Is this an accurate review of JHU?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
1

<p><a href="http://www.*****.com/Colleges/UserReviews.aspx?userid=180738%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.*****.com/Colleges/UserReviews.aspx?userid=180738&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I just selected this one because it pulled together many points that I read in other ***** reviews. Do current JHU students agree with the above review for the most part?</p>

<p>From ***** and the Princeton Review's 373 Best Colleges, this is my impression of JHU:
- More work than at comparable universities
- Pre-professional mentality
- More time studying than at comparable universities
- Little school pride
- Little school sports pride
- Political apathy
- Mediocre campus
- Most students are actually stereotypical nerds</p>

<p>I'm kind of skeptical because I don't understand how these negative elements could all culminate in a top university, so I wanted a second opinion from additional people. Please note that I am not bashing JHU; the above is simply what I gathered from online and book references, and I certainly hope it isn't true. Thanks for taking the time to respond!</p>

2

<p>uhh ABSOLUTELY not. Here, at JHU, and at anyyyyy other university for that matter your experience is exactly what you make of it.</p>

<p>I am in a fraternity and I do MUCH more than “study with friends” to socialize and I AM ON A SPORTS TEAM (rugby) and LOVE the school and its teams (yes me and all my brothers and friends go to games and have spirit) haha sorry for the extreme run-on sentence.</p>

<p>Here is my rebuttal:

  • More work than at comparable universities (not necessarily, theres not much WORK per say at all. For me and my major its just tests and you do gotta study for them)
  • Pre-professional mentality (definitely. but isnt that what you want in a college? to prepare you for your professional career?)
  • More time studying than at comparable universities (A student can do well studying between 20 and 30 hours a week here but it’s all in classes the student is interested in so the studying isn’t hell it could even be enjoyable)
  • Little school pride (absolute falsehood)
  • Little school sports pride (even more of a falsehood than the previous statement)
  • Political apathy (DEFINITELY NOT. when carl rove visited there was a riot haha it gets heated)
  • Mediocre campus (I love the campus it’s good size, with great buildings, everything is decently close together)
  • Most students are actually stereotypical nerds (of course there are stereotypical nerds… in the library! you have to position yourself in the places where there arent nerds if thats not what youre into)</p>

<p>grammar started slacking like halfway through that haha i hope you get my point. i love this school and im 100% sure it was the best decision i ever made coming here</p>

3

<p>My son is applying to Johns Hopkins.</p>

<p>I visited the campus with him.</p>

<p>We both loved the campus.</p>

<p>It is far from being “mediocre”.</p>

<p>I would be thrilled if he attended Johns Hopkins.</p>

4

<p>Here are my 2 cents worth as an alumnus:</p>

<p>1) More work than at comparable universities—This is true to an extent but perhaps not for the reasons you might think. It also depends upon which universities you are comparing JHU to. If the comparison is to the Ivies (yes, I know there are huge differences between Ivies but most people lump them together), my observation is that there is not a huge difference in level of difficulty of courses but that Hopkins’ students take more courses. At most if not all Ivies, the average course load is 4 courses per semester. At Hopkins, the average is 5 courses. Not surprisingly, an extra course per semester means more work. But it also means more education. Think of it as an extra year of education for free.</p>

<p>If you are making the comparison to a typical state flagship university, than I do think that the courses at Hopkins tend to be harder—particularly in the sciences.</p>

<p>2) Pre-professional mentality. This is true, but it is also true at every other top university. Hopkins produces a lot of doctors and lawyers, but it also produces a lot of professors (who generally aren’t described as having a “pre-professional mentality.)” I think the biggest difference is that Hopkins has a far smaller percentage of people looking to become entrepreneurs than you would find at, say, Penn or Dartmouth. </p>

<p>3) More time studying—see #1. It is true that most Hopkins students are serious students. But this is true of most other top universities as well. </p>

