I have successfully navigated my way out of the college admissions process alive (yay!) and now I have narrowed down my favorites to UCLA and Johns Hopkins, and I am having difficulty choosing between the two. I have scanned through a seemingly endless amount of UCLA v. JHU threads, but they are all for either pre-med or stem so I decided to start my own. Maybe another non-stem major could find this helpful in the future too?
My intended major is Pre-Political Science for UCLA (w/ intention of specializing in IR later) and International Relations at Johns Hopkins. There are aspects of both schools that I liked:
UCLA Pros
-School spirit, and lots of it. Would probably be a funner place to be a student at
-Lots of friends that go there
-Fairly good political science program
-Cost is cheaper (generally, can’t give specifics bc financial aid got messed up for both schools)
-I love L.A.!
-Family wants me to go there
Cons:
-Very big class sizes, being taught by TA’s, not a lot of personal attention
-A big school (I come from a big school and I’m not the biggest fan)
-Not a lot of flexibility with major
-Close to home
Johns Hopkins Pros
-Easiness of exploring other subjects; I have recently fallen in love with Calculus and after talking to students when visiting, it would be very easy for me to double major or at the very least take classes in Economics or Applied Math/Stats
-Smaller class size = more interaction with staff = better letters of rec for grad school if I decide to study further?
-Prestige of IR and SAIS
-Lots of guidance and advice for grad school and job searching
-Close to DC, where my sis is studying
-Law school acceptance rate is 94%
-More Marshall Scholars each year (hoping to apply in the future)
Cons:
-Basically Baltimore scared the s*** out of me when I visited lol (the campus was nice though and my parents were impressed with the steps Hopkins has taken to ensure safety)
-Cost is more
-School Spirit comes out from the darkness at lacrosse games
Does anyone have any pros/cons to add to the lists? I don’t know a ton about studying poli sci at UCLA so that might explain why my list is shorter. I would appreciate any advice thanks!
Hopkins is an IR powerhouse consistently ranked highly along with schools like Gtown/Harvard and its close proximity to DC makes great political and law internships easily attainable.
LSE will carry more weight than either if you plan to live in the UK but it’s international rep in the states is fairly low unlike Oxbridge despite it’s nearly identical quality.
@Jsteez that sounds enticing, thank you for your input. I would agree about LSE; it looks like I would prefer to stay in the US after college so my other options might be better.
@Jsteez: Outside the US, LSE probably carries more prestige than either JHU or UCLA.
Inside the US, LSE is still pretty high up there. I’d say on par with JHU and above UCLA undergrad among people who actually hire or are grad school adcoms.
However, an English education is pretty different. Different grading system and your marks tend to come down to a few big tests/papers/projects at the end of the year. And of course, you only study what your course specifies. No chance of changing majors.
@PurpleTitan I applied to some UK universities, and LSE was my favorite that I received an offer from. I didn’t know it is considered on par with JHU when it comes to inside the US, that is interesting! Not too surprised about it being more prestigious outside of it.
I do realize that the two systems are very different, and it seems likely that a student would know exactly what system is for them, but I’m having trouble deciding. The more focused nature and shorter length of the bachelor’s degree as well as the money my family would save makes going to uni in the UK appealing. I’m positive that what I want to study is IR (as well as economics, which is one of the papers/courses offered in the degree structure), and I absolutely love London. However, I’m having doubts about the grading system, and about the fact that though I’d be able to study economics as it pertains to my degree, I wouldn’t be able minor or double major in it - or pursue another language.
Also not sure I’ll meet my offer, which is pretty rough lol - still going to try though I received an unconditional offer from King’s for the same degree - would you have any advice for this school as compared to Hopkins (which I’m leaning toward over UCLA at this point) for international relations?
p.s. saw your thread about Oxbridge - I applied this past year at Cams for HSPS which was my dream, and was rejected post-interview. I had received some pretty devastating family news the night prior to my interview and performed badly as expected. I considered reapplying, but decided a gap year wasn’t for me.
KCL is a pretty big drop off from LSE for an American. Oxbridge&LSE (and maybe Imperial) are maybe the only UK unis that are Ivy-equivalents by alumni achievements (and, along with maybe St. A’s, the only recognizable by lay Americans). Oxbridge and LSE (and Warwick) are much more heavily represented in prestige industries like MC and IB than KCL.
An American education, yes, does provide for more flexibility and option to double major, fit in more language classes & travel abroad as well. See if you could travel abroad cheaply yet have those classes count towards the JHU degree to see if you could save on costs a little. You may have to go to a non-JHU program for that, though.
thanks!
I received an unconditional offer from King’s for the same degree - would you have any advice for this school as compared to Hopkins (which I’m leaning toward over UCLA at this point) for international relations?