<p>I mean, I know that it has outstanding programs in a variety of fields and that the medical school has very little to do with the undergraduate education but do employers/grad schools/general public perceive JHU to be a school that is "only good for medicine"? </p>
<p>I guess people who know a little bit more also know about its international studies and creative writing programs but is JHU generally considered a bad choice for an undergraduate education compared to peer schools (Northwestern, Cornell, etc.)?</p>
<p>The general public may think so. Employers/grad schools are not part of the hoi polloi.</p>
<p>By that logic, I can also say that here (among the general public), NU is only a MBA school and Cornell is strictly for engineering. But I get what you mean. People have been asking why I turned down NU for a school with an excessive amount of ‘s’ in its name.</p>
<p>If you want further info: i think CC user YanksDolphins is a JHU Econ & Applied Math grad - he/she is now attending Princeton. Blah2009 is a BME and he/she attends Stanford for grad school. They have both attested numerous times about how JHU is regarded very highly by grad schools.</p>
<p>Actually, I find it weird that people bash so much on JHU ugrad. They keep saying that the school