JHU '09 - Life at Hopkins

Colleges & Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
1

<p>Hey guys, so the title pretty much says it all...I was on this forum all the time when I was an applicant (and the rest of high school since I was nervous to a ridiculous level) and it helped a lot so I'm back to share. Dan Creasy (AdmissionsDaniel) is a great guy who has done incredible things modernizing our admissions office, so if you have questions about getting in, he's the guy you with whom you want to have a conversation. I'm not an employee of the Admissions Department but I am a student, a fraternity brother, deeply devoted to my research, and a VERY proud Blue Jay for life! I'm here to talk to you guys about anything you want to ask, unbiased and from a real Hopkins undergraduate (writing from my room across from the beach!) </p>

<p>Here's a little info about me so you know what I know best. I'm a double major in Anthropology and Philosophy, two very small, but INCREDIBLE departments. I also know a lot of the neuroscience faculty as my research in the past was more in that direction though it has shifted over the last few years. My work is concerned with German idealist philosophy from Kant onward, and especially in the phenomenology of Husserl, Heidegger and others (Kant himself too!) I am also actively engaged in research concerning the anthropological and philosophical study of religion and would be happy to talk to any of you about my personal interests one on one if you are so inclined. </p>

<p>I'm a fraternity brother, so despite the reputation that we sometimes get, I can say undoubtedly, we do (on occasion lol) have fun, albeit more tame than other places. This is in a lot of ways a very mature campus full of brilliant people (though admittedly, sometimes you wonder) and it has a lot of offer. If any of you want to talk privately feel free to send me a PM or shoot me an e-mail and I'd be happy to have coffee with anyone who is visiting JHU anytime!</p>

<p>Hope to get lots of questions and best of luck with your applications and college decisions!</p>

2

<p>What did you do from having a nervous break down waiting for your results? I havent even applied yet and I'm just so nervous =[</p>

3

<p>Hey, I was just nervous I wasn't going to get in. I was on this website a LOT and it all worked out in the end, but remember there is a school out there for everyone and it will work out one way or the other. I didn't have a break down I was just really nervous, and as much as we can tell you don't be nervous it will be fine, you're going to be a little nervous as its a really big time for you, but I really promise it will be fine in the end.</p>

4

<p>Hey Andrew thanks for this fantastic post. </p>

<p>Do you anything about various merit scholarships for entering freshmen (esp. the Hodson one)? If so, could explain their selection process?</p>

<p>Secondly, how's the campus housing situation at hopkins? Some have complained that the housing situation isn't very promising especially for juniors and seniors. Is it true? </p>

<p>Thanks a bunch for your time!</p>

5

<p>i thought they fixed the problems for future juniors and seniors =/ hopefully they alleviated it a bit atleast lol
edit: or is hopkins planning to increase the undergrad size again sometime in the future like cornell had? and would this impact future seniors/juniors for housing =(</p>

6

<p>Honestly, housing isn't an issue. Most people have enough of dorm life after two years - the majority of juniors and seniors choose to live off-campus on their own accord. The apartments off campus, I must say, are considerably nicer than dorms as well (with the exception of Charles Commons, which is pretty sweet).</p>

7

<p>thanks for this post!</p>

<p>how, honestly, is the social life at hopkins? i had a great visit and some of my friends tell me that people make it out to be a lot, as you put it, more tame, than it actually is. but then i also heard that they closed one of the frats this year. is it just that the good social scene is there, but really small?</p>

8

<p>Could you describe the typical Hopkins student's schedule? How much of the day is taken up by classes/sessions? How much time is there to spend on hw, extracurriculars, social life? </p>

<p>And most importantly...how easy is time management?</p>

9

<p>these student blogs cover everything about social life, etc, and what a typical day is like at @ Hopkins.</p>

<p><a href="http://apply.jhu.edu/hi/blogs/blogs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://apply.jhu.edu/hi/blogs/blogs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

10

<p>Andrew, what can you tell me about the history dept? Also, my daughter loves to be involved in stage crew for the high school productions; does the drama dept there have a group of kids who can do tech support like that?</p>

