My Favorite Classes at Barnard

With the amount of variety in classes available to students on both Barnard’s campus and Columbia’s campus, it can be difficult to decide what your favorite class is. There may be many reasons why a specific class is your favorite one, whether it be that you really vibed with the professor, loved the class material, or found your first friends in college there. Instead of choosing a single class, I think it would be better to go through a few of my favorite classes to give you all some options. 

(SOCI-UN3225) Sociology of Education: I took this class during my first semester of college with Professor Amy Stuart. It was a favorite class of mine because the professor was super nice and the workload for the class was not too bad at all. The class material revolved around a lot of different topics in education, and was relevant in that we talked about the injustices within the education system of this country. While the class was a little reading heavy, most of the texts were interesting because of how important the topics were and how relevant they were to my own life. After doing the weekly readings, we had to submit a weekly reflection about the readings that would often be shouted out during our class discussions. The class itself had about 30 students, and each week we had a lively discussion about each topic. If you want a class that has a moderate amount of reading and you are interested in learning about schooling and education in the United States and the impact it has on groups of individuals, I highly recommend this class. 

(COMS-W1002) Computing in Context: This class has a special place in my heart because it was the class that made me fall in love with Computer Science and encouraged me to major in CS. It is a pre-introductory Computer Science course taught by Professor Adam Cannon. The class itself is a great fit for students who do not have any coding experience and may want to major in CS, or students who want to try their hand at learning a coding language but may be majoring in something else entirely. The class does a great job of combining computer science with different fields such as the humanities, finance, and biology, depending on your interests. I struggled a lot in this class, but I thoroughly enjoyed it because of how well Professor Cannon taught the course and because of the amazing TAs who truly helped me pass. Although I did not do overly well in the class, it prepared me well for the introductory CS course I took the following semester and gave me a lot of valuable lessons to learn for other classes, such as not being afraid to ask for help and to make friends in every class you are in. This class is a great low-stakes course to take for anyone who wants to understand just a little bit about the tech world and see how coding works out for them. 
(ENGL-UN3734) American Literature and Corporate Culture: Taught by Professor Aaron Ritzenberg, this seminar style course perfectly combines two seemingly unrelated topics as you spend the semester reading texts that show the impact the rise of corporate culture had on American Literature. I knew I would love this class just from reading the course name, coming from a high school that focused a lot on the business world and having a love for English. I loved everything about this class, from the professor to the students whom I call my friends now to the insightful discussions we had every week. The readings for this class were a little heavy because of the expectation to read a different book every week along with a few theory texts; however, it is understandable because the class only met once a week. While this class is reading heavy, it is not writing heavy. The majority of your grade will be determined by only two essays in the class and the professor gives more than enough time to get them done (about a month and a half for each essay). Take this class, you won’t be disappointed.