Northwestern vs. Johns Hopkins

<p>If it matters to you, Northwestern has a much better social + academic brand, esp. if you’re a guy. It’s called the Aaron Samuels effect. When I visualize JHU, I can’t help imagining people who are not socially well-adjusted and who study in the library all day. I know it’s not true for some but the people I personally know who go there and are attracted to JHU are like that (stereotypical pre-meds). They self-select to JHU because of its nerdy reputation and thus perpetuate the stereotype. Nothing wrong with that but it’s just a different style. If you’re like that, you would probably enjoy the company of those people for emotional/moral support.</p>

<p>^Are you suggesting that Northwestern is more prestigious than Hopkins, or that the combination of social life (a metric you yourself indicate is subjective and cannot be quantified) and its reputation exceeds the combination of social life and academics at Hopkins?</p>

<p>In either case, it’s completely subjective. I know Hopkins students aren’t arrogant enough to say its more prestigious than Northwestern, I hope you’re not suggesting the reverse. In either case, since you don’t go to hopkins, and only have hear say from purported Hopkins students (I call this the outsider effect Sam Lee alluded to earlier to describe another Hopkins poster), I wouldn’t exactly call that a concrete argument. You should really visit campus sometime, the students there would surprise you in terms of nerdiness. It’s actually known as a bit of a party school now, to the shock of the old alumni who were more austere. You probably didn’t know the largest major at Hopkins is international relations - hardly a nerdy major.</p>

<p>"More accessible in the sense that NU students, if they don’t have their own car (or a friend w/ a car), can take the shuttle or the L to Chicago.</p>

<p>Driving to downtown Chicago during the day (during non-rush hour times) takes 40-45 minutes, not an hour, and unless one wants to visit the museums or do some ritzy shopping on Michigan Avenue, most of the time students end up at other parts of Chicago which take 10-25 minutes by car.</p>

<p>Also, the “places to go” in Balt comprise the area of one Chicago neighborhood (say Lincoln Park); there’s simply so much more to do and see in Chicago that it’s not even a contest."</p>

<p>Uh…it took me an hour when I was recruiting at Northwestern to get to the bar area at state street. There likely is more to do in Chicago due to sheer size, but whether the OP would prefer that is subjective. Some actually prefer the artsy vibe of the area surrounding Hopkins and Hampden versus a bustling metropolis that requires a car or shuttle ride to get to.</p>

<p>I was talking about the combined social and academic brand of Northwestern.</p>

<p>As I mentioned, regardless of whether these perceptions are true or not, they nevertheless exist and influence students’ choices. The reality is JHU tends to attract more “nerdy” types, and like I said, there’s nothing wrong with that (unless you see that as a problem).</p>

<p>I just think it’s an unfounded characterization if you don’t go there. It’d be like me stereotyping and saying Northwestern students are known to be ******y drunks based on the frat bros i know who go there.</p>

<p>^That is indeed a perception of Northwestern guys and whether it’s true or not, it does influence the type of people who are attracted to the school. There is definitely a subpopulation at Northwestern of such guys and I think they will actually take your comment as a compliment. Even outside of Northwestern, I have not met a straight guy who would ideally like to be seen as prudish and effete. Definitely not at Harvard Law/Business School.</p>

<p>I think you’re misconstruing chill and ******bag. The latter isn’t taken as a compliment to anyone. At least, people didn’t take kindly to it at Stanford. Nor when I stayed at my frat’s chapter at Harvard.</p>

<p>I think “******bags” are aware they are that way yet continue this behavior by choice because of the “bad guy” notoriety they get as a result. Girls even think it’s cute but most won’t admit that openly.</p>

<p>As someone who is completely neutral, and have interest in both schools, the truth is, either school is amazing.</p>

<p>Forget the “transportation” factor argument: Hopkins students have access to the student shuttle which takes them anywhere in B’more and links them at the station to then have access to D.C. and any other city on the east coast. Weekend in the nation’s capital? No problem. </p>

<p>Forget the “food” argument… plenty of great eats in both areas. Besides… how do students afford these places anyway?</p>

<p>Safety: Hopkins wins on campus, NU wins off campus. But they are both ‘safe’ if you don’t take stupid risks. </p>

<p>Forget which school will be more ‘fun’ during your freshman year on campus…you really want to make a lifetime decison over that? I am sure it depends on who YOU are as a person verses the school. Both places offer ample places to party and hang out.</p>

<p>Research ops: Hopkins has been ranked #1 for the past 20 years and no one is close to touching them. So I will give that one to them. If you want to do research your frosh year (do you really???) then Hopkins. Guaranteed. But… NU offers ample opportunities. </p>

<p>NU: Lake Michigan
JHU: Cherry Blossoms in the spring
NU: Football
JHU: Lacrosse
NU: Purple (ok… some people don’t like this color…haha)
JHU: Blue (well, technically, it is a crimson color, but shhhh don’t tell any of the athletes)</p>

