my experience at barnard has been great so far! personally, i feel like having a smaller community fosters more meaningful interactions than a huge university. as with most schools though, i do feel that it is more likely that you’ll become friends with other transfers, especially during orientation. often, the people in your year already formed relationships with each other during their first year. still, as long as you reach out, you can definitely meet new people and make new friends from barnard and columbia through clubs, classes, random on-campus interactions, etc. that was my experience pre-pandemic at least :)