<p>I am planning to major in the Biological Sciences/Biochemistry. I will certainly follow my undergraduate education with postgraduate education, but I am uncertain as to whether I will pursue a PhD, MD, or a joint program.</p>
<p>Basically, which of these three universities will offer me the best academic experience given my major, and which will offer me the best chances when applying to a top graduate or medical school?</p>
<p>lol im in the same boat more or less (chicago or cornell or cal)
the only thing that concerns me about chicago is the likelihood of a lower gpa, thereby hurting my chances as a prospective med student.</p>
<p>I looked at all three schools.. I wrote off chicago right away because it was full of really weird people (and is known for that). Cornell is much more like Northwestern and hopkins than chicago. Cornell and Hopkins both have really good bio/premed programs as I am sure you know. Both schools are very different campus wise. While baltimore is cool, hopkins is definately in the ghetto. Also, when I visited campus, I didn't see any one that was like me. I suggest visiting (or revisiting) each school. Hopkins is apparently pretty boring socially.</p>
<p>All three are going to offer an excellent education in the biological sciences, and if you work hard, you can go very far at all three. Norcalguy can speak better about the biological sciences at Cornell. I only dabbled a little bit. You can't go wrong at any of these schools, and I know undergrads at each of these schools who have gone on for graduate education at each of the other schools. JHU is obviously unrivaled in the country when it comes to graduate research, but at the undergrad level it may be more what you make of it.</p>
<p>Choose your school on where you will feel the most comfortable and engaged.</p>
<p>I guess I'll be visiting this week, though it would be nice if I could narrow it down a bit so I don't have to do too much driving.</p>
<p>All 3 have top notch science departments. All 3 have many many research opportunities. You won't have any problems getting into grad school from any of the 3.</p>
<p>However, they are very different schools. Chicago does seem to have some strange people and is known for being no fun. I'm living in DC right now and really don't like Baltimore as a city. JHU (the undergrad and the med school) are both in somewhat sketchy regions of what is already a crappy city. As for Cornell, read some of the recent threads to get a sense of what life is like for a Cornellian.</p>
<p>I disagree about JHU being in a 'bad' area. It's in a much better location than people believe it to be and being in a city on the east coast counts for A LOT when considering traveling to job interviews, internships and even just getting home for the holidays. </p>
<p>Anyone who says a school like Chicago or JHU is in the 'ghetto' clearly has either 1) never been to either or 2) has a very narrow view of this world we live in. </p>
<p>Ithaca for undergrads is just fine but after a year or two, students begin to find it boring and craving to get out. For students who go to schools in cities, first year and second year opportunities mainly surround frats and campus life but once you hit 21, the cities open up and the social opportunities expand exponentially in cities. </p>
<p>Freshman class sizes:</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins: 1,200
UChicago: 1,260
Cornell: 3,100</p>
<p>Those really are HUGE differences and definitely play out in undergraduate attention given to students and class size. I also think Chicago and Hopkins are very undergraduate-focused whereas Cornell as an institution could do a lot more to support their undergraduates. </p>
<p>You really have to visit to get a sense of the things I'm mentioning here since they are generally intangibles and small differences between the school. But if you are going to be at a place for four years, you might as well get your money's worth - whichever that may be. In all reaity, you can't go wrong it just depends on what you as a student are looking for.</p>
<p>GL</p>
<p>While I agree with the previous poster's claim that, "In all reaity(sic), you can't go wrong it just depends on what you as a student are looking for," I wanted to clear the air on some of the misinformation he provided about Cornell.</p>
<p>1) "I also think Chicago and Hopkins are very undergraduate-focused whereas Cornell as an institution could do a lot more to support their undergraduates."</p>
<p>I think most Cornell students would beg to differ. Not one student I know at Cornell complains about a lack of undergraduate focus, and everybody I know who wanted extensive interaction with faculty at Cornell was more than able to obtain it. </p>