<p>4) Little school pride—This is incorrect. The vast majority of Hopkins students (and alumni) are very proud of their school. But the pride is more based on the academics than the athletics (except for lacrosse).</p>

<p>5) Little school sports pride—It depends. Hopkins is NCAA Div I only in men’s and women’s lacrosse. There is a great deal of pride in the men’s lacrosse team (44 national championships including 9 NCAA Div. I titles) and Hopkins has probably the most devoted fan base in the country (ESPNU nationally broadcasts all home games; no other school has that, or even comes close to that). It is true that there is much less fan support for the Div III sports, even though many of the teams are quite good. But this is generally true for Div III schools, where sports are more for the scholar athletes than for the fans. So if you are comparing Hopkins sports pride to, say, MIT—Hopkins comes out on top. But if you are comparing Hopkins to a Big 10, SEC, or even ACC school—well there simply is no comparison. </p>

<p>6) Political apathy—It depends. Hopkins has a higher percentage of students studying the natural sciences and engineering than many of its peers, including the Ivies. Science and engineering studies are, as a broad generalization, rather uninterested in politics. But the students studing social sciences and humanities at Hopkins are as politically engaged as similar students at other top universities.</p>

<p>7) Mediocre campus----Wow. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but most people I know think that the Homewood campus is one of the most beautiful urban campuses around. I suppose that if you only like Gothic architecture and hate red brick, that you might not love Homewood but, with the exception of Princeton, I’d take Homewood over any Ivy campus.</p>

<p>8) Nerd quotient. If you define a nerd as someone who loves learning, than I would say “guilty as charged.” But if you are talking about people who lack basic social skills, than I would say that they definitely exist on campus but are a small minority (but don’t venture onto D level in the MSE :slight_smile: )</p>

5

<p>Like bonanza said, the thing about Hopkins is you can make it really, really hard, or perfectly manageable depending on how you schedule yourself. If you take a normal (14-16 credit) course load you will be fine. The problem is some students feel the need to up this to 18-19 credits (no idea why) and this is where they can get in trouble. </p>

<p>If you take a “normal” course load you will be fine. As to the social scene, it really can be whatever you want. There is something going on every night. Plenty of people are out on Friday/Saturday and even during the week. Of course, you can stay in and find a group of people if that’s more what you prefer. Frats/Sororities are also an options if you want to go Greek. Really, anything is available. In fact, I would say Hopkins is less “academic” than I expected from visiting / applying.</p>

<p>The campus is fantastic in my opinion. It’s a great size and I love simply walking around, especially around Keiser quad. Some of the areas aren’t as nice (freshman quad) and construction hinders the aesthetics, but overall it’s quite nice. It will be amazing in a year or so when they get the BLC and the new biology building done.</p>

6

<p>Since the 3 people above me covered everything, I’ll just add a few things</p>

<p>1) I do work hard all week, but I still find time to hang out with friends during the week and go out both friday and saturday nights
2) This school is very politically conscious. Walk up to any student here and they’ll have something to say on current politics.
3) Of course everyone here is nerdy in their own way- how else would we get into a school this good without being hard workers that enjoy learning?
4) The Campus is AMAZING. A lot of people I know had Hopkins lower on their list until they visited and saw the campus. In fact two people I knew immediately decided to apply ED to JHU over another college they were debating between after seeing the campus. If you want to see the campus, watch “Social Network.” While it’s supposed to be at Harvard, it was actually filmed at JHU because of how similar parts of JHU look to Harvard.</p>

7

<p>[Why</a> are JHU’s Rankings so Low?](<a href=“http://www.hopkins-interactive.com/forums/fact-or-fiction/why-are-jhu39s-rankings-so-low/]Why”>http://www.hopkins-interactive.com/forums/fact-or-fiction/why-are-jhu39s-rankings-so-low/)</p>

8

<p>Just visited JH last Friday … that review is pathetic:</p>

<p>1) More work than at comparable universities — </p>

<p>Is this a bad thing? This means the University is preparing us to be hard workers and achievers. IMO the “Ivys” don’t give enough work. </p>

