<p>I'm leaning towards civil engineering, but I'm open to change if I find that I like other things. What are some pros/cons or strengths of Hopkins if I go there for engineering? How does it compare against other names? Thanks!</p>
<p>The short answer is: Yes (Johns Hopkins is a good school for engineering).
It may or may not be a good fit for you, depending on many factors such as your budget and prospects for financial aid. Have you run JHU’s online Net Price Calculator? If so, can you afford the expected family contribution? How does JHU’s net cost stack up against other alternatives (perhaps including your in-state public flagship)?</p>
<p>US News ranks engineering programs. Most of the top-ranking programs are either at super selective private schools (Stanford, MIT, Cornell) or at big state flagships (Illinois, Berkeley, Texas, etc.) If you live in one of the states with one of the top-ranking public engineering programs, it may not make much sense to pay a big price premium to attend a private school or an out-of-state public school. If you don’t live in one of those states, then depending on your family income level, the best bang for the buck may be at a selective private school with good need-based aid (like JHU), or at a public university with relatively low OOS sticker prices. State universities with OOS prices below $40K include (in descending order of cost):
Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology.</p>
<p>The longer answer is more complicated, I’d argue. Biomed has a justifiably extraordinarily strong reputation at Hopkins but other engineering areas are significantly weaker - although not weak. It is biomed almost exclusively that drives Hopkins’ rep in engineering. If your goal is to do civil or a related field, as tk points out, you may be best served at any of a number of the great state u’s already mentioned along with places like Michigan and Georgia Tech. If you prefer a more intimate private school setting, Stanford and MIT reign supreme with Cornell and Northwestern following up with much more strength than Hopkins in a broad array of specialty fields. </p>
<p>Cornell or Northwestern may well be better choices than JHU for some engineering fields, without being significantly more selective or too different in net cost (although their financial aid formulas may play out a little differently for different income levels). However, Michigan/Cal usually will be much more expensive than Wisconsin or Minnesota for students who are not residents of any of these states. Michigan/Cal OOS may even be much more expensive than JHU/Northwestern/Cornell after aid.</p>
<p>If class size is important to you, for some schools (including JHU) you can see enrollment numbers in the online course registration pages.
<a href=“Registrar - Homewood Schools (KSAS & WSE) | Office of the Registrar | Johns Hopkins University”>Registrar - Homewood Schools (KSAS & WSE) | Office of the Registrar | Johns Hopkins University;
(Click on “Civil Engineering”, then on the individual course titles, to see enrollment limits.)</p>
<p>thanks, guys!</p>
<p>Really good answers in this thread. @GoldeRetro - good luck!</p>
<p>@marvin100 thanks!</p>