<p>So I'm at a crossroad and I'd like to hear some opinion. Next Monday ED is due and essentially, I need to choose between these two schools. On a realistic level, by doing ED i have like a 40% of getting into one compared to a 10% of getting into either doing RD. I have visited both and really liked them. Of course there are numerous pro/cons for each, but I would like it if students at said universities can give some insight into student/social life, difficulties of academia, and overall greatness of the schools. Please respond ASAP.</p>
<p>I’m a Hopkins alum and current med/grad student at Duke, so I have some idea about both schools. That said, my views may be somewhat skewed since I did pick Hopkins over Duke as a HS senior, and my views of Duke now are from a more outsider point of view. </p>
<p>Key points, off the top of my head:[ul]
[<em>]Size: On paper, the campuses look relatively comparable (4.5k undergrads at Hopkins vs 6k at Duke) but I think the campuses have very different ‘feels’ in terms of size. A key part of this is the presence of non-undergrad students on the campuses. While Hopkins does have some grad students on the Homewood (undergrad) campus, the majority of its grad students are on the East Baltimore (medical) campus located near downtown Baltimore. Duke, on the other hand, has one large, relatively contiguous campus that’s home to 6k undergrads, 7k grad students and all the faculty/staff/researchers in the medical center. The Duke campus, since it’s home to all of Duke’s divisions, is much larger that the Hopkins Homewood campus. I’m not saying that one set-up is better than the other, just that they are significantly different - you may think of Duke’s single campus as an advantage for undergrads while others think of it as a disadvantage. The Hopkins campus is focused mainly on undergrads and undergrad life, but research opportunities are located further away. At Duke, while East Campus, and the central part of West Campus definitely have a undergrad-focused feel, there are many graduate students that utilize the same spaces as the undergraduates. This can be an advantage in terms of interactions with graduate students, but also a disadvantage (at least in my mind) in terms of the small campus feeling. When you walk around campus, Hopkins has a very small, liberal arts college-ey feel; the same is true of some parts of Duke, but others have the “feel” of a larger institution.
[</em>]The campus itself: Georgian-inspired Federalist architecture vs Gothic Wonderland. The campus itself (apart from the students) have a very different feel to them. Duke has its classic gothic buildings and is much more wooded, while Hopkins has Federalist style buildings and open green quads with brick and marble walkways. I know some people who went to both schools that found one style depressing and others who found the other overly monotonous, so make of that what you will.
[<em>]Campus location: Durham and Baltimore are very different places. Ignoring the stereotypes about both cities and looking at the facts, Hopkins is located in a more urban environment than Duke. While there is very well defined campus (unlike certain other schools in big cities), you are still in the middle of a relatively large city, and you have access to everything in that city. Baltimore has a host of fantastic restaurants, a lot of touristy places (Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore Aquarium, Inner Harbor area etc) and other great places that are easily accessible to students. Baltimore is also located very close to other major cities including DC, NYC, Philly that make easy weekend trips. Duke, on the other hand, is located in a much smaller city and a large part of the area has a much more sub-urban-ey feel to it. Even though it’s a smaller town, it’s by no means lacking in basic amenities. As one of my friends put it, Durham has “one of everything” compared to a larger city that has more restaurants, more museums etc etc. While Durham isn’t located near other major cities (with the exception of Chapel Hill, which is a “college town” home to UNC, and Raleigh), it does have some other great places to visit in the near vicinity. The mountains, located about 2 hours west of Durham, have great hiking trails, and the beach is about 2.5 hours to the west.
[</em>]Academics: Frankly, when you consider these two schools, you should completely ignore rankings/ratings/any of that nonsense. You’ll get a phenomenal education at either school. Neither school is going to be easy and you’re going to have to work hard at both schools. Each school has academic programs that it is stronger in, and if you’re 100% sure what you want to study, then that could be considered, but keep in mind that most college students change their majors multiple times in their first 2 years. In terms of graduate/professional schools that you’d have access to for research/internships/mentoring: Hopkins has a Public Health school, an Education school and an International Studies school. Duke has a Public policy school, a law school, an Environment school and a Divinity school. Both have med schools, nursing schools, engineering schools and business schools.
[<em>]Campus life: I think that your impression of campus life is really a question of ‘fit’ and should be based on your visit to both schools. From my personal experience at Hopkins and my outsider-view of Duke, both schools seem to have very active and involved student bodies. While both schools have the handful of students who “live” in the library, most students at both schools are very social, friendly and out-going. While you might hear rumors about social life at either school, in reality, it seems like students at both schools find the social niche that they’re looking for and are happy there.
