Johns Hopkins vs. Berkeley

College Search & Selection
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<p>
[quote]
How did you find the Core Curriculum? (7 classes that you have to take?)
Can I take them on a pass/fail basis?

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<p>Degree</a> Requirements & Policies | College of Letters & Science
Degree</a> Requirement-L&S Requirements
Yes, they can be P/NP.</p>

<p><a href="http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/collegepolicies/grade.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/collegepolicies/grade.html&lt;/a>

[quote]
Passed/Not Passed Grade
The Passed/Not Passed (P/NP) grade is designed to encourage you to take challenging courses outside your normal academic sphere without having to worry unduly about your grades. To receive a grade of P, your level of performance must correspond to a letter grade of C- or higher. P/NP grades are not counted in your GPA; however, students who have received 12 or more units of NP grades may be blocked from future registration in the College.</p>

<p>Guidelines for P/NP Grades
To take a course on a P/NP basis, you must be in good academic standing.</p>

<p>You may receive unit credit for courses graded P (including P/NP units that you take through EAP) up to a limit of one-third of the total units taken and passed on the Berkeley campus at the time you graduate.</p>

<p>Remember that you can't take courses to fulfill the Reading & Composition, Foreign Language, and Quantitative Reasoning requirements on a P/NP basis - you must take them for a letter grade. This is generally true also for courses in your major.
Please Note: If you are planning to apply to law school, be advised that the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS) counts NP grades as F's in computing a student's GPA. LSDAS does not count P grades in the GPA.

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<p>Welcome to Berkeley! :)</p>

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<p>international studies you say?</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins!</p>

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<p>also, first semester at Johns Hopkins as a freshman are with covered grades. meaning, they don't go towards your GPA and they are covered up from your transcript with simply a Pass/No-Pass or soemthing along the lines. Also, there are options to take one to two other classes per semester with pass/not pass options.</p>

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<p>Hold up.</p>

<p>The last time I looked Hopkins was in Baltimore, not DC. Despite all this talk about a 45 minute train ride to DC, that's 45 minutes on the train + travel to Baltimore's station + travel from Union Station in DC to your destination in DC + wait time dealing with train schedules (oh yeah, then reverse this to return back to campus). </p>

<p>This trip is NOT exactly around the corner. DC is accessible, but talk with Hopkins students. This is, with rare exception, an exceptional excursion. The vast majority of night life takes place on campus. If not there, Fell's Point or the Harbor. </p>

<p>The area that surrounds Hopkins is an enigma to me. A veritable wasteland of social opportunity. Almost nothing of value to college students. Why it hasn't been better developed, I have no idea.</p>

<p>Berkeley by comparison is a candy store. Tons of immediate options right nearby and all of San Francisco and the Bay Area easily accessible.</p>

<p>Both schools have their reputations for stress. Hopkins will feel more intimate. But though much, much smaller, even Hopkins is a place that approaches undergrads (relatively) as second class citizens to their grad students. This is not Brown.</p>

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<p>^ The veritable wasteland around the university is actually a pretty sweet area in Baltimore.</p>

<p>Hopkins is in Charles Village, is one of the America's top 10 great neighborhoods, according to the American Planning Association.</p>

<p>At another Hopkins campus in Baltimore, the Peabody Music Conservatory campus is located in the heart of the cultural district of Baltimore...</p>

<p>I'm going to live in the Village Lofts, VERY sweet ultra premium condos next year, which is on top of Subways, Cold Stones ice creamery, Starbucks, Chipotle, and a convenience store where students often hang out and grab dinner. The off campus dining options has increased so much over the past 2 years... I'm surprised that ppl can live at Hopkins without Cold Stones or.... CHIPOTLE omg... lol</p>

<p>The area around Hopkins is constantly changing and improving. Before 2006, Hopkins was pretty much the only university among the top 20 of USNews that didn't have Starbucks within 1.5 miles.... That changed in 2007. There is TWO Starbucks within a 100 ft of my dorm, one located in the Barnes and nobles store and the other one right across the street under the Village lofts. Construction of the massive plot of empty land across my newly opened dorm will only facilitate the establishment of more stores that students like..</p>

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<p>as an International Relations perspective student, I think it's nice to at least have access to Washington D.C. rather than be at a 7 hour flying distance from DC and a great stretch of driving distance from the closest internal-ish Metropolis: LA.</p>

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<p>Are you kidding me?
Students go to D.C. all the time... lol!</p>

