Impression I got after an overnight stay at JHU...Is this how it really is?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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<p>I've been set on applying ED to JHU for quite some time. I did an overnight stay there this week just to make sure Hopkins was everything I'd thought it was. I am so glad I did it, because I found out a lot of things about Hopkins I wouldn't have known otherwise! In fact, some of these things are making me reconsider applying ED, which is horrible because the deadline is like a week away. So I'm just wondering, how true are these things of JHU?</p>

<p>Some of these things may be influenced by the fact that my host was in a sorority, and the only friend I have going there is on the swim team, but I'm not sure.</p>

<p>I really got the impression that hopkins is extremely cliquey. My friend only hangs out with people on swim team, and the FFC was also segregated by sports teams. My host could identify exactly where in the FFC and in her classes the lacrosse, football, baseball team, etc sat. She also told me that the black people only hang out with other black people, and the huge Korean population only associates with other Koreans.</p>

<p>It also seemed like much more of a party school than I expected. My host talked about how she went out all the time and got drunk, and it seemed like that was basically all she did.</p>

<p>I had never thought that greek life was a big deal at hopkins, but that was the impression I got from my visit. My host said that there were tons of frat parties to go to, but didn't mention anything else. Are there other things to do besides go to frat parties? And do people do those things?</p>

<p>I am going to major in East Asian Studies, and I spoke to a professor within the department. He told me right off the bat that they were much stronger in Chinese than any other language. I got the impression that Chinese is the main focus of the department...is that true? Because I am a lot more into Japanese and Korean.</p>

<p>I feel like this post is getting way too long, so I'll just add one more thing (maybe more later).
I had always thought that, being a small school, you would have a really close relationship with your professors. This is something really important to me. THe professor I spoke to said he wasn't like that, but he knew professors who were. I also went to a class with my host, and it was basically taught by a TA...Granted, she is only a sophomore, so maybe thats just because it was a low level class...But she also told me that she did not know any of her professors, at all.</p>

<p>One thing I will say contrary to the reputation Hopkins gets is that it did not seem competitive at all, and everyone told me it wasn't. People were very friendly. And, people there obviously do have a social life!</p>

<p>Anyways, I'd like to know if any of this is true of Hopkins or not. Thoughts?</p>

<p>(please excuse typos, I did this quickly)</p>

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<p>I’ll jump in since no one else has. I’m not a student, just a parent of a minimally communicative freshman, so I don’t have direct experience. He is on a varsity team, although not one of the glamorous ones, and he’s rather nerdy, planning on studying physics. </p>

<p>First off, he really likes it there. He seems to have several groups of friends, one athletic (I don’t think he hangs with them much although he gets along well with them), one from physics including upperclassmen with whom he studies, and one ‘other’ (with whom he seems to eat and hang)which seems to include some Koreans. He’s been to one frat party which he found boring. He seems to have other stuff that keeps him entertained. He doesn’t drink or partake in mind-altering substances.</p>

<p>I don’t think of Hopkins as a ‘small’ school in general, but rather small in University terms. I think there are small and large classes, professors you get to know and ones you don’t. It’s not a small LAC with <300 entering freshmen. </p>

<p>His classes generally seem to be taught by profs on M/W with mostly TA sessions on friday so maybe if you went on friday, that’s what you were at? In one of his classes, he much prefers the TA to the professor :).</p>

<p>Second hand info but hope it helps. I would think about the reasons you were set on applying ED and see if those still apply. Otherwise, do RD and do accepted student weekend. I know that weekend helped my son decide to attend and he hasn’t been sorry. Of course, then you lose the ED acceptance advantage…</p>

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<p>Hopkins does have a reputation for social segregation, and the city of Baltimore is not the most compelling in terms of social and cultural options. Academically, the faculty is not as accessible as you would think, particularly for a school of Hopkins’ size (relatively small) and stature. The faculty is VERY research oriented, and Hopkins has always emphasized GRADUATE studies over undergraduate (it was, in fact, founded as a graduate institution in the German model). TA (graduate student) involvement in undergraduate course instruction is common. </p>

<p>Given your interest, have you thought of Georgetown as an option?</p>

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<p>I feel like your experience was the result of you staying with the sorority host. Often, your host can define your experience, and it sounds like your host was just a party type</p>

