<p>I'm just wondering what some students have to say. What are a few things you don't like about JHU?</p>
<p>(I suppose you could add some things you like, also)</p>
<p>There already is a post like this on the Hopkins Forums:
Hopkins</a> Forums -> What Would You Change About Hopkins?</p>
<p>And if you want to know positive things:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/276613-101-reasons-attend-johns-hopkins-university.html?highlight=change%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/276613-101-reasons-attend-johns-hopkins-university.html?highlight=change</a></p>
<p>It's too small. </p>
<p>Surrounding area doesn't seem to correlate with the "campus bubble" </p>
<p>Baltimore overall needs some major improvements as a city...</p>
<p>I'll start with pros. Great school, great reputation, great academics. Fantastic campus. And we're respected even out here at Oxford--plus, if you're into world rankings, hit a pretty good high on the THE. An aside--I'm not a compete believer in 'rankings don't matter,' and, frankly, neither is much of the <em>general</em> world. If you're after greater recognition, you have to submit to the way the masses think, not just the academics. Thus choose your path and intended accomplishments carefully. No complaints so far.</p>
<p>Not so commendable student representation and involvement (getting better though), too many overly enthusiastic premeds, and a bit of (understandable) overzealousness on the part of admissions bloggers. </p>
<p>As a double major in engineering and the sciences, with a minor in anthropology, and with additional involvement in JHMI research and student groups both here and abroad, I can safely say that I've seen pretty much the gamut of this place. It's indeed what you make of it, but can get tiresome if you associate with the more repressed crowd. I also don't see the 'spark' of knowledge for knowledge's sake that I do out here. People are often too busy to stop and smell the roses, as it were. Again, it depends on the crowd.</p>
<p>As for cutthroat, I would easily back up what everyone says--it's a myth. Work hard and you'll do well. That being said, be prepared to fight for the GPA far more than at an inflated school, if that's your thing.</p>
<p>On last thing, which is another pro, despite the title of the thread. Career and real life opportunities will abound. I know incredibly successful grads, and myself unexpectedly got a great internship in pharmaceutical patent litigation. You'll do awesome here, just take everything with a grain of salt. Including this, of course.</p>
<p>I agree with littlemage897, especially the advice on "taking everything with a grain of salt." I think that's probably one of the most practical things we can use a bit here and out there in the real world. </p>
<p>Also, I think the humanities departments here at hopkins really need some work. According to the JHU newsletter, we receive the 4th largest amount of donations every year, yet most of that money never seems to have trickled down to the places that need serious improvement. We need more courses on political science, esp. on the fast growing east asian studies. We need more resources for our grossly underfunded language departments (some of the most popular languages like Chinese, Hindi, and Japanese don't even have their own minors and majors). Also, as I'm an economics major, I would like to see more resources devoted to very popular and practical areas like finance, accounting, and business administration. Simply having courses in those areas is not enough. We need a stronger body of faculty members and a other types of programs and activities in those areas to better prepare students for the real world (classes like Globalization in the 21st century and Financial Literacy are great models to fashion after). Most of my friends in humanities seem to have reached a common understanding that our funding and allocation of resources are very unbalanced. Hopefully our new lawyer president can do something about it.</p>
<p>I generally agree with most of the things mentioned above but I would like to add some clarification. I do think the languages could get a little bit more attention. I do think, however, that most of the humanities departments are quite strong based on faculty and range of courses, particularly Writing Seminars, History of Art, History and Near Eastern Studies. I also believe there is an Egyptology major starting sometime soon. </p>
<p>Hopkins has always been known as a liberal arts education, not pre-professional. This is why there are not undergraduate majors in architecture, education, finance, accounting, and business administration. It is identical to liberal arts colleges like Amherst, Pomona, Williams and Yale. Hopkins and the colleges mentioned teach students how to think - not training students in direct professions. </p>
<p>If high school students want a pre-professional undergraduate experience, places like Penn, Wash U, NYU offers majors in architecture, education, finance, accounting, and business administration, etc that correlate with direct professions. Places like Amherst, Hopkins, Pomona, Williams, Chicago and Yale are not considered pre-professional training grounds, but liberal arts intensive. A few years ago, Yale tried to add a Journalism minor (many of their undergrads go into journalism) and there was practically a riot on campus because it was too pre-professional. This is identical to Hopkins and I would expect at the undergraduate level, Hopkins will not move to offer majors in finance, accounting, and business administration.</p>