<p>2) Pre-professional mentality. </p>

<p>Yup — Again, why is this bad? </p>

<p>3) More time studying - What is college for? These first 3 review points really should make us all angry. They aren’t going to hand us diplomas for being partiers. </p>

<p>4) Little school pride - DEFINITELY NOT … everyone we met loved JH. The cleanliness of the campus also relfects this. Students don’t trash their school. </p>

<p>5) Little school sports pride - Lacrosse is popular. You don’t go to JH for sports alone. </p>

<p>6) Political apathy—It depends. Hopkins has a higher percentage of students studying the natural sciences and engineering than many of its peers, including the Ivies. Science and engineering studies are, as a broad generalization, rather uninterested in politics. But the students studing social sciences and humanities at Hopkins are as politically engaged as similar students at other top universities.</p>

<p>7) Mediocre campus - The Homewood campus is AWESOME. Visit the school and make up your own mind. I was surpised how nice it was. </p>

<p>8) Nerd quotient. </p>

<p>90% of us are nerds … so what. Being a nerd is fun. No pretentions. Be who you are. </p>

<p>Bottom line - visit the school if you can.</p>

9

<p>Graduated last spring. My thoughts:</p>

<p>1) Yeah, there probably is more work here than at most other places. I think that’s a good thing. If you’re going to a top school, you should be working hard. However, I’ve never heard anyone say that it was unfair. Everyone (myself included) has complained about a particular week or a bad assignment but no one has said it’s unreasonable.</p>

<p>2) There is a pre-professional mentality but it depends who you associate with and what you make of it. Almost all of my friends applied to and are now attending grad school. Not med school, law school, or business school: a PhD program. And none of us are in biology or engineering. Among this group of friends (myself included), we are attending Princeton (x2), MIT, Berkeley, JHU (x2). And that’s not including fully-funded admits to Stanford (x2), Chicago (x2), Caltech, and other places. So if grad school is your thing, not a problem.</p>

<p>3) See number 1. I’ve always complained that people don’t study enough (am I kidding?!?!)</p>

<p>4) I’ll be honest. It depends on who you ask. Lots of people have great pride in the school. There are also people who are apathetic, and those tht dislike the school for various reasons. If you want me to elaborate, I can. But the alumni weekend always draws lots of people and basically everyone owns and wears at least once piece of JHU apparel.</p>

<p>5) Lacrosse is very popular and the games are quite fun. Outside of that, yes, games are probably not that well-attended. But this isn’t Ohio State. If that’s what you’re expecting, you’ll be disappointed.</p>

<p>6) This isn’t Brown or Berkeley of the 1960’s and 70’s. But almost everyone has a political opinion and is fairly well-versed in politics. It’s just that people don’t go around staging protests.</p>

<p>7) I think JHU’s campus is quite nice. It all fits together very nicely. It feels like a park. Definitely doesn’t feel like an urban campus. I prefer Princeton’s and Stanford’s campuses but it’s definitely in the top 5 among all campuses I’ve been to.</p>

<p>8) What’s a “stereotypical” nerd? But I consider myself a nerd and I’m not ashamed of it. People are smart. What are you expecting?</p>

10

<p>I’ll put my two cents in as a current JHU BME</p>

<p>My summary is this: Hopkins is not the best all-around school. Baltimore sucks a Lot, and we have some departments here (like Chinese, for example) that are just terrible.</p>

<p>BUT, that being said, Hopkins has THE MOST opportunities to succeed out of any school I know. And I don’t mean in terms of grades—you’re probably going to get worse grades here than you would at Harvard, or even MIT (I know someone who had to take a semester off from JHU because of the stress. She lived in Boston, and was able to take classes at Harvard during her break from the stress of Hopkins, and said it was very stress-relieving. True story.) I mean in terms of actual achievement. You walk up to any professor here and you’re going to have an intellectually stimulating conversation, and probably end up with an email and a research position. Seriously. That’s why Hopkins is cool.</p>