<p>Midwest vs East coast IS the Biggest difference. PERIOD.<br>
Where will YOU feel most at home?</p>

<p>Both can lead you to elite level universities for grad level work. Both will open up employment ops for you in many ciities. </p>

<p>For pre-med… I like Hopkins for ONLY ONE reason.
IF you get a grade you do not like…
you can re-take the class and they will drop the first grade.
Your GPA will not be affected by the first grade, though your transcript will reflect that you’ve taken BOTH classes. And the research ops your frosh year if you are so inclined to start early. </p>

<p>Other than that, you can enjoy all four years at either school and can enjoy your college years socially and academically.</p>

<p>I think you misunderstood what the research numbers mean. Most of the JHU research expenditure belongs to Applied Physics Laboratory with huge contracts with the Naval Sea Systems Command of the US Navy; the facility is designated as “national resource” and doesn’t really collaborate with the academic divisions of JHU, perhaps for national security reason. If that weren’t the case, JHU engineering and physics departments would have been ranked a lot higher than they are now. The lab is almost an hour drive from JHU campus. Then the medical school takes out most of the rest. Whatever left is what really goes to the divisions/departments that house undergrad programs.</p>

<p>^I have to say #19 in Physics with two nobel laureates in the department is still not too shabby - even without APL being on campus.</p>

<p>But I’d have to disagree with your conjecture about the connection between APL and JHU, sam. see here for the connection:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.jhuapl.edu/education/jhu/default.asp[/url]”>http://www.jhuapl.edu/education/jhu/default.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>"APL Joint Faculty Appointments</p>

<p>APL seeks both to leverage the expertise in the academic divisions of JHU on behalf of our sponsors and to contribute to the research and education missions of the University as a whole. Beginning several years ago, APL began supporting staff members holding or seeking joint academic appointments to enable them to spend up to 20% of their time collaborating with the academic divisions. This support enables research collaborations seeking external support for the academic/APL team from external funding agencies, as well as teaching and supervision of graduate students. At this point, more than 25 APL staff members hold joint appointments in four schools of the University (although by far the largest number have their academic appointments in the Whiting School of Engineering). Appointments range from assistant through full research professor.
APL Advanced Application Scholars Program</p>

<p>An APL program encourages JHU students to become interns supporting Laboratory programs. Internships are offered to well-qualified, highly motivated undergraduates and graduate students who have an interest in engineering and applied scientific research. In its first year, 40 JHU students applied, and 21 were placed at APL. The Laboratory employs the interns over the summer, with typical assignments involving software design and development; modeling and simulation; hardware design, testing, and evaluation; and scientific research. Part-time employment during the academic year is offered to the students on a continuing basis."</p>

<p>Physics and engineering students definitely work at APL if they are motivated (open to full-time students only, not to the part time professional students):</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.jhuapl.edu/employment/summer/aasintern.asp[/url]”>http://www.jhuapl.edu/employment/summer/aasintern.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Your critique of the funding is valid but also holds true for a lot of other universities as well. Med school funding comprises a large amount of research expenditures in general. It’d be interesting to see which school spends more on undergraduate research on a per capita basis (Northwestern has almost twice the number of undergraduates. I wonder if Northwestern’s opportunities are doubled. We’d need hard to find data to decipher this)</p>

<p>Exactly. I just haven’t seen that kind of data available for anyone to make such blanket assertion. Although Northwestern has almost twice the number of undergraduates, 1/3 of them are in schools of education, music, communications, and journalism. For undergrads in those areas, research is probably not as important and enriching as internships, practical projects, and performances…etc.</p>

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<p>Wait, so you’re basing this on your limited experience on the commute?</p>

<p>A poster on the NU board made it from downtown Chicago to NU’s campus in 30 minutes.</p>

<p>Only “out-of towners” and uncool suburbanites go to the bars along State Street.</p>

<p>NU students when they hit the Chicago bars don’t go all the way done to State Street and instead go to the bar scenes on Halsted, in Wrigleyville and Rogers Park - a good bit closer.</p>

<p>And yes, what OP would prefer is subjective, but I merely pointed out that there is a lot more variety when it comes to things to do/places to go in Chicago vs. Baltimore.</p>

<p>So there isn’t an artsy vibe w/ shops and restaurants in Evanston? (For its size, Evanston has one of the better “foodie” scenes.)</p>

<p>I’m kind of an innocent bystander who stumbled on this thread. D2 is considering both schools, and both are in her “stretch” category. Both terrific schools. We’re midwesterners so know a bit more about NU. But lived on West coast for 10 years. Trust me there is good name recognition for both, and no confusion over Northwestern college, or Northeastern Univ. I do have to say that from a purely reputational standpoint on academics only…JH wins. And the rankings (as bogus as they are) tend to back that up. Further, NU has a reputation of drawing more wealthy socialites. These reputations are doubtless stereotypes and don’t hold true in most cases. I’m just reporting the perceptions that we’ve had, and been given by friends, grads from those schools, and other input. I’d love my daughter to attend either school.</p>