<p>If anything, I would even venture to claim that Cornell is even more undergraduate focused than JHU or Chicago. Cornell roughly has 13,500 undergraduates and 4,000 non-professional graduate students, which means that there are over three times as many undergraduates as graduate students at Cornell. Those opportune ratios aren't available at Chicago or JHU. At JHU there are 14,000 graduate students and 4,500 undergraduates. At Chicago, the number is a little bit better -- 10,000 graduate students to 5,000 undergrads.</p>
<p>The totality of the Cornell campus revolves around two things -- the undergraduate experience and cutting-edge research. So much so that it is the graduate students at Cornell who are the most vocal in lobbying the administration for attention.</p>
<p>2) "Ithaca for undergrads is just fine but after a year or two, students begin to find it boring and craving to get out."</p>
<p>Obviously for any student who wants a true urban experience, Cornell is not the place for you. But for the rest of us, Ithaca is a treasure, and we're constantly stimulated by all of the offerings on campus, let alone in Ithaca, which has cultural offerings that best the average city three or four times its size. </p>
<p>A lot of Cornellians I know graduate from Ithaca wishing that they could spend another year in Ithaca, and, given the size of Ithaca, it's remarkable how many students do just that -- by either staying on to get a Masters degree or working for Cornell or elsewhere in Ithaca. Beyond that, whenever you get a bunch of Cornell alums together, the conversations quickly turns to reminiscing about their days on East Hill. I know a fair number of people from Hopkins, I can't say they have the same type of attitude.</p>
<p>If your idea of fun is San Fran or NYC, you won't be happy at Cornell. But, you probably won't be happy in Baltimore either. Maybe it's because I'm being spoiled living in DC, but its ugly stepsister Baltimore just looks run down.</p>
<p>The one thing I wouldn't like about JHU is the sheer % of premeds. From a class size of 1,200, JHU produced 300+ med school applicants. This is after all of the weeding out and screening. Not only do premeds make things more competitive for everyone, they're very annoying. Generally, the personality required to succeed in premed is not the type of personality you want in a human being. Premeds are especially annoying to students interested in grad school because they display little interest in bio or research beyond what is required to get into med school. This has been confirmed by several professors on campus who refused to hire me because I was intent on med school and not grad school.</p>
<p>Cornell has a sizable premed population as well. But, Cornell only produced 400+ med school applicants from 3000+ students. This is because Cornell has many colleges (Architecture, Hotel, ILR, Engineering) that traditionally produce few premeds. Overall, I think my undergrad experience was enhanced by being able to hang out w/ people planning on grad school or business school or an architecture career or hotel management. I honestly think the fewer premeds, the more pleasant the school.</p>
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[quote]
I disagree about JHU being in a 'bad' area. It's in a much better location than people believe it to be and being in a city on the east coast counts for A LOT when considering traveling to job interviews, internships and even just getting home for the holidays. </p>
<p>Anyone who says a school like Chicago or JHU is in the 'ghetto' clearly has either 1) never been to either or 2) has a very narrow view of this world we live in.
[/quote]
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<p>I lived in chicago area for several yrs and most people regard uchicago's neighborhood as almost too dangerous or too undesirable to even drive through. what are u talking about?! when i visited that school, i felt like i was around a jail or something. </p>
<p>but, i'm not sure about hopkins' campus, although i heard many bad things about the city of baltimore and hopkins' surroundings.</p>
<p>I don't know about that. Maybe 20 blocks or so to the south or to the west of Hyde Park is pretty bad, but Hyde Park itself isn't nearly dangerous enough not to drive through. You must be living out in the suburbs with a pretty distorted view of the world and the way in which crime manifests itself. UChicago has one of the largest private security forces in the country, so much crime doesn't tend to happen right around Hyde Park. </p>
<p>Waiting for the Red Line late at night can be a fairly disconcerting experience for the uninitiated, however.</p>
<p>The area around Hopkins is generally at about the same level of crime as Hyde Park. Some areas of Baltimore are atrocious, however.</p>
<p>While Hopkins does have 14,000 graduate students, only 1,600 are on the same campus as the undergraduates. Therefore, a ratio of 3:1 for undergraduates to graduates is what undergrads sense. You really just have to visit each school to get a sense. GL.</p>