Horror Stories, please help?

JHU has been my dream school for ages. I went and visited campus and fell in love, and I love research as well. I was totally ecstatic when I applied and am still awaiting a response, but I recently heard some pretty rough stuff goes down at Hopkins.

One of my friend’s friend has a roommate who tore up her homework for classes when she wasn’t there so she couldn’t turn it in or study, and would mess up on assessments. Another person she knows repeatedly shuts off his roommate’s alarms so he misses classes. And even without interference, multiple others have had mental breakdowns and even WENT BACK HOME because they couldn’t handle the pressure. The best part? They’re all premed…just like me. :-S

I just want to assure myself that it can’t really be all this bad (but maybe it is). Any first hand advice? Kiiiinda freaking out over here, lol. Thanks!

yea that’s bs. I’m sure that some people are overly competitive, but you get that at any top university. I don’t find JHU to be any more cutthroat that other top schools. That being said, if someone were to have ripped up your homework, you can call the RA and they will investigate- you ca get expelled for tampering with someone’s work

Yeah, I’m sure that there are a few crazies among us premeds, but most of us don’t bite. I know many premeds, and they’re all nice and helpful people. Also, I haven’t heard of anyone leaving because they had mental breakdowns, but I imagine it is possible for people with high standards for themselves to experience homesickness, depression, and stress that they can’t cope with. There are many measures of place to reduce that kind of thing including covered grades first semester, a counseling center, and a period to drop classes if the workload is too heavy.

I won’t lie and say that Hopkins is a cakewalk academically, and most of the students here are very driven, which is nice for a person who is also driven, but can get stressful, especially around exam times. However, there is no shortage of chill premeds who like to procrastinate and talk about their lives instead of doing work.