<p>Brown vs JHU,
1. Which is better for Natural Sci (physics)?
2. For Engineering?
Thanks!!!</p>
<p>I think JHU would be higher-ranked in those particular fields, but at the undergrad level Brown would be seen as overall a more elite school.</p>
<p>^agreed, I would go to Brown though.</p>
<p>I’d go with JHU. JHU as a whole is as prestigous as Brown if not more. Even at the undergraduate level, JHU has a smaller student body. For science and engineering, MIT and Caltech (some may include Stanford and Princetion) are probably the only schools that are more highly regarded than JHU among the top private schools.</p>
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<p>…um, in those fields, JHU is only top notch at Bio and BME, overall in science and engineering:</p>
<p>MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Michigan</p>
<p>can all be considered better than jhu</p>
<p>in just the sciences you could add UChicago and Yale.</p>
<p>for engineering I’d pick JHU over brown, for physics it’s a toss up because JHU probably has a slightly better physics department, but brown is a more exclusive school.</p>
<p>Brown has the open curriculum as well, which allows for the discovery and exploration of intellectual interests outside of the sciences.</p>
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Umh, I thought UC Berkeley and Michigan are public schools :). If you want to include all schools, Berkeley’s graduate programs are stronger. Columbia, connell and Michigan are on a similar level as JHU.</p>
<p>Don’t forget Carnegie Mellon, it’s right behind MIT and CalTech</p>
<p>anyway I’d pick JHU. Prestige-wise they’re about equal and JHU is stronger in your intended departments</p>
<p>Brown and Hopkins are both great schools, but with rather different cultures. But assessing culture is very subjective–some students will prefer JHU and some will prefer Brown. </p>
<p>On the other hand, academically, in the fields of Engineering and Physics, the comparison is more objective and JHU is the clear winner. Start with facilities and faculty. Both the Physics department and the Divsion of Engineering at Brown are housed essentially in one building–Barus-Holley. It was built in the 1960’s, although it has been updated periodically. The physics department has 27 faculty; the engineering faculty is about double that. </p>
<p>Hopkins’ physics department has its own dedicted building–the Bloomberg Center. It is considerably larger, newer, and fancier than Barus-Holley (which also houses engineering). Across the street (on campus) from Bloomberg is the Muller Building–which houses the Space Telescope Science Institute, the control center for the Hubble Telescope. While the number of undergraduate physics students is probably about the same as Brown, the size of the faculty is more than double–@ 60. The Whiting School of Engineering has not a building but many buildings. Essentially, most areas of engineering have their own facilities. It has 170 faculty members. Hopkins also has the Applied Physics Laboratories–one of the nations’ premier research and development institutions which has its own campus in Montgomery County, Md. </p>
<p>A good gage is to ask graduate students. At both Hopkins and Brown, most if not all faculty will teach both undergraduate and graduate students. Ask around, and you will find that few if any physics or engineering graduate students would choose Brown over Hopkins for their Ph.D.</p>
<p>Brown’s theatre program is clearly superior to Hopkins’. But physics and engineering is a different story.</p>
<p>
JHU arguably has the most lax distribution requirements of any university.
[ul][<em>]30 of your 120 credits must be outside your field.
[</em>]If in the humanities or social sciences, you need 12 credits of math/science.
If in the sciences, you need 18 credits of humanities/social sciences.[/ul]</p>
<p>In any case, one could certainly argue that the very purpose of distribution requirements is to require courses in other areas to encourage the development of new interests.</p>
<p>Although Brown has recently approved a college of engineering, it’s not the strongest program in that field. The benefit is when you have interests outside of those fields; you can do literally whatever you want with the courses leftover from your concentration. Unless you know you’d be able to make use of this feature, though, it doesn’t sound like Brown is the best choice.</p>
<p>Thank you so very much, all of you. I had been advised to apply ED for natural sci (physics) and perhaps engineering to one of the following:
UPenn(low match),
Brown(low match),
JHU(match),
Columbia(match),
Cornell(match for sci/ high match for engineering) and some other higher ranking univs.
I had narrowed the list down to JHU and Brown cos they posed less risk and were prestigeous enough, among other valid-to-me reasons. </p>
<p>Seems that most of u agree that JHU is better in my intended major even though Brown can be a li—ttle bit more exclusive(?).</p>
<p>@professor: What u said is exactly what my counselor/consultant advised me. </p>
<p>@bonanza: Some of what u said are new to me! Thank you for the info! U a JHU student?</p>
<p>@Warbler: I prefer Brown’s no-requirement system, which is why I was torn. I do not appreciate must’s in curriculum.</p>
<p>Thanks, again :)</p>
<p>I don’t care what your stats are, none of those schools are matches or low-matches for anybody. My best friend got deferred early and then ultimately rejected from Columbia and she had a 2400 single sitting SAT and 3.9 GPA from one of the best schools in the country. I’m not trying to be a downer and telling you to assume you won’t get in, but the point is some of these schools have <10% acceptance rates… they are not matches for anybody. ANYBODY could get rejected for no reason.</p>
<p>I think/hope that when prkiki said “low match/match” etc, [s]he meant in terms of what would be a match given the student’s stated academic and personal interests–NOT the way we usually use “match” terminology around here in assessing probability of admission.</p>
<p>My impression, though, is that JHU does value level of interest and you are slightly more likely to be admitted if you apply ED. Not so at Brown, I think. So if the applicant’s scores are a little marginal it can be a good plan to apply ED to JHU. But the schools are so different that it’s a shame to apply ED if not certain. An overnight at Hopkins before the ED deadline would really help.</p>
<p>How about JHU vs U so Cal?</p>