<p>I agree with Wealthofinformation. Our school is way too focused on maintaining this status of being "liberal arts." </p>
<p>Most of the people in my econ department and the ir studies are all heading for very practical goals like finance, business, and public policy. How are we supposed to survive the harsh realities and demands of this fast-moving world without ever getting prepared in areas beyond the mundane theories we learn in text books? </p>
<p>What's the use of maintaining this outdated tradition of "liberal arts" when it doesn't have the capacity to adequately prepare students for what's beyond college? We have already seen employers having a strong preference towards schools like wharton, where their students are much more prepared and exposed to the myriad of realities and subtleties of careers after college.</p>
<p>Jimmy--I couldn't disagree with you more. I graduated Hopkins many years ago from the 5 year BA/MA program in international studies. Even though SAIS is considered a "professional" graduate school--much of what I studied there, like at Homewood, was not practical but theoretical and philosophical. I then went on to law school (which was more of a mix of the theoretical and practical, although the former predominated). I have since practiced law for for almost 35 years. </p>
<p>Far and away, the most important part of my undergraduate education was the liberal arts part--the opportunity to think about and discuss with great minds the big issues that we seldom have time to think about after college. Unless you go into academia, college is the one time in your life (at least before retirement) that you have the time and structure to expand your mind--and to learn how to think about big thoughts. You will have plenty of time to learn the practical stuff when you get out. Frankly, the practical stuff changes so fast that the information you might learn in school is obsolete by the time you graduate. Not so the liberal arts.</p>
<p>I can tell you that, as an employer--we look to hire people who spent their college years getting a liberal arts education--learning both to think and clearly express their thoughts. We rarely hire business majors because it is our experience that few of them are well educated. One can take a finance course anywhere. But there are only a relatively few institutions around where graduates come out with a real education. Hopkins is one of them.</p>
<p>Pick up a copy of any Hopkins alumni magazine and look at the alumni notes in the back. See what Hopkins alumni are doing. I think you will quickly see that a liberal arts eduction is no impediment to success. Quite the opposite.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
a bit of (understandable) overzealousness on the part of admissions bloggers.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>That just makes me laugh.</p>
<p>"I can tell you that, as an employer--we look to hire people who spent their college years getting a liberal arts education--learning both to think and clearly express their thoughts. We rarely hire business majors because it is our experience that few of them are well educated. One can take a finance course anywhere. But there are only a relatively few institutions around where graduates come out with a real education. Hopkins is one of them."</p>
<p>Perhaps you should come to one of our Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley internship interviews... Last year, I got rejected for not having the courses and experiences they required: finance, accounting, financial statement analysis, etc. It's not that we are demanding more. Our changing world is simply demanding too much on us. On one side, Hopkins preaches about its refined tradition of liberal arts education and the necessity of keeping it. On the other side, employers (top employers) demand a totally different set of experiences and skills. As students, we are tucked right in the middle, like meat in a sandwich. </p>
<p>Although many employers maintain that they look for people in "all fields of studies and majors," that simply isn't the reality. HR reps I recently talked to at MS, Smith Barney, Deloitte made it clear to me that you would not be able to acquire even the first interview if you don't have the necessary courses and experience. Liberal arts courses like Classics of Political Thought or Sex and Gender in Rome are great, but they are afterall for-profit organizations, not hardcore think-tanks for would-be philosophers. </p>
<p>As students at hopkins, I think we do have the right to demand change.</p>
<p>I think you possibly should have done more research before enrolling at Hopkins - everyone knows Hopkins offers the classic liberal arts education, no core, flexible courses which is highly respected in teaching students how to think. That said, I know lots of Johns Hopkins grads who work in finance (still), accounting, think tanks and other corporate areas - and they started out making efforts to gain experience and not expecting that outstanding places like MS, Smith Barney, Deloitte etc were going to hire them with 0 years of experience. Hopkins, and any liberal arts college for that fact, can serve a student well in 2009, but each student must learn to have ** realistic expectations ** about their status as a prospective employee with 0 experience. </p>
