I am visiting this friday and am interested in sitting in on a class. I’m not really sure how I set this up- they have the schedule online so do i just walk in to the class?? Also if I am interested in bio or engineering (not me, too competitive here) what class would you recommend sitting in on… like I would prefer a medium sized to large class but I’m not sure how I would know this.
Yes, you can just sit in and no one will know that you aren’t a student. Out of courtesy, you should arrive a little early and introduce yourself to the professor. I haven’t taken any bio or engineering courses, but most of the larger classes are intro classes, and it likely won’t be as interesting an experience as, say, a course in Public Health or Behavioral Biology. But if your goal is to just see a standard class and how the professors interact with students, that might be the better option.
I guess you won’t know the sizes of the classes, but if it’s in Bloomberg 278, Remsen 1 or 101, Hodson 110 or 210, Hackerman B17, Shaffer 3, Maryland 110, Krieger 2015, Mergenthaler 111, Gilman 50, Olin 305, and Mudd 26 have a capacity for 100-350 people, and it typically matches the size of the class.
Some schools want you to arrange this through admissions. Others will just tell you to look in the course catalog. It is courteous to email the prof ahead of time if you are making your own arrangements, just in case they have an exam or something going on, and they can let you know if it is a good day for you to sit in. Agree that you should introduce yourself to the prof before class, and go a little early anyway to find the room.
Also… based on past experience, confirm that you are in the right class (just ask another student when you get there). One of my kids had a bad experience once with a prof when the room for the class had been changed, and she didn’t realize until a couple minutes in that it was the wrong class.
I think it’s a good idea to sit in on classes. My younger son was set to apply to JHU ED. He did one of the fall overnight visits and sat in on two classes in his intended major, both around 15-20 kids. The first class was dismissed 10 minutes early because the prof was irritated; his students apparently hadn’t done the reading and could not answer any questions in what was a discussion based class. He kindly spent the 10 minutes with my son telling him that despite what happened, it’s a great dept with terrific profs. But then my son sat in another class in that dept the same afternoon and experienced a similar situation. That was it. I could not convince him to overlook those two classes. A super engaged student body in his particular discipline became his top priority.
Forgot to mention that these classes were in the humanities and not the sciences, engineering or international relations. I think Hopkins has exceptional faculty in the humanities but doesn’t necessarily attract the best students in those disciplines because it’s still viewed as a science, premed, engineering school, and isn’t considered as balanced.
JHU students take 5 classes at a time – my guess is that they were triaging just to get through their week, and they judged that they could get away without doing the reading.
That’s interesting, and sad. I agree with intparent that it isn’t a question of “quality” or intelligence (though I’m sure there are students who just don’t care). Unfortunately, many things get in the way of that little picture that college tour guides and info sessions paint: students who give themselves a liberal arts education, have enough time to be completely caught up with and engaged in their classes, and still have extra time to go above and beyond the subjects. I only wish it could be that ideal. Hopkins students have an amazing breadth to them, just because we do so much; but I agree that if you want universally deep students, another school (less rigorous with fewer of the type of students who like to make themselves busy) might be better.
Is 5 courses at a time either the norm or a requirement now? I think 4 was the norm (but 5 was possible) when I was there. And still lots of kids didn’t do the reading…
12 credits is the minimum requirement, 18.5-19.5 is the maximum, depending on whether you’re arts and sciences or engineering; though some students request course overloads to take more than the max. That’s generally 4-5 classes. Most of the upperclassmen I know are doing five courses, but a lot of people do four as well. And there are many reasons why kids don’t do the readings, but sheer laziness is rarely one of them, haha.
Hopefully it isn’t just students at a less rigorous college that would show up for class ready to discuss the assigned readings. It was mentioned that this was a humanities class, so doing the assigned reading iand being able to engage in an informed discussion is the equivalent of completing the daily or weekly problem set for a quantitative course.
^yes, exactly. He had sat in on similar classes at brown, WUSTL, tufts & uchicago, and all were exciting bc of the intense discussions. And that became his top criteria.
Not justifying it by any means. Just speculating about the root of the problem.
@OnMyWay2013, I understand. Truthfully, I was so bummed that he no longer wanted to apply ED and that JHU fell way down his list. On paper (or actually webpage), this department seemed ideal for him. I’m deliberately not naming the dept bc I don’t want to bias anyone interested in investigating it. I’m hoping my son’s experience was an aberration.
His overnight visit (& interview) was the week before the ED app was due and he had already written his application. That weekend was so stressful. But in the end, I guess it was for the best. He had visited Hopkins during the summer before junior year and fell in love with the campus, Baltimore and the dept. Then during junior year, he visited the other schools I listed while they were in session and sat in on classes at all of them. So by the time he returned to JHU senior fall, he expected the classes at Hopkins to match the other schools’ and when they didn’t, he could no longer pull the ED trigger.
Also, meant to write that engaged discussion became his top criterion …not criteria.
@RenaissanceMom It’s a rarity, but it happens. But it is admirable that your son stuck to his values, and given that it’s not fun and terribly disheartening to be in a class where you’re the only person who really cares about the material, I think he made the right choice.