Barnard College - Inside Scoop

School Slang

• CULPA - www.culpa.info - The Columbia Underground Listing of Professor Ability - Everyone checks here during program filing to check what other students thought about different classes and professors.
• Courseworks - The network Columbia maintains that teachers post grades, homework, and class notes on.
• Ebear - The network Barnard students use to sign up for classes and to check grades.
• L Courses - These are courses with limited enrollment. When filing programs for the next semester, you are assigned a slot of time during which you are able to go online and add L-courses to your schedule.

• Points - Points are what Barnard calls their credit hours. They look and act like what credit hours are at other schools, but don’t expect them to always add up to hours spent in class.
• Programming - This is what Barnard calls registering for classes.
• Registration - This is what you do when you arrive at school to let them know you will actually be attending classes, not when you actually sign up for classes.

• Shopping for Classes - Barnard students have a two-week window in which they may attend as many classes as they want before they finalize their schedule with their advisor, called “shopping.”
• The Lawn - The Lawn is located in front of Lehman Library.
• The Vag. - The student center being constructed will be named for Diana Vagelos. Before it was known that it would be named "The Diana," students guessed the donor's surname would be used. Because "the vag." is particularly appropriate for a women's college, this one may stick even after the center is open.

Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School

• Classes here are competitive—there are many aspiring young professionals here who are “18 going on 30.”

• If you take a class and you don’t expect to do as well as you like, it is always better for your GPA to drop the class and take a W rather than to see what you get in the end.

• Make sure you really look for interesting classes and good professors during the shopping period at the beginning of the semester, since after this time, it is difficult to get out of a bad class.

Tips to Succeed

• Get a meal plan with fewer meals and more points. You can use points to buy a meal in the dining hall and to buy coffee and snacks at Java City, but you can only use an actual “meal” in the dining hall.

• Take advantage of what New York has to offer. But try to do it in moderation.

• Try to avoid taking more than one course with a lab in a semester. Lab courses tend to demand much more time and effort than other classes.

Urban Legends

• It is rumored that on Martha Stewart’s notes to sell the Imclone stock that got her convicted of insider trading, there was also a note to send gift money to Barnard College, her alma mater.

Traditions

• Each fall and spring, New York City street vendors set up shop for a couple days on Lehman Lawn.
• Urban New York - Once each semester, Barnard students start lining up early in the morning in hopes of getting their first choice of the opportunities offered through the Urban New York Program. These opportunities include tickets to Broadway shows, sports games, and concerts as well as free meals at upscale restaurants. Sometime mid-morning, the staff of the College Activities Office bring in donuts and coffee.

• “I Love Barnard” Spirit Day - Once a year, Barnard holds a spirit day in which the school sells T-shirts, holds a barbeque out on the lawn for all students, and gives away all sorts of Barnard goodies. This event really brings students together as a college to appreciate Barnard and what it means to each student.
• Big Sub to Traditions - At Big Sub, which is sponsored by McIntosh Activities Council and held in the fall, students help build a huge, 705 foot long sub sandwich that stretches all over campus. The sandwich is rumored to be totally gone in less than ten minutes.

• Greek Games - Each year, during the spring, Barnard holds the Greek Games, which bring together its students and each class for friendly competition in games, such as tug of war.
• Midnight Breakfast - This event is held twice a year—at the end of reading week, right before finals start, and is sponsored by McIntosh Activities Council. Volunteers and administrators and even the college’s President serve food like waffles and eggs to hungry students who are about to take their semester finals.