<p>Both my roommates in grad school went to Hopkins. I can;t say they loved it.</p>
<p>My nephew goes there. After a month, he was utterly miserable. After two months, he was dead set on transferring. He couldn’t stand the other students and said he expected college to be “different.” My brother kept telling him to stick it out. Around X-mas he fell in with two kids who were equally miserable, dissillusioned and anti-JHU. Now they’re apparently all fine because they have each other. No matter where you go, if you find some good friends, then anything is bearable.</p>
<p>I hear ya, and I’m starting to make some such friends… but there’s still no need to stick it out.</p>
<p>well, of course socially-awkward kids wouldn’t enjoy Hopkins, because the school is about an experience where you make your own social experience, instead of having it delivered to you on horseback.</p>
<p>It’s a wonderful place though, if you truly seek to make the experience wonderful. If you just sit in the library griping over you next test all day, 24/7, then yeah, JHU will be awful to you.</p>
<p>too bad. Maybe you shoulda stayed in high school.</p>
<p>Wow way to show compassion! Problem is I’m not socially-awkward. Someone socially awkward is someone who would post such a musing!</p>
<p>Nothing is delivered on horseback, and the only social enjoyment you can find on your quest is vapid kids like you!</p>
<p>also, it depends on your major. If you are pre-med, engineering, BME, Chem, Physics major, etc, what the heck did you expect???</p>
<p>What major ARE you?</p>
<p>I am transferring out of this bia. That’s my major. My complaint isn’t hw. I spend <2 hours per day on that ****. It’s the nature of the beast outside of the academics.</p>
<p>Wow. You make me glad I picked my school over JHU…</p>
<p>Before you read on: this is my opinion so please don’t attack me for it. Also, I’m writing this pretty late at night, so I apologize for any grammatical issues! </p>
<p>Hopkins is amazing. It is definitely a school where you need to seek out your own place its up to each student to define their time here, and if they take the initial effort they will have so much fun. There are SO many student groups on campus! Spend a little time researching them and youre sure to find something that excites you. Im in a club called PAWS where I get to play with animals at a local animal shelter every week we just went on an unofficial Spring Break trip to Puerto Rico to work at a shelter there how cool is that?? Theres also Greek life for those who want it, and that is a lot of fun. Baltimore is a city you have to learn to take advantage of. It would be terribly easy to stay on our gorgeous, park-like campus and never venture away for four years. But if you do go exploring there is so much to see! Charles Village has food and stores and everything you need and it is literally right there. Hampden, another neighborhood, is a short, safe walk from campus. Its full of cute little vintage-y stores and coffee shops and other things to discover. You can take the Collegetown Shuttle up to the Towson mall theres a lot to do in Towson and you can also take it to the Inner Harbor. There are also SO many different museums, from the BMA right on campus to the National Museum of Dentistry and the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. And of course, you can always hop on the MARC train and go to DC for the day! The thing is that you have to carve time out of your ever-busy work schedule in order to do these things a good work ethic is key. Once you figure out a system that works for you then its easy to balance fun with schoolwork. All of that isnt even taking into consideration how great the actual school and academics are, and there are so many great people here as well. This is coming from a student who was initially very unsure if she had made the right decision by coming to Hopkins. Now Im positive I made the right choice and I couldnt be happier. If youre ready for challenging academics, and to step up and take control of your life and the hours in your day, you cant make a better choice than coming to Hopkins. Its brilliant here. I love it so much. </p>
<p>When deciding which school to go to, come and visit for yourself and speak to as many current students as you can. Dont listen to the stereotypes and rumors; a lot of the time they really dont amount to anything.</p>
<p><strong><em>? $4000 a month? Where the *</em></strong> are you living? In the president’s house? You should be thankful for freshfood cafe and charles commons. The old food would have killed you. The old Terrace or tear-ass cafe was not food.</p>
<p>To each his own I guess. I and my friends loved college at JHU and have since gone on to great grad/med schools (something you probably won’t achieve if you are miserable) and jobs. I’ll even give out contact info for validation and to answer questions, something this “anonymous” poster is probably unwilling to do.</p>
<p>Additionally, I very glad to see JHU start interviewing candidates more. They really need to stop admitting people that are complete introverts with no social skills, or do not understand what a rigorous challenge/opportunity Hopkins represents. Invariably, the anti-social kids with no friends are the ones who hate Hopkins. You claim to not be anti-social but you are having trouble finding people to commiserate with you. Your posts are like ideological ramblings that make no logical sense. Social people are vapid hipsters? Are you the next Karl Marx? The closet/hermit high school overachievers that excelled academically but sucked socially are the ones that hate JHU. I can’t really blame them, since it is a place that requires you to find your own friends (which most people do during freshman year). At the same time however, this forces you to grow and mature as a person. It’s an introduction to the real world.</p>
<p>^I agree. What’s odd is that a fair proportion of those anti-social types who bashed Hopkins when they were undergraduates actually come back for reunions. Some are still miserable (they would be and are miserable anywhere) but others now seem to remember their time at Hopkins as the best years of their life. Go figure. </p>
