I ALWAYS read time and time again that JHU is grade deflated, uber-competitive, cutthroat, etc. in all sorts of forums including CC. Having experienced some time there, I’m honestly so confused on what that is all about. I don’t see any deflation here (I took a bunch of math and science classes and an engineering course, btw). Maybe these sayings were true in the past, when I wasn’t there. But if anything, there’s INFLATION, maybe except in the hard majors like physics and chemical engineering (which are very difficult everywhere anyway). Everyone I talked to in my school agrees with me. I wonder if I’m even attending the same school as the one people keep discouraging due to the “cutthroat environment” and “extreme grade deflation”.
So I learned one thing from all this. Take anything said on forums with a grain of salt. Unless they have the experience to know what they’re actually talking about. I almost didn’t apply/attend to JHU because of the things I read on forums. I’m glad I ignored them, because I’m quite happy right now.
I think the school is actively trying to debunk this myth as well. When we visited last year, they really stressed collaboration during the info session. We asked our tour guide about the environment and he said that it was very collaborative, and compared it against Cornell, which he thought was a much more competitive environment (based on what, I don’t know, but it was consistent with my impression of Cornell as well).
The talk about grade deflation and cuttroatedness is mostly with the premed. Med schools look at GPA and don’t adjust enough for the level of the school, the grading etc. Hopkins tends to take people with good academics who work hard,and the school is super intense.A lot of schools, employers, etc. appreciate it, but not med schools,which want numbers.
I agree with more collaborative than cutthroat. but it is funny for admissions to talk that way. They eliminated the honor code a long time ago because the premeds were openly cheating in groups. In STEM classes, people tended to do homework together when I was there, partly because it was so hard.
I was there long ago, but it was not my style in that the students were too much into grades and what the best career moves were and so on. I wanted to go to a top school like that partly for career advancement, but I was more interested in learning, and didn’t like or fit in with the atmosphere. It seemed like most of the students who weren’t premeds acted like premeds.
There are a lot of pluses to the rigorous and intense approach, as it really helps develop your skills. There is nothing wrong with going somewhere intense if you don’t need a certain GPA for med school.
I’m actually planning on majoring in cog sci. Does anybody know how hard it is to maintain a strong gpa in that class. Also how hard is calc 1 and calc 2 there? I’m not a premed btw.
@ja312608 There is a lot of support in Calc 1 and Calc 2. In addition to TA’s, they have PILOTS, which are small groups run by an older student that received an A- or higher (or maybe an A or higher) in the class. They meet weekly and work on problem sets. Some of the kids that meet there then study together. There is also the Learning Den, which is free group tutoring. Many kids use these services, and are encouraged to use these services, from day 1. (mom of 3 Hopkins students)