[</em>]Athletics: Hopkins has 1 D1 team while Duke has 26. Hopkins lacrosse has the biggest following among students while at Duke its basketball. In truth, the athletic ‘scene’ seems to be bigger at Duke, but if you’re not a D1 athlete, both schools have a lot of opportunities in terms of team and club sports. If you are a high school athlete, you’ll probably have a better chance of playing on the varsity team at Hopkins unless you’re an athletic recruit. (this is speculation on my part… may not be true)
[/ul]</p>
<p>Hope that helps somewhat in comparing the two schools. Even though I’m a Hopkins alum and former admissions volunteer, I’m not going to tell you that Hopkins is definitely the place for you - I really think that you have to think about all these different points and think about where you would fit best. If you have any specific questions about the two schools, feel free to ask!</p>
<p>thank you so much that was extremely helpful. I am interested in pursuing a degree in neuroscience and than moving on to med school. One question is when you were at JHU, did you ever have any problems with the locals and do you know how the neuroscience programs compare between Duke and JHU?</p>
<p>Also, I saw from your post on the other thread that you’re interested in Neuroscience. Just wanted to throw in that the undergrad Neuro program at Hopkins is fantastic! I took a couple classes in the Neuro department and loved the professors. A number of my friends were Neuro majors and they were big fans of the program and the department. I don’t really know much about Neuro at Duke, so I can’t comment there</p>
<p>Not sure what type of “problems” you’re referring to. If you’re referring to crime, then Baltimore is a big city, and yes, crime exists. However, if you use common sense, it’s not really a major issue, and I never felt unsafe either on campus or even anywhere else in Baltimore.</p>
<p>What are you thinking about doing after undergrad? Soft factors aside, I’d go with Hopkins if you plan to go to grad school. If you plan to get a job immediately, I’d tip the scales in favor of Duke. </p>
<p>The differences are of course relatively small, but I think Hopkins has better research opportunities and Duke has somewhat better campus recruiting from companies.</p>
<p>Since the op suggests they want to go to med school, I guess al would be recommending Hopkins, as I do, especially if you’re planning on following the pre health advising track.</p>
<p>I agree with much of tanman’s post, but I think some of it deserves clarification. For the sake of disclosure, I selected Duke over Hopkins as a senior.</p>
<p>
In terms of size, yes, Duke’s campus is considerably larger than JHU’s. West campus alone is more than five times the size of the Homewood campus. If you prefer a lot of green space, as I do, you’ll find this very satisfactory. I absolutely adored Duke’s sprawling campus, and the forest was a bonus. I got very spoiled, I think, because most of the campuses I’ve attended or visited since graduation have seemed very small and cramped.</p>
<p>It should be emphasized, however, that undergraduates really only deal with a very small part of that campus. The undergraduate portion of West is bounded by Cameron and Wilson (southwest), Edens (southeast), sociology/psych (northeast), and the LSRC (northwest). Put more simply, a 5 minute walk can take you across one axis of campus (Duke Med to Cameron), and a 10 minute walk can take you across the other axis (bus stop to Science Drive). Sometimes you’ll have to travel outside this loop (say, to the Nasher or Trent), but those are exceptions.</p>
<p>You’ll find that undergraduates heavily dominate their part of campus. The medical/law/business/nursing/environmental/etc. schools are all located relatively far away from the undergraduate residences, classrooms, libraries, dining facilities, etc., so there is relatively little mixing between the two. The div school is the only professional school located near the main part of campus, and they tend to stick to themselves. The undergraduate to graduate ratios at Duke and Hopkins are not significantly different (2.3:1 and 2.8:1, respectively). </p>
<p>While I certainly wouldn’t call Duke a LAC, it’s highly unusual to walk anywhere and not run into at least four or five people you know, assuming you’re even the slightest bit social.</p>
<p>
West is Gothic, but East is Georgian. I’d often go to East to read or study when I got tired of West, and the same certainly holds true for freshmen traveling to West. </p>
<p>Central is just sort of bleh. You also have large sections of campus built in a fairly modern style (French Sci, the Nasher, the LSRC, most of the medical center, etc.).</p>
<p>
I’m willing to defer to your experience here, as I haven’t attended Hopkins, but this was actually one of the primary reasons I selected Duke (financial aid was the other). Duke felt noticeably livelier to me, just as Carolina felt livelier to me than Duke did. I agree that this may be a function of fit; the LGBT community was fairly important to me, and Duke’s was much more active at the time (I don’t know about now).</p>
<p>Other than that, I think your post was spot on, especially your analysis of the locations.</p>
<p>
I wouldn’t say that at all. My top two choices as a senior were Duke and Chicago, and since I wanted to get a PhD, I figured Chicago was better for that…thankfully people convinced me that Duke would do just as well and made more sense given finances. They were right, as it turns out, and I don’t know a single other Duke student who applied to graduate school and didn’t get into one of his/her top choices (often the #1 choice). </p>
<p>Princeton is the only elite school with more Goldwater scholars than Duke, and Duke has produced twice as many NSF fellows as Hopkins. I’m not saying Duke is necessarily better for research, mind you, but it’s certainly not inferior.</p>
<p>I have daughters at both Hopkins and Duke. I have to say that I think the atmosphere for folks who are less interested in greek life is more extensive at Hopkins. It seems to me that because Hopkins’ reputation is not that of being a ‘fun’ school, they actually try much harder to give the students really great activities, and those seem to be better attended than the non-greek, non-sports activities at Duke.
(Tanman, as always, wrote an amazing post.)</p>
<p>I finally managed to find the ridiculously long post about Duke I wrote a while back. (Ignore references to Rice. The thread was about comparing the two.)
<p>For overall academic flavor and opportunities, I would say Hopkins. If you asked me this a few years ago I would say Duke but I feel that Hopkins is a very, VERY different place than it used to be. It’s a dynamic, international and engaged school community where kids have fun but enjoy the academic rigor of the place and enjoy the reputation that comes with that. </p>
<p>It sounds as if sciences and med school are the route you are going… and Hopkins appears to be perfectly tailored towards a student like you. </p>
<p>Son has been at JHU for 2 months as a freshman. He has already spent a weekend in NYC with some friends and plans to attend Stewart/Colbert Rally in Washington DC this weekend. I have been pleasantly surprised at how central Baltimore is to all of this.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I don’t think he has been out and around Baltimore much. Keeps pretty busy just on campus.</p>
<p>First off, thank you so much to all those who commented and provided me with extremely important information, it really helped my decision process. I ultimately, decided to apply ED to Duke. I’ll let everyone know December 15.</p>
<p>warblersrule86, thanks for the clarification. I definitely defer to your knowledge of Duke. Also, did you use to post in this forum in the past, because your username sounds really familiar?</p>