<p>How is the life at JHU? like are people friendly, overly competitive, preppy, stuck up what?</p>
<p>Also, how is the work load? DO people there just study all day? Or is it not THAT difficult? I dont want to study 24/7, but i want to get a good education and plan on studying a lot.</p>
<p>People at JHU are generally friendly. Most are competitive in the sense they work hard; not the "cut-throat" everyone talks about.The competitiveness generally stems from the fact that most tests are graded on a curve (and your grade depends on the grade of others as well). Kids here aren't stuck up or preppy.</p>
<p>The workload is kind of dependant on your major. BME is the toughest (but still not backbreaking). I'm BME(with a maxed out schedule) and I still have more free time than not. I'm only a freshmen, so my hard work will come later.</p>
<p>an undergrad told me that during exams, you see competition at its worst. one kid may take out ALL the orgo books from the library so that no one else has access to them. sometimes, if you look through books, certain IMPORTANT pages will be ripped out. How nasty is that?</p>
<p>Examination competitiveness isn't as direct like taking all of the books out of the library preventing others from studying; it's indirect like studying hard and thus affecting the curve. Before my orgo midterm I saw groups of students working together. Around 5-6 groups each with about 5-10 people in it(and they were up till 2:00am). And honestly if it was an orgo I course, taking all of the books is a little excessive. Our orgo I professor is amazing(same professor for the past 4 years), and the textbook is good enough. </p>
<p>That story seems a little outlandish because if someone were to seriously take all of the books, the other 550 students in the course would jump him/her. Most kids here aren't jerks. But there are always a few at every institution.</p>
<p>I have yet to find a book with its pages ripped out.</p>
<p>I can't imagine where these stories are coming from. And these stories are giving Hopkins a terrible image. I'm only a freshmen, but I still know a good deal about the university I'm going to. Seriously if all of this was true you would expect a much higher drop out rate, than what Hopkins already has.</p>
<p>Part of the competitive reputation came from a survey conducted for a book called "The Select" by Greene. JHU, for whatever reason, was ranked way above all other schools in the survey (about 20 elite schoos) for cutthroat competition. The usual (and purely anecdotal) reason advanced for this is the large population of premeds at JHU.</p>
<p>It's good to hear the reputation may be an exaggeration.</p>
<p>haha, definitely good to hear that it's managable since I'm also entering BME next year as a freshman and I've been a little worried.</p>
<p>I am really having a hard time deciding between Vandy and Hopkins...and this over-the-top pre-med competition is one of the main strikes against Hopkins....In fact, I dont even know if I wanna go pre-med...but Im gonna major in biomolecular engineering and having malicious competition would just make life un-fun for four years....</p>
<p>hows the social life at JHU?</p>
<p>it's what you make of it. word on the street is that the class of 09' kicks butt!</p>
<p>social life wont come to u. u'll have to go to it.</p>
<p>and yes class of 09' kicks butt!</p>
<p>as in are there lots of social events or are jhu ppl kinda quiet?</p>
<p>my college counselor, who worked at hopkins as an adcom, tells me that you probably won't have trouble finding something to do at JHU. but he also keeps mentioning that there are a good number of "nerds" who tend to stick to their books. of course, you'll find those sort of people at every school, but for some reason he feels that they're somewhat more noticeable at hopkins.</p>
<p>I'm sure there are plenty of people who do go out and party, especially in the fraternities (I've seen the pictures and man do they paaarty). in the end I think what everyone above has said holds true: it's what you make of it.</p>
<p>I just finished my freshman year at JHU as a BME. It wasn't what I expected, however. The workload was not nearly as bad as it is made out to be. A lot of people work all day long and never go out but they are obsessive and not that smart anyway. Even in hard classes the curve makes it fairly easy (It's really hard to fail a course from what I've seen but it's also fairly hard to get an A in everything).</p>
<p>I went out almost every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and also pledged Sigma Chi this past semester. Initially the parties were awesome but as the year went on, you had to look harder for parties. That's where there fraternity came in. Sigma Chi was the best thing that happened to me and I am looking forward to next year because of it. At JHU you need to actively participate in the social life because, as others have said, it will not come to you.</p>
<p>Lastly, participate in orientation as much as you can. That was one of the best parts of my year at hopkins. It's a week of nothing to do but have fun and their activities are pretty cool. I'm going to be a Student Advisor for this coming year because I had such a great time as a freshman in the program.</p>
<p>Do you have a pre-med advisor(something like this) since the freshman in JHU?</p>
<p>what is the drop rate in JHU?</p>
<p>I have an advisor in the BME department but I'm not premed. I don't know if they have premed specific advisors.</p>
<p>how are the basic necassaties of living at jhu, such as food and dorms? JHU was ranked by princeton review as one of the worst colleges in terms of their food. Is this true?</p>
<p>Unfortunately it is very true. I refuse to eat in their cafeteries and the snack places (Megabytes and The Depot) have very limited food which is actually good. Also, there is very little food around campus. Subway/Uni Mini, Chinese, and Pizza are about all there is for quick meals. Ruby Tuesdays and Rocky Run are good restaurants when you want to sit down. I brought a toaster oven second semester which allowed me to make a bunch of frozen foods I bought from the store. Although they can confiscate it if they see it, as long as you keep a box over it they cannot do anything.</p>
<p>The last thing you need to worry about at Hopkins is the social life. Last year, before the school year started, I was cherishing the last of my partying high school summer days because I thought I was never going to party again. I was, however, PROVEN WRONG! I had never been so happy in my life that I was wrong about something. I went out every free weekend that I had and I never had to visit a neighboring campus to party. In fact, people from neighboring campuses were usually partying at Hopkin's frats! </p>
<p>Hopkins also sponsered something called "Club Nights" and a large portion of the school would all go downtown to clubs. It was really fun. But the best part of being at Hopkins is that Baltimore is such a bustling city that there is ALWAYS something to do if you do not want to party/go clubbing. I saw great concerts at the Otto Bar and Funk Box alllll the time! </p>
<p>Also, Hopkins is far from cut throat. it is, however, a university with HIGHLY motivated students. EVERYONE wants to do their best, not at the expense of others, but probably at the expense of themselves. If you get too caught up with your school work, you can start living in your own bubble in the basement of the library... but! thats what friends are for and everyone ends up helping each other out because two (or more) minds are better than one. The workload isnt too bad either... there will always be time for TONS of fun!</p>
<p>oh yeah, i forgot...the food isnt the greatest but once you know what you like at Terrace/Wolman then its actually pretty good! Like the cooks always make really good grilled chicken breast (if you can wait 10 min for it) and I always could eat a grilled chicken sandwich or a chicken cesaer salade! And at Levering, Salsa Rico makes a decent burrito and SubConnection makes subs better than subway! (not just my opinion, but my friends as well) MegaBytes has good wraps and chicken fingers that are made to order but personally, I think everything else is kinda greasy but it was always filled with kids eating there. But the best is the ice cream that all the food places have... haha i loved it ... i ate the frozen yogurt at terrace every single day.</p>