<p>But it is absolutely true that the vast majority of students who are sociable and active in campus activities outside of academics are very happy at Hopkins. Perhaps ironically, their grades are usually better too. Conversely, those who only study (and those who don’t study and are doing poorly) are often unhappy. </p>
<p>The moral of this observation is that it is best to lead a balanced life.</p>
<p>this JHAnonymous dude is a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>potential students, don’t listen to him. I mean, unless you are a suicide-prone, depressed workaholic yourself who is independent minded and introverted, then go ahead.</p>
<p>Otherwise, if you are normal and are social, then his comments really don’t apply to you.</p>
<p>this post is scary it makes me rethink about JHU</p>
<p>I think i really need to visit JHU this month</p>
<p>I am not a ■■■■■. Nor am I antisocial. Problem is I’m the type of kid who enjoys real friends. Not someone to call by name and get drunk with. I have found a few here, and for them, I am happy. </p>
<p>Further, this post is not a lie. Students here are not happy. There’s nothing ridiculous. There’s no school pride/spirit. There’s just a few ditzes who don’t know happiness to compare this to.</p>
<p>And yes, I stand by the assertion that the kids who seem to enjoy the place are the one’s I overhear rambling on with their vapid conversations. They’re not intellectual. They just buy their **** that makes them happy. </p>
<p>THIS PLACE IS MISERABLE! If you are “enjoying” it here, how about you tell me what you did last night. Or the night before. Or even in the past week. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done? Was it r</p>
<p>Woah, dudes. I got some questions: are there people that wear JHU gear? Are there group activities that people go to? Are there frat and soror parties? Do people know what to do in Baltimore?</p>
<p>Because I heard the same crap about Vanderbilt- the depressed crap- and visited there a lot and found out it was one of the most exciting and spirited schools I’ve ever been too. </p>
<p>Then I went to, like, the medical school and engineering sections and they’re really… really… Uhm… Serious is what I want to say… but I’m being really nice. But, really, I can fit in almost anywhere.</p>
<p>Way to completely misrepresent and overexaggerate the expensiveness of JHU housing. Yea you’re overpaying. Get over it. But you made it sound like it was $4000 for 1 person. You should feel lucky. Marylander and surrounding housing is cheap for a reason (it sucks). Go to almost any other dorm at another college and tell me the students there are not overpaying. The exception might be Stanford, but the dorms here are not all that great either. Hell, go to Harvard where students are living in old dorms from the 1800s. Give it a rest. As for calling students greedy for wanting to go to a good college and earn big bucks later. Are you that dense? People want to go to a top private to get a good job and have a comfortable lifestyle. If you have a problem with that and attribute that with greed, ■■■■.</p>
<p>As for fun things to do, that usually happens if one has friends.</p>
<p>When I was at JHU, fun things included:</p>
<p>Going to gym with friends (working out really helps to relieve stress and be happier).
Going to AMC at Towson or movie on the quad (free movies at JHU)
Playing frisbee/football on the quad
Intramural softball
Playing poker with friends
Watching movie with friends at Wolman/AMR lounges or with friends in apartment (tv shows too)
Board games/Wii (alcohol can help) with friends.
Going to fells point for clubbing (usually happens for those who are social and have significant others)
Rarely, going to Harbor for dinner
Seeing friend’s concert at Peabody
Parties at friend’s apartment
Renting/going to a friend’s beach house
Pool/table tennis in McCoy gameroom
Going to free dinners with friends for their different clubs/major events.
Going to formals with friends in sororities.
Rarely, going to DC and exploring via the metro, to see museums and festivals
Seeing random planets/stars at night when Bloomberg’s giant telescope is open. Potluck with friends.
Going to concerts.
Awesome comedy nights at Charles Commons.
Going to nearby Hampton and browsing the artsy shops.
Going to the Towson Mall.
On campus clubs.</p>
<p>It’s nice since most of this is free via buses run by collegetown shuttle and JHU.
There’s also obligatory awesome events like spring fair, MSE symposium (Will Ferrell just spoke there if I recall), fall festival, and cultural events (chinese festival, dwhali (indian festival).</p>
<p>Again, this depends on one being social and having friends.</p>
<p>To all the potential incoming freshmen out there, don’t listen to this person. In my opinion, I think he or she would have been miserable at any other college as well.</p>
<p>College is what you make of it. If you sit around being depressed and mopey all the time, you are never going to find that happiness.</p>
<p>I never even visited the JHU campus before coming here for freshmen orientation, and I just got to say that I LOVE it here. It has a little bit of everything, and honestly, I couldn’t have asked for more.</p>
<p>Hopkins has the type of greek life where there are always parties going on every weekend, but does not take charge of student life. There are lots of different events and organizations going on that I find myself having too little time do to all the things I want! Sure, I study 3-4 hours daily, but with the rest of my time, I am either hitting up the gym, hanging out with friends in different dorms, and checking out the city.</p>
<p>Basically, Hopkins is what you make of it. There is a greek life with alcohol and drugs (that is easily accessible), educational events (like the Foreign Affairs Symposium), Musical events in coordination with Peabody, dance clubs and bars nearby, etc. There is a little bit of everything here for all the diverse groups of students.</p>
<p>Don’t let one student who obviously has some sort of internal issue with hopkins ruin your image and idea of hopkins. it is a wonderful institution with great opportunities.</p>
<p>double post</p>