11

<p>So ill start with Jimmy. The merit scholarships for the Engineering School for freshman center on the Hodson trust. I don't know what the specifics are of the admissions process but I do know several Hodson trust fellows and from that I'd imagine it has a lot to do with aptitude for original research. As you might know thats pretty much the center of the program, and I do know they have a reception for their students and parents that I attended this year where they talked more about the dedication to research being the major theme. More information is available at <a href="http://www.jhu.edu/admis/finaid/scholarships.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jhu.edu/admis/finaid/scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And also, there is a Vice Dean's office for research programs that oversee's a lot of this stuff so you might want to contact them via the University admissions office.</p>

<p>Hope that helps!</p>

12

<p>I'll respond to Finally_posting and Jovenes next.</p>

<p>As for the living situation, I never had a problem with it. I lived in Building A freshman year and McCoy Hall sophomore year, and I honestly found it perfectly fine. Listen its definitely not the Ritz Carlton but its a not really a big deal. Its perfectly hospitible. My personal opinion - the AMRs are not the best. They are way smaller and relatively ugly, plus the "social" aspect is completely not true; building A + B are just as social.</p>

<p>As for the social life, I'm not sure how I feel about the Blogs as I have not really spent time looking at them. The social life is REALLY fine here. I swear! lol I know the reputation we have and yes this is NOT Ohio State or the University of Florida, but I am a fraternity brother so I can speak about that and say we certainly have fun. In general, the people here are just more mature, the partys don't often get out of control and most of the fraternities do a very good job controlling the masses. </p>

<p>As for the situation with the fraternity that got national attention and I'm really not going to comment on the specific event. I will say that that was the exception, not the rule, and we have never had a situation like that at my house. I will say the fraternities control most of the social life on campus at least the first two years, though down town isn't terrible and there are a few bars around (CVP, PJs, a knew one called The Den...) Personally, I'm most comfortable at my house surrounded by my friends and people I know.</p>

<p>One criticism I will say that is true is that the majority dont go out and party all the time. The people who do tend to know each other, but I've always found that to be kind of nice and reassuring. Everything is pretty laid back that way here. Staying in doesnt make you a "loser" or anything like that, although there is some "clickiness" associated with being in one fraternity or sorority or another, but its not a big deal. The different fraternities and sororities do have pretty defined stereotypes but it usually works out.</p>

<p>I can honestly say, despite what critics say, joining a fraternity has been one of the best decisions of my life. It has been incredible socially, my brothers are my closest friends, but in other ways as well. Our alumni board president even took me to hear the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs this year!!</p>

<p>If you want more specifics answers send me a PM and I'll see if I can help more.</p>

13

<p>ok so the next questions were on what my typical day is like. Again, I can't speak to the validity of the Blogs, I don't know how that whole thing works, but I can tell you about myself and the people I know. Generally, people work their schedules nicely with a lot of flexibility. This is more so for people out of the hard sciences but still there is plenty of room to make decisions. Thats one of my favorite parts of our educational philosophy. I sleep in late pretty much every day since I don't have class till usually around 11, and I usually bunch them up so I get it over with. As a humanities and social sciences student my work is usually made up of papers and readings as you might imagine but its pretty fair, not too much. I occupy most of my time with my own research and still have plenty of time to have fun thursday-saturday. I usually have dinner with my friends hang around for most of the night and get up to do it again. On weekends im at my frat house hanging out with brothers and pledges or throwing parties. if you're looking for specifics ask me in PM</p>

<p>Hope that's useful!</p>

14

<p>Caruth- I don't know that many specifics about the history department but I can tell you about political science and anthropology which have a lot of crossover. My experience both with the PS faculty and in my department (anthropology) has been great. I love my professors, they could not be more helpful, I go in and talk to them in their offices all the time. They are brilliant, committed and wonderfully accessible!</p>

<p>As for drama participation, my little brother in my fraternity is an active member of some of those organizations and indeed they do have kids like that who help out in non-acting ways. Also, our Film Studies program is always looking for people to help out their student-produced movies so there might be some really fun opportunities there as well!</p>

