So I will be applying to Hopkins next year - probably ED - but the only thing holding me back is how cut throat I have heard it is. My 2nd choice is Georgetown and I have heard it is a really collaborative environment. I was wondering if Hopkins is really that competitive and cut throat.
And also I was watching Chopped the other day and there was a kid from Columbia University on there and he said it is so competitive there that no one shares their answers or helps others with homework. Is Hopkins like that?
For reference I am an undergrad BME at Hopkins. If you’re planning on applying to Hopkins ED you probably already know that, schoolwork wise, Hopkins is pretty difficult. (Keep in mind though that the difficulty of Hopkins is comparable to schools of a similar “caliber”). However in general, students react to their difficult coursework with a " we’re all in this together " type attitude. Generally students - in the engineering department at least - study and do homework in groups. Of course there’s always that one kid who’s a typical “cutthroat premed”, but for the most part Hopkins is not cutthroat.
bump, I’m interested in this topic, I got accepted to the BME and I have to decide between JHU and Rice. I’ve heard that the environment at JHU is really negative and that Rice is way more laid back
It’s not cutthroat, but everyone is very driven and perfectionistic, so that might be why people get the impression that everyone’s competing against each other. But if you actually talk to people, lol, you’ll find that there are a lot of down-to-earth people and that there is no shortage of people who will help you. And people do share their answers (though technically, that’s an academic ethics violation, and you can get in trouble for it, lol).
That being said, @ThatIrishKid, I wouldn’t call Hopkins “laid back,” lol. It’s not a malicious environment, but because people are so driven and perfectionistic, there can be this atmosphere of stress and “I have to be doing this” (even when you don’t). The kinds of people who come here thrive in busy environments and create work for themselves, so for them it’s not a negative environment. But students who come expecting to have a lot of down time can find themselves burning out (depending on their major, but I’m assuming the people who really care about this are premed / plan to take on a challenging major).
First and foremost one must not confuse ‘cut-throatedness’ with classes being difficult and not everyone receiving an A grade. Hopkins gets this reputation because many students enter premed and like ALMOST EVERY OTHER COLLEGE classes are graded on a curve in which only a certain percentage of students can get an A, leading to quite a large proportion of very driven students getting upset by anything less than a B+ or sometimes even an A -(which is quite ridiculous IMO lol). Furthermore, since the huge premed culture blows everything out of proportion you’ll hear some people catastrophize their futures over one test score and seek to comfort themselves by blaming others, as a result creating the ‘cut-throat’ myth.
From what I’ve experienced here and in the BME department, which always gets rep as the most cut-throat for some silly reason, that it is definitely quite the opposite! In virtually every BME class I’ve taken the professors encourage collaboration and basically every student has a group study network to work through problem sets or study for exams with, creating a community-environment like another poster above has stated. Additionally, BME classes are curved pretty well so I feel like it is actually one of the most happy departments unlike some other departments where classes are curved to the top 2 or 4%.
^ The thing about BME is very true. And not all classes are curved so that only a certain percentage of students can get an A. There are classes where theoretically everyone could get an A. And anything that can lower a GPA might as well be an F for how seriously people take it. But usually that settles out when the students are a little older and more weathered, lol.