<p>To the points you brought up:</p>

<ul>
<li>More work than at comparable universities</li>
</ul>

<p>Yes, this is definitely true. The myths about Hopkins’ anti–grade inflation are absolutely correct. But this isn’t a bad thing for Hopkins—it’s a bad thing for the Ivies, who let their students cruise. Classes here are hard. Really hard. But it’s totally worth it.</p>

<ul>
<li>Pre-professional mentality</li>
</ul>

<p>…Yeah in my major a lot of people are pre-med. That’s pretty universal. We’re not All pre-prof though. I’m in BME because I like the engineering part; biology is annoying.</p>

<ul>
<li>More time studying than at comparable universities</li>
</ul>

<p>As with the first point, this isn’t a bad thing…you have to work your butt off to beat out the deflation.</p>

<p>I will say that there are some majors where this isn’t the case, but it’s definitely true for BME…some of my problem sets for a 200-level intro BME class take me several hours, and we have two of them a week. But that’s because it’s Hopkins BME…not exactly surprising.</p>

<ul>
<li>Little school pride</li>
</ul>

<p>This is interesting. I’m actually inclined to agree with this point; you see a lot more people with shirts for Other schools rather than shirts for Hopkins. But…why is this important? People may not have pride in the school, but they certainly have pride in what they do.</p>

<ul>
<li>Little school sports pride</li>
</ul>

<p>Not true. At all. Come to a lacrosse game. I’m in the Pep Band. We will Make you have school sports pride.</p>

<p>In America, sports pride is measured by pride for your football team. Here, it’s lacrosse. Our LAX team kicks butt.</p>

<p>VIRGINIA, YOU’RE GOING DOWN THIS WEEKEND!!!</p>

<ul>
<li>Political apathy</li>
</ul>

<p>In most cases, true. It’s not that we don’t have opinions; it’s just, as has been stated above, the majority of us are in fields where the emphasis is on science rather than political opinions. We have a few environmentalists, we have an Occupy movement. We have college Dems and college Crazies (ha, my own political non-apathy), and even an Independents club. Every once in a while, Alexander Hamilton Society or the like will host some political get-together. But most of the time the focus is more academic than political—the people I know here like talking about things from an analytical perspective, rather than blindly throwing themselves at causes. I think that’s much more valuable.</p>

<ul>
<li>Mediocre campus</li>
</ul>

<p>Whoever said this should basically ESAD (look it up). Homewood is awesome. It’s not 400 years old or whatever, and the interiors to the buildings feel like…well, a normal college. Whoop dee freaking doo. But the brick really grows on you; it’s nice, traditional, homey.</p>

<p>Clark and Garland are butt-ugly; NEB is also not exactly attractive. But if you can look at the upper quad or the breezeway on a beautiful Fall day and not think it looks beautiful, then you should, as I said before, ESAD.</p>

<ul>
<li>Most students are actually stereotypical nerds</li>
</ul>

<p>Darn tootin’. I spend my free time working on code for analyzing brain signals and for setting up a 900 node UNIX cluster because it’s fun. A friend stays up until 3am in our common room writing Java code for his cell phone to let it measure his blood hemoglobin levels to help with anemia detection in India. Another friend made a Facebook event to get as many pictures of tables as she possibly could, to use for a lab devoted to computer vision to help improve computational analysis of surgery.</p>

<p>There are a lot of nerds here. That’s why it’s awesome. I don’t mean to be rude, but if you don’t like nerds, then go to Arizona State.</p>

11

<p>I will say that STEM majors and especially BMEs seem to be a bit more stressed than other students, especially humanities majors. You will work very hard in whatever major you are in, but it does seem that BMEs get hit especially hard (but they do have great opportunities coming out of Hopkins).</p>