<p>hey guys,</p>
<p>This is coming from a person who know nearly nothing about JHU except from hearsay. </p>
<p>I was just wondering if JHU is just a primarily a medical school or something like that? And how is the social environment there (heard it's cutthroat competitive there)? </p>
<p>I mean, I'm not looking to be a pre-med or anything like that, but it would be nice if I can change my majors with ease or double major. I'm interested in biological engineering (especially it would be cool if they have a speech and hearing science program like Harvard and MIT does), environmental science, and mathematics--probably more.</p>
<p>JHU is perfect for flexibility- there are no distribution requirements- just writing proficiency, so you couldn't ask for a better place in that respect. Yeah, JHU is known for pre-med and their amazing medical school which is outranked only by Harvard, but they also have great engineering and math programs.</p>
<p>JHU is located about 7 miles from the medical school. There is a shuttle that leaves regularly that connects the two campuses, however, the university is a whole separate entity that does offer those who qualify opportunities at its health services campus which includes the famous hospital. Though there are a lot of premeds at Hopkins, probably because of the name association, and because Hopkins is a fine school for the sciences, it is a national university that offers many different majors. It has some fine non science departments, including English, languages, art history, and many humanities and social science fields. I believe the most prevalent major is International Studies these days, and they have a great program for that with a Washington DC facility for advanced studies. </p>
<p>I am not aware of an undergraduate speech and hearing program at the university campus, though its school of Health services may offer something of that sort. I know very little about what is offered there. You need to check out what specifically is offered on the undergraduate level and if it meshes with what you want.</p>
<p>Actually, JHU does have distribution requirements, but no core curriculum.</p>
<p>^OK, maybe I used the wrong term. Could you define both?</p>
<p>distribution: u need to take so many english courses (or arts, math, history, etc) courses, but u get to pick the course</p>
<p>core curriculum: here's a list of courses, take them all</p>
<p>thanks guys. i'll look more into this school.</p>
<p>Continuing on jupiteradept, schools like Columbia and UChicago have very rigorous core curriculums. All entering freshmen will go through the same courses. At a school like Hopkins, everyone has to take something like 30 credits outside their major. For example, I'm in math, and I need to take 30 humanities or social sciences courses. However, I can take whatever I want to fulfill those requirements so if I want to take all economics courses, or all history, or writing sems courses, I could. Of course, I still need 4 writing classes but those are of my choice.</p>
<p>wildchartermage:</p>
<p>If you really want to learn more about Hopkins and not just accept hearsay, may I suggest taking a look at the Hopkins Forums: Hopkins</a> Forums</p>
<p>There is a ton of information on that site with answeres provided by over 20 current freshmen. In the Academics section (Hopkins</a> Forums -> Academics: The Insider Perspective) you can read about how much more than Medicine is offered at JHU. You can also read about the competition myth here:
Hopkins</a> Forums -> Competition: Does it exist?</p>
<p>Hopefully spending some time on the Forums will provide you with a better overview about the undergraduate experience at Johns Hopkins University.</p>