15

<p>Thanks to Andrew for providing such excellent information about Johns Hopkins and also to help dispell so many of those old myths. I do want to add / update a bit of the information provided on this thread:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>First, it is great to get information from current students about JHU but do always remember it is just one person's opinion. My suggestion is to try to get as many opinions as possible, while also making your own conclusions. (Visiting campus would make that as easy as possible.) Use the current JHU students on CC as well as the student bloggers (<a href="http://apply.jhu.edu/hi/blogs/blogs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://apply.jhu.edu/hi/blogs/blogs.html&lt;/a&gt;) as you will get a wide range of perspectives from a wide range of different students who are having different experiences. And just a note on the bloggers -- they are not told what to write and aside from any vulgarities, they are not edited by Admissions for content.</p></li>
<li><p>Second, CC is a great place to have current students answer your questions, but I also recommend the JHU Forums where 20+ current students checking daily to answer questions about all aspects of Hopkins life: <a href="http://z14.invisionfree.com/Hopkins_Forums%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://z14.invisionfree.com/Hopkins_Forums&lt;/a>. And once again, these answers are not edited or censored.</p></li>
<li><p>As far as merit scholarships, the best link to check out is: <a href="http://apply.jhu.edu/finaid/scholarships.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://apply.jhu.edu/finaid/scholarships.html&lt;/a>. The Hodson Trust is the primary merit scholarship and is offered to only about 80 admitted students each year. It is highly competitive and is based on a comprehensive evaluation of the complete application. It is awarded to the 80 students who the Admissions Committee determines are the most noteworthy, the most outstanding, and the most unique or a truly amazing group of admitted students. Engineering students can get the Hodson Trust, but they are also eligible for the Westgate scholarship which is only offered to Engineers. See the site I linked above for further details.</p></li>
<li><p>Housing is greatly improving. The opening of Charles Commons this past fall allowed for upperclass housing for the first time ever. And the University has a mission to continue to provide additional upperclass housing for juniors and seniors who want it. The goal is to be able to provide enough University housing for all students who want it -- freshman and sophomore will continue to be required to live on-campus. Check out the Hopkins Cribs for further details on housing: <a href="http://apply.jhu.edu/hi/360/cribs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://apply.jhu.edu/hi/360/cribs.html&lt;/a>. </p></li>
<li><p>Johns Hopkins has absolutely no plans to grow the undergraduate population. In fact, since we have over-enrolled the class the last two years, the plan is to under-admit this year by a bit so we do not go past our enrollment goal of 1205 freshmen.</p></li>
<li><p>The best statement that can be said about social life at JHU is it will be what you want it to be. If you want to be a good student and have an active social life you will have that chance. If you want to be part of the greek system you will have that chance. If you want to study all the time, you can do that (but personally I think you will be missing out on a lot of the things that make JHU great). Hopkins is no longer the place where FUN comes to die. There are many, many, many students who have an amazing social life while also maintaining success in their classes. Andrew provides one point-of-view -- check out the message boards and blogs to see that almost everyone agrees that the myth of poor social life at Hopkins is ridiculous.</p></li>
</ul>

16

<p>So true, Admissions Daniel. As I have said before, through my son, I have come to know many Hopkins students, who are equally as social, lively and curious about life as he is. And believe me, if there is enough for my son to do, there is enough for anyone. He is extremely social, extracurricularly minded, and has a broad range of interests. Hopkins provides it all...Again, fun will not come to someone who has no interests, and prefer to be an armchair critic, and frankly, boring. That goes for wherever a student chooses to attend. If, however, you are an interesting, fun-loving person, not only will you get a top education at Hopkins, but you will have the time of your lives. Guaranteed. But...and let me sound like the concerned mom here...Students should not forget to do their work amidst all of the action. Hopkins understands young freshmen, and wisely gives them covered grades for the first semester to acclimate themselves to balancing academics with play. And with all of the availabe options for fun at Hopkins, this is a wonderful gift.
As far as the strenuousness of the work...if a student is smart enough to be admitted, he is smart enough to handle the work. Not to worry...Just do what you are supposed to do, and then, have a blast. I believe that upon graduation, students will come to find that they have had the best of everything at Hopkins.</p>