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<p>Bump
10 char</p>

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<p>I’m not really sure what to think. The ED deadline is in 8 days…If I apply, get in, and decide I hate it, there’s not going back, so I’m freaking out about this a bit.
I’d like to hear from some more JHU students, if anyone is out there…</p>

<p>Hoyasaxa, I’m assuming you’re a Georgetown student or someone considering Georgetown because of your username…So where did you get your information?</p>

<p>And yes, I did consider Georgetown, but I went there and hated it.</p>

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<p>

Disregard Hoyasaxa’s post, all he/she does is bash other schools. He/she always seeks out opportunity to say something false and bad about another school and then point out, often times falsely, how superior Georgetown. If you look at his/her post history, you will see that many people, even people from his/her alma mater, disagree with him/her. The fact that you question where he/she got his sources from is what EVERYONE ELSE asks hoyasaxa. In other words, Hoyasaxa is very unreliable and bias.
His/her ignorance is something that is a threat to prospective students. For example:

The truth is, Hopkins is a very undergrad orientated school. The undergrad population is small allowing much face time with professor and smaller class size. If they didn’t like undergrads, this wouldn’t happen. Also homewood campus (the undergrad campus as it is called) is mainly resided by undergrads. Many of the grad students go to schools not in the Homewood campus (such as the med school, public health, international studies are all on a different campus). So the fact that they separate grad students from undergrad and really create a undergrad dominated campus shows their focus on undergrad. Also Hoyasaxa most likely never visited JHU so he/she doesn’t realize that undergrad research is very prominent. If they weren’t focus on undergrad, they would not have created the woodrow wilson fellowship for undergrad only.

You know what’s funny about this statement? Goergetown also has TAs that are grad students. Oh wait, all schools do. Also TA are great, they lead smaller study groups to help students ensure that they are understanding what they learned in the larger intro classes.

Clearly Hoyasaxa never visited Homewood campus because professors are very accessible. They hold office hours and they are able to be contacted via email easily.</p>

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<p>As to Hoya’s claim that Hopkins professors are more focused on research than undergraduates: I think that this is a false dichotomy because of the amount of research that JH undergraduates get involved with. Yes, Hopkins is a research university and not a liberal arts college, so the professors are researchers at the top of their fields. However, a very large percentage of undergraduates get involved with research, so in that sense the professors are involved with undergraduates. </p>

<p>Now onto the original question. I’m a junior engineering student at Hopkins and a transfer student from a small engineering school that emphasizes undergraduate teaching. </p>

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<p>Is there another school you’re thinking about applying to ED? If not, I would apply to Hopkins. </p>

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<p>I think that people will hang out with their friends at any university. Naturally, teammates will spend a lot of time with each other and become friends. It logically follows that they will sit together. Perhaps Hopkins is more athletic than other universities, but I wouldn’t worry about this. You shouldn’t have trouble finding friends. </p>

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<p>My experience is that the better a school is, the more its students party. Public schools only appear to have bigger parties because of their larger student bodies. </p>

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<p>You probably just got that impression because your host was involved with Greek Life. I know lots of people who aren’t in frats. </p>

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<p>The Chinese department is good. In fact, Hopkins has a campus in China. But you shouldn’t be comparing Hopkins Chinese with Hopkins Japanese/Korean. You should be comparing another school’s Japanese/Korea with Hopkin’s Japanese/Korean. </p>

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<p>Maybe. At Hopkins your peers will be very smart and your professors will be accomplished. The upside of this is that your LORs will hold much more weight than LORs from less accomplished faculty at other schools and their research opportunities will be much stronger. The downside is that showing the smallest amount of effort won’t automatically get you noticed. But I think that Hopkins, having more research funding than any other university, will have opportunities for you. </p>

<p>This isn’t exclusive to Hopkins. It’s common to all universities with strong academics. If you go to a weaker university (say, outside of US News Top 20) you’ll probably have a lot more trouble finding faculty willing to let you do research in their lab. </p>

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<p>Hopkins probably gets its competitive reputation because of its pre-med and pre-law students who essentially need to get near-perfect GPAs. Students who aren’t pre-professionals are probably no more competitive than students at peer institutions.</p>

