Is the atmosphere at this school closer to a more laid back one or a more competitive school like JHU?
If you are looking to get a high GPA it is competitive. If you just want to breeze through with a 2.5, it is laid back.
@TomSrOfBoston No like, how’s the overall social atmosphere. Do students help each other out or are they more competitive?
BU is so big it’s really impossible to generalize. It works biggest for students with strong interests who will seek out a peer group through activities.
It’s split. BU being such a big school there are friend groups where they are very laid back and others where they have study groups every week. Whatever you are looking for you can probs find it here 
I think you mena is it cut-throat. I have not heard that as a description even in pre-med courses. I think it is so difficult to get A’s that people tend to be supportive. No need to try to make others fail when low grades are the average