<p>One of my closest friends (I hope he isn't reading this) last night met this one girl in the library at 1 am in the morning on Saturday. "Let's grab tickets and go to Washington D.C. to check out the pubs and bars." </p>

<p>They took a taxi to Penn station, purchased the next available Baltimore-D.C. train ticket, spent the night wondering around, meeting random people on the street, watching homeless people get into a fight, had a great time at the bars....relaxing and chilling. They got back at 9:30 am the next morning... after 9 hours of no sleep, rom the most random trip of his life lol..</p>

<p>It's the random stuff that ppl do here that amaze me.</p>

<p>whose great idea was it to go to D.C. in the middle of the night? I have no clue, not a damn clue...</p>

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<p>Phead128, would you say there is a lot of fun stuff to do at Hopkins?
I don't need to know this, as I know this to be true, but I would like to verify with you because there seem to be a lot of people of this board who see JHU as some ghetto-fied enclave :)</p>

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<p>^ </p>

<p>Phead128, you sure you got to Baltimore via Cambridge?</p>

<p>If your idea of a "pretty sweet area" is one that boasts 4 fast food chains and a convenience store than I stand corrected. In defense of your homeland, there are a few reasonable restaurants in the area. This is not exactly a culinary mecca. This is certainly NOT (even to be mentioned in the same breath) Cambridge. As far as "great neighborhoods" are concerned, add the suffix "planning association" and that's fine.</p>

<p>I for one like the Hopkins campus. Not everyone is a fan. But the surrounds are (to my less biased eyes) indeed a collegiate social wasteland.</p>

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<p>wbwa, what are you talking about?</p>

<p>Around the Hopkins Campus, there are such restaurants as the One-World Cafe, Paper Moon Diner, a Japanese restaurant, Einstein bagels, not to mention a very high-class Baltimorean Restaurant in the BMA, etc.</p>

<p>There are tons of eating options by Hopkins. So sorry if not all of them are some idealized cozy little eatery in the Village.</p>

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<p>Let's compare Cambridge for a second...</p>

<p>lol, Have you been to Harvard or MIT? What do you think of these places? What do you think of my city? lol.
I'm an expert at dining places around Harvard. My highschool was 1 block away from Harvard and I walk pass Harvard yard every single day. I live 2 blocks from MIT So I'm well rehearsed of the restaurants in Cambridge... </p>

<p>Ben & Jerry @ Harvard = Cold stone Ice cream at Hopkins = Toscanini's at MIT
Phillipes at Harvard = Chipotle at Hopkins = Anna's Taqueria at MIT,
Flat Patties = (there is no greasy hamburger joint equivalent at Hopkins, maybe Boar's Head Deli?),
Les Vietnamese Pho = Oriental Express, CC Korean Kari-out, tons of Chinese/Korean/Thai/Asian off campus restaurants),
Place in the Garage that sells soups = (there is no Hopkins equivalent, maybe Fresh Food Cafe?),
7-Eleven at Harvard = Unimini/Eddies Market/Giants Grocery store at Hopkins = Veritas market/Stop and Shop at MIT in the Stratton STudent center,
No Subways at Harvard, there is a Subway at Hopkins, there is a Subways in the Stratton center at MIT
There is an Indian, Spanish, and Japanese respective equivalents at Hopkins/MIT.
Starbucks same at Hopkins, MIT, Harvard....<br>
Harvard has BB Good = no Hopkins equivlalent,
Harvard has Unos Sports bar = Hopkins Bert's sports bar....
hopkins has Donnas!!
Harvard has Yenching, Hong Kong restaurant, Dunkin donuts... We have... the Azafran at STsI and THE DEN!
Harvard has Annenberg, Hopkins has Levering Hall/FFC, MIT has.... no clue... Baker house cafeteria place?....</p>

<p>Harvard has tons of fast food places as well. Harvard square is no culinary mecca if you consider Au bon pain, IHop, and Unos to be the ultimate in culinary cuisine.</p>

<p>Harvard for sure has more fast food options than Hopkins for sure. MIT may have too if you include Central Square (which has McDonalds, Wendys, Indian food, Pu Pu hot pot, Toscaninis, Cinderellas, Hifi pizza, etc...)</p>

<p>Cambridge is like a fast food mecca. What's wrong with that? I'll take you around someday. We can visit Boston where the real culinary delights are located.</p>

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There's lots of cool stuff to do in Baltimore.</p>

<p>An</a> Insider's Look At Baltimore & Baltimore's Inner Harbor</p>