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<p>I think you saw a very clear view of a Hopkins view point. But keep in mind it is not the only view point. There are many different ones. Naturally, you’ll be able to define your own experience at Hopkins and intermingle amongst many students. </p>

<p>There is a strong social life and a strong academic life at Hopkins and how you choose to balance it is really up to you. If you want academic time all the time you’ll definitely be able to find it at Hopkins probably moreso than anywhere else. I think it is very clear that you were staying with a freshman student who is just getting into the Hopkins experience. It will broaden over time especially when grades are not P/F. </p>

<p>I think the big thing to recognize is what you saw was just one person’s experience - it is not everyone’s experience. You’ll be able to make your Hopkins experience your own during your time there. </p>

<p>If you love Hopkins then apply ED, but if you are considering other options then RD is great too. This process is about finding the right school for you - and it may be Hopkins. </p>

<p>Either way don’t regret any decision you make. Good luck.</p>

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<p>“…But she also told me that she did not know any of her professors, at all.”</p>

<p>That’s her fault. Even as a freshman, every professor I had knew who I was and would say hello to me if we saw each other on campus. You make an effort to talk to your professor after class and go to their office hours, they’ll know you. Particularly, if you ask them about research or take multiple classes with the same professor, they’ll know you pretty quickly.</p>

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<p>Parent Response:
(Funny, the students are too busy having a life…I am missing my kid so much I come here to be closer to her…Loser, I know!)</p>

<p>My Freshman has 5 classes.<br>
One professor she doesnt like because the woman keeps making her revise her essays and doesnt just give her an A. She has emailed her suggestions, corrections, etc, Prior to the ‘final’ paper being graded. I would say this professor is pretty involved with the student.</p>

<p>One professor (Language) has informal meetings with her classes so they can speak the language conversationally as well as meet 2, 3rd, 4th year students who might serve as mentor.</p>

<p>One professor (her Intro to her major) was so engaging she actually applauded after a class. The same person (a dept head) is helping her start a campus organization, as mentor, advisor.</p>

<p>One professor has coffee in Levering after each class, and often joins my kid as they chat up that days lessons. Soemtimes they just smile and wave, sometimes they chat.</p>

<p>Her Macro prof is the rock-star, and has TA’s doing his sections. The TA’s are great too.</p>

<p>They have writing tutors, they have guys in the center for world peace (or something like that), and the women that work the lunch room are friendly.</p>

<p>You get back what you put in, and the profs at Hopkins are great if you allow them to be.</p>

<p>Frat/Sorority Life is not the center of the world, unless you choose it to be. Frats have parties. There is plenty other things to do (I am told).</p>

<p>About Cliques: I think that people attracted to greek life at a school like hopkins are attracted to Cliques. Yep, the sports teams do hang out after practice (they leave practice and eat), and dorms/floors/majors/classmates will all sometimes seem like a clique. Minorities will eat together, that happens I am told. Freshman year so many of the students are new, alone, and will bond quickly to anyone that can demonstrate a common thread. That goes away quickly.</p>

<p>So if the social life put you off, then drop ED and shoot for RD, make another visit, it is an important decision. But academically, Hopkins is an amazing place, and it is sad your host is choosing instead to be just a face in the crowd to her profs.</p>

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<p>^^“Her Macro prof is the rock-star…” Would this be Lou Maccini? Great professor. His intro to macro class made me major in econ. I’m now taking his graduate macro class.</p>

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<p>Ironically enough some kid just got busted for running a meth lab at Georgetown</p>

<p>No hate but aren’t these suppose to be some of the smartest kids in the country?</p>

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<p>Imontya touched on something interesting. There seems to be a lot of criticism of universities that have TAs teaching sections or labs (that is, almost all research universities). And I really am not sure why. Yes, TAs don’t know as much as professors, but do they really need to? If a TA is just teaching a section that reinforces material from the lecture, do they need to have knowledge that goes way beyond an undergraduate education in the field? TAs are helpful because they are probably more familiar with how the student was taught the class and can offer additional perspectives on the class. </p>

