<p>My son is a physics nerd applying to JHU. He is also recruited for a niche sport and definitely will play a varsity sport if admitted/attending.</p>
<p>In looking over a lot of the Hopkins material, it seems they are quite strong in pre-professional (esp pre-med), BME, international relations etc, and see a lot of talk on CC about that. I also hear that they are strong in basic science, esp research, but don't really see anyone talking about this aspect of the university. </p>
<p>So my question is, are there a significant number of nerdy theoretical physics types on campus? Or will he be an outlier? I realize there are a lot of professors he could connect with etc. but I'm interested more in the students he could connect with. We're in the middle of nowhere middle america and he has had hard time finding peers with similar interests and I would really like him to feel like he's among 'his kind' once he gets to college. Thanks for any info.</p>
<p>I don’t think he will have any problem. The physics department is great–and there are plenty of extremely bright undergraduates majoring in physics. I won’t comment on their “nerdiness,” since that’s pretty subjective. </p>
<p>It would be great if your son could visit the campus and check out the feel for himself. I can tell you that the department’s facilities are pretty impressive. Notwithstanding the fame of Hopkins’ biology department, the largest building on the Homewood campus (by far) is the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy.</p>
<p>Hopkins hosts a physics fair for area high school students during the school year (maybe March–I don’t remember). The students who have displays set up for the fair all seemed like great young people. We even met a young man who graduated from Iowa State, went to grad school at Hopkins, and was doing post-doc work at Penn State, and he had come back to hang out for the weekend. You might try to visit campus that weekend.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. He/we did visit in October and he sat in on a class which he liked. We have been joking about the proximity of the physics dept to the athletic facilities to the freshmen dorm and how he may never leave that little corner of the campus (other than to take obligatory other courses, I suppose).</p>
<p>I just couldn’t get a feel for this, so glad to hear this info.</p>
<p>Personally, my experience is that “physics nerds” do really well at Hopkins for much of the reasons already mentioned. In Admissions, we are big fans of the Physics Department as they are very interested in looking over applications of Physics students and selecting the students they want to work with. It is a close knit department with tremendous research capabilities – and the Bloomberg building is amazing. </p>
<p>As AdamJaz mentioned, Petar is amazing. He’s quite difficult (and he’ll agree with this sentiement; as he once said, “It’s my job to give you tricky problems.”) but he’s very nice, turns his office hours into problem solving sessions, and willingly takes on undergrads who want to do particle physics research (and if you want to do research in something else, he’ll put you in contact with the right people). He teaches Classical Mechanics I (aka physics for physics majors) and Classical Mechanics II, so if you major in physics, you’ll see plenty of him.</p>
<p>Many of my friends are physics majors, and it really is an amazing department. It’s one of the biggest in terms of faculty, and the building is also really big as well (although it’s kind of isolated). The physics majors are kind of nerdy (you have to be to like physics) but they’re also really normal and down-to-earth. And SPS (Society of Physics Students) usually organizes a trip every spring break for some of the upperclassmen (last year, they went to CERN!)</p>
<p>MD Mom, Physics Fair is typically last weekend in April or first weekend in May, when the weather’s nice and classes are ending.</p>
<p>Great info and thanks everyone. Sounds really nurturing which would be helpful to a kid who has led a pretty isolated life out here in the hinterlands.</p>
<p>Now I’m beginning to regret he didn’t apply ED, but we really didn’t have enough info at the time. </p>
<p>AdDan: interesting that the physics dept actually looks over the apps. Hope they liked my sons!</p>
<p>I graduated from Johns Hopkins and I have told my daughetr that she should not apply there for 2 reasons.</p>
<p>First, the atmosphere is unpleasant, in large part due to the competitive nature of the pre-meds (Hiding books needed to complete assignments, telling you the wrong assignment, etc.) I majored in science, so perhaps that biased my exposure (But I do not think so, from my humanities-major friends.)</p>
<p>The second reason is that the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is the birthplace of the Iraq invasion. International relations Professors there did not realize that removing a totalitarian government would result in ethnic strife (Bosnia, Byelorusse, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum…) AND they believe war is <em>not</em> a diplomatic failure, but an option!</p>
<p>They often have a very good men’s lacrosse team.</p>
<p>^Just for some balance, I also graduated Hopkins and encouraged both of my kids to apply. They were both accepted, both went, and both loved their undergraduate experience. They both went on to top graduate schools. </p>
<p>Yes, premeds are often more competitive than necessary but this is hardly unique to Hopkins. It is generally true at all top schools. Hopkins just happens to have a higher percentage of premeds than most. In any event, actually instances of “cutthroat” behavior are actually quite rare; most of the stories one hears are urban myth. In fact, you hear the same stories at Harvard, Cornell, etc. If you talk to current students, the vast majority will tell you that students are generally very cooperative with each other. </p>
<p>Also, just because SAIS has some famous neoconservatives (although most would not describe themselves with that term) does not make it the birthplace of the Iraq invasion. Rather, it is generally considered the best graduate school of international studies in the world. A large percentage of European diplomats (many of whom were opposed to the war) are SAIS alumni. In any event, this seems to me to be a pretty lame reason to avoid being an undergraduate at Hopkins. BTW, the Hoover Institution is at Stanford–better stay away from there too! And Bernard Lewis is at Princeton–cross that one off too!</p>
<p>Although I’m not a physics major, one of my friends is and he seems very happy with the physics here. He talks a lot about very helpful teachers and the physics department being very nice to physics majors. Physics seems like a very strong department.</p>
<p>Also, AdmissionsDaniel mentioned Adam Reiss. He is a really good teacher as well as being extremely famous. His class (on the history of astronomy and cosmology) is the only physics class I’ve taken here, but it’s really good.</p>
<p>Of course, you should visit if possible, but I think your son won’t be disappointed with the physics here.</p>
<p>Question for those of you with ties/friends in the Physics department.</p>
<p>Son will be taking Classical Mechanics I and we noticed that the prof is just listed as ‘staff.’ It’s the only class that doesn’t have a prof assigned yet. Does that mean Petar Maksimovic won’t be teaching it this fall? That would be a bummer as it sound like he’d be a really cool prof.</p>
<p>As far as I know, Petar will be teaching 105, as he has for the last 3 years. It would be a real bummer for your son if Petar decided not to teach it but if your son is majoring in physics, he’ll need Classical Mechanics regardless of who teaches it.</p>