<p>I know people who are recent Hopkins grads who work for Smith Barney, Deloitte, Accenture, Goldman etc so I'm sure it has more to do with what they are looking for and very little to do with who you are and what you are taking. Jimmy, I'm sure you're an excellent student (you wouldn't be at Hopkins if you weren't), so keep putting yourself out there and the right thing will happen. Make the best of your Hopkins experience because there are thousands of students who wish they could be getting the education you are.</p>
<p>Thank you for those warming words wealthofinformation. I hope you are right about this too. Although hopkins may not offer the experiences I seek, I think I'll just have to make the best out of what I have. I'm planning to start an investment/finance club next semester with a few friends. The purpose is to put our studies into practice in the stock market, bond market, and other securities. Hopefully this will turn out to be a successful and rewarding venture, as many kids have already expressed interest.</p>
<p>That sounds pretty awesome in fact. Use your resources (facilities and people) and you're bound to be successful. I mean you're in a highly concentrated area of human capital and talent that if you take that initiative, it's going to pay you dividends later on. I think that's what Hopkins students do best... things are not just going to be handed to them... but for those who take the initiative, you'll reap the benefits ten-fold. GL and keep everyone posted!</p>
<p>I think you probably couldn't find a better time to reevaluate the investment market for 2009 and beyond. There are going to be a lot of cultural changes coming to Wall Street and we need young, eager, and ETHICAL minds to meet the challenges ahead. I am thinking that Goldman Sachs is not the hotbed of hiring it was a year ago. :)</p>
<p>I love bonanza's response to this question because as a 47 year adult I agree that there are very few windows of opportunities where you can dedicate yourself to expanding your mind and learning to critically think about issues. </p>
<p>So back to the good and the bad.. </p>
<p>Can someone explain why there is no student union? or what is in it's place if anything?</p>
<p>There is no single building that houses all of the functions one might find at a student union--but there are a lot of facilities. Levering Hall (a/k/a Levering Union), for example, houses a food court, an information desk/lounge/coffee shop, large and small meeting rooms, the Center for Social Concern, a theater, darkrooms, practice rooms, a study hall, the Glass Pavallion and the office of the Dean for Student Life. Most offices for student clubs and activities are in the Mattin Center, along with practice rooms, large and small rooms for musical groups, dance facilities, a black box theater and workshops, the digital media center, and a restaurant. Charles Commons houses the Bookstore with a Starbucks, a dining facility, meeting rooms, kitchen facilities, etc. Wolman Hall has a convenience store and a bagel shop. The Recreation Center, the Interfaith Center, Hillel House, etc. all have fine student facilities.</p>
<p>The joke on campus is that the student union is the MSE Library--and there is some truth to that. The top two levels (the library is 6 floors--4 of them underground) are very social, and this is about to be significantly enhanced by the new 6 story addition about to be built and dedicated to President Brody. The entire new facility is being designed to be a social meeting place, as opposed to a quiet library.</p>
<p>Thus, student facilities are actually quite nice. The main complaint, and it has some validity, is that there is no one place (other than the library) where most students hang out. This is, however, not unusual. Most of the Ivies are similar in this regard.</p>
<p>i think it is a bit unfortunate that we don't have a student union, especially considering that there is a perfect, empty plot of land begging for one to be built. </p>
<p>it's just one block off campus directly across from the charles commons, the brand new upperclassmen residence hall, and next to just about every store that undergrads frequent (chipotle, coldstone, subway, uni mini, etc). plus, it would be extraordinarily central to the whole undergraduate population since almost all the off and on campus housing is a just stone's throw away. right now it's just wasted space.</p>
<p>Bonanza.. that was a GREAT visual of the campus and it's "haunts" as they say. I am not convinced that at schools that have a student union, that this is where kids hang out, except if there is a snack shop/food court type place. </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>That would be nice, but (1) the University doesn't own that land and (2)It would probably take $100 million (or more) to build and maintain such a facility. Now if you know someone who wants to make a major gift....</p>