<p>I think a bigger problem (not at Hopkins, but at colleges in general) is the overuse of adjunct faculty, who are often underpaid. There are good reasons to have adjuncts who are still working in the field, but I get the sense that a lot of schools bring in professors as adjuncts rather than assistant professors to save money.</p>

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<p>To clarify where I get my information: I did attend Georgetown (transferring there from Duke) and Hopkins Med where a dozen or so Hopkins undergrads are close classmates–along with people from the “top” undergraduate schools in the country. I study at Eisenhower almost every other day and am on the Hopkins Homewood campus daily. As med students, we all talk about our undergraduate experiences, and it is clear that the undergraduate experiences at top schools vary tremendously–they are not the same. My Hopkins friends quickly acknowledge that the Hopkins social scene has improved dramatically in the last few years, but it is more segregated than other schools; faculty are not as approachable for undergraduates than other schools (especially when you compare Hopkins to places like Georgetown (yes), Dartmouth, Princeton, Wash. U., Rice, Brown but clearly not as bad as Berkeley, Harvard, Michigan, UCLA–probably more along the lines of Duke, Yale, Penn, Vanderbilt, Emory). </p>

<p>No, not all schools have graduate students teaching classes as the primary lecturer–Hopkins does (my good friend is a graduate student and is teaching an undergraduate class at Hopkins), Duke does (or did), Harvard does, Yale does, Georgetown doesn’t, Dartmouth doesn’t, liberal arts colleges don’t. Teaching assistants are just that, assistants. Graduate students providing review sessions, lab instruction, etc. is very different than graduate students serving as the primary instructor. </p>

<p>By the way, I love Hopkins–it’s a phenomenal institution, and is, without a doubt, the best thing about Baltimore. I can’t imagine a better place to be a medical student, resident, or medical faculty. I applied to transfer to Hopkins from Duke and probably would have gone to Hopkins or Penn if I hadn’t gotten in to Georgetown. </p>

<p>I am glad Grander visited Georgetown and “hated it.” Chances are, if that’s the case, Grander will love Hopkins and should apply ED, because Georgetown and Hopkins are VERY different in terms of undergraduate experience.</p>

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<p>i’m a freshman at hopkins. who did you stay with by the way?</p>

<p>well i’ll give you my 2 cents.
i LOVE hopkins. in so many ways.</p>

<p>it is true that you can distinguish the sports teams at the FFC, but its really not a big deal. I go there all the time by myself and find random people to sit with. people are generally friendly and always willing to meet new people. the athletes at my high school were pretty mean, but i’ve found the athletes here to be extremely nice. </p>

<p>yes, there are parties on the weekends but i wouldn’t say we party any more than other schools. you can take trips to the inner harbor, fells point, towson mall, etc. or even go to DC. there’s alot to do around here without partying. </p>

<p>i’ve also made some very good friends here. theres lots of nice, genuine people. and lots of different activities for whatever may interest you. remember, hopkins has over 5,000 people - you WILL find people who share your interests, regardless of whether or not you like to party or go to frats.</p>

<p>greek life does not dominate. only about 20% of students are in frats/sororities. its not a big deal if your not into that.</p>

<p>one of my close friends here is east asian studies and she loves the department - its not focused on chinese. </p>

<p>i have a fairly close relationship with my professors. the ones i have really want me to learn and are extremely helpful. there’s also great resources such as tutoring, group learning sessions, etc. </p>

<p>i’m an engineering major btw. </p>

<p>overall, i LOVE hopkins. the people, the environment. best choice i could have made. </p>

<p>i definitely encourage you to apply ED :)</p>

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<p>00059000, I’m really glad to hear you feel that way!</p>

<p>I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I’ve decided I’m still going to apply ED. I can’t base my whole impression of the school on one small visit that was probably influenced by my host. I still think Hopkins is an awesome school. College is what you make of it, and I know I’ll be able to make the best of my time at Hopkins :)</p>

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<p>^Woohoo! Just don’t take my ED spot :stuck_out_tongue: </p>

<p>Best of luck!!</p>

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<p>You’re applying ED Anouchi? :smiley:
What do you want to major in?</p>

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<p>Yeah, biophysics, but I’m really curious about the public health studies major :)</p>