<p>From an academic point of view, the two schools are excellent. Both are also mega prestigious, if that means anything to the OP.</p>
<p>From a premed point of view, both will prepare undergrads extremely well for medical school. This said, Johns Hopkins has excellent resources for premeds, such as research/internships at one of the World’s top hospitals and a leg up on the competition at the JHU Medical School, which, last I checked, was not half bad!</p>
<p>Still, I would recommend the OP go for the schools that best suits him/her. JHU is a thinktank (much like Chicago and Columbia), and to many, lacks the undergraduate vibe they seek in a college. Dartmouth is tiny, isolated and very “Greek” oriented, offering some too much of a college experience.</p>
<p>Source, please? (But for a contrary pov, look at MIT’s average gpa for med acceptance. One would expect that attending the best eng school in the world would mean that “schools…[would] take this into account”. But in fact the opposite seems to occur. The mean gpa for MIT’s med acceptees is a 3.7, which higher than the national average, not lower.)</p>
<p>I’ve seen the MIT data was surprised as well. I suspect though, that the committee and premed advising resources at other schools might be better than those at MIT. The lack of a medical school or affiliated hospital also doesn’t help. This might be in contrast to some schools which prep applicants for interviews and the application process in addition to providing a recommendation letter. This is speculation however, as I don’t have first hand experience with MIT’s career services advising office.</p>
<p>Source for major difficulty is based on this link from UWashington Medical School:</p>
<p>“I am doing my undergrad in Electrical Engineering. My GPA is below 3.0. Will you consider the difficulty of the program into account?
Yes. We have a lot of people in that situation. It is just another factor in the application.”</p>
<p>“I am a mechanical engineering student but have a GPA slightly less than 3.5. Do you take the difficulty of this course load into consideration?
Yes - We always consider difficulty of course load, no matter what the major”</p>
<p>Mike01071994, you post that yesterday got accepted off the waitlist, yet on 4/27, before the May 1st deadline you posted:</p>
<p>“Dartmouth vs Johns Hopkins
I got accepted to Johns Hopkins and to Dartmouth and both of them have the same major I’m planning to major in, also I’m thinking about becoming a doctor, so I will be in the Pre-Med track. Which would you recommend more and why? Which one is the best in academics, cost, student life and overall satisfaction?”</p>
<p>Hopkins is first and foremost a research institution, one of the best in the world. Hopkins routinely pulls in the most grant money and has almost double the amount of money spent on research compared to the 2nd place competitor. Not even MIT, Stanford, Harvard, etc. spend anywhere near as much money on research as Hopkins. </p>
<p>The reason you don’t see Hopkins high on “overall university rankings” is because Hopkins is established much more in certain fields–especially anything related to biology or medicine–and focuses a lot more on basic science research than say engineering fields related to instrument development, robotics, etc. The business school is also not on the par with the best, and there is no law school (again this contributes to the lower “overall” rank). </p>
<p>Hopkins is a place for research minded individuals. It does feel almost like it is practically a government research institution like the NIH rather than a university sometimes. </p>
<p>As far as safety, people need to get over it. Baltimore is perfectly fine as long as you aren’t an idiot. People who are afraid to venture out and who feel that they have to live close to campus or stay mostly around it have no idea what they are missing out in the city–all the fantastic places to eat, bars to check out, music shows to see, and all the historic places to walk around. I was actually surprised at how many decent places Baltimore has to eat. An underrated spot for foodies.</p>
<p>Yes, it is certainly good, but many people don’t consider JHU “great” (like on par with MIT/Stanford/Harvard etc) because JHU’s “ranking” isn’t higher. </p>
<p>That’s simply because JHU focuses more on certain niches rather than trying to be the best at everything. When it comes to biomedical research, JHU is probably the best institution in the world, and the research dollars granted reflect that. JHU is king when it comes to spending on research and has very, very strong ties to the Department of Defense, NIH, Homeland Security, and all sorts of other govt institutions. Hopkins has led the amount of money spent on research for 32 years in a row, the only reason JHU isn’t higher on peoples’ lists is because the benefits of all that spending are less directly tangible to undergraduate students. This year Hopkins spent $2 billion on research, which blows University of Michigan (in 2nd place with $1.18 bn) completely out of the water considering how much smaller JHU is too. Like I said, Hopkins is feels like it is practically a playground for government dollars and feels like an academic center for the government. The only reason you don’t see JHU in the “top 5” for overall university rankings is because JHU doesn’t focus as much on being a well rounded university (doesn’t even have a law school), but is much more of a research powerhouse for certain niches (dollars received and spent clearly reflect).</p>
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Yes, it is certainly good, but many people don’t consider JHU “great” (like on par with MIT/Stanford/Harvard etc) because JHU’s “ranking” isn’t higher. [/qutoe]</p>
<p>Not too sure how to interpret this statement. The acronym is called HYPSM for a reason. NO college is on a par with those four.</p>
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<p>Perhaps, but none of the <3.0s will be accepted right out of undergrad.</p>
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<p>Yes they do consider major and course load, but in a different way. Professional schools prefer liberal arts majors over so-called ‘vocational’ majors. English/Bio over kinesiolgoy.</p>
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<p>Actually, MIT provides excellent advising. My (fact-free) theory is that med schools just don’t like engineering types.</p>