years of Japanese and three years of Chinese and he did it in three years at Columbia + summer programs? I think he might have also started Tibetan, but maybe that’s just what he’s doing in grad school.)
But, okay, I was obviously in an area studies major and we were essentially required to get the equivalent of a minor in the language of choice and to spend time abroad. I know there are some other Barnard people who take a lot of languages on here… any advice for anon, guys?
rainbowodyssey replied to your post: remember that time I wrote about Catherine Sloper…
shit I’m applying to Barnard too!
hahaha i applied to barnard six years ago (!!!) and then… graduated from there two years ago? SO GOOD LUCK AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS. SERIOUSLY, I WILL TALK ABOUT BARNARD (PLUSES, MINUSES, TRUTHS, MYTHS) FOR HOURS.
