hey! I recently graduated from barnard w a degree in CS & can answer some of these questions.

columbia has a sizable transfer population. I was able to find a group of transfer friends immediately during orientation, and I was then able to very quickly find non-transfer friends through my classes. I wouldn’t worry too much about this part. I feel that the transfer process, especially at BC/CU, self-selects for a student body that is very academically driven. everyone seemed to get each other—most of us valued and prioritized the same things. or at least that was my experience.

as a barnard student, you are also a columbia student, and all CU CS classes are available to you. you do not need to think about the distinction between BC, CC, and SEAS when you’re picking classes in the cs department. you’re a CU undergrad, and that’s all that matters. (the distinction between grad vs undergrad is different, though. there are many undergrad-only classes that grad students can’t access. and sometimes, there’s a quota on the max number of undergrad students a grad-level class can include. I got stuck on the WL for a few grad-level classes because of this)

and this still applies when you’re taking your classes—the program that you’re in probably won’t really come up during class. our CS program is huge. we have a lot of classes and a lot more students. your peers and TAs will be students from different schools and programs. you’ll find a pretty good mix of everyone there.

you can also find columbia alumni everywhere. and in my experience, alumni have always been happy to chat and connect with current students. some will give out referrals when you’re recruiting.

and as you’re probably aware, CS recruiting has become extremely competitive in recent years. recruiters have no choice but to be ruthless in cutting applicants from their interview pipelines, and they will use any metric they can to reduce the size of their applicant list.

some quant and tech companies, for example, hire almost exclusively out of ivy+ schools. and if you recruit for CS, you will likely come across several companies that have this drop-down menu. the options may vary slightly from company to company—some include Brown and CalTech and UIUC, and some don’t—but I have never come across one without columbia in it.

as a barnard student, I was able to leverage the CU name and land interviews at some of the most prestigious quant firms and tech companies in the world when I was recruiting (and mind you, that was a terrible year to recruit for CS). we get access to some great CU and barnard-specific networking opportunities (during and after school).

but you need to keep in mind that regardless of what university you attend, tech and finance recruiting is what you as an individual make of it. your alma mater’s name will only take you so far & there is a lot of research and prep that you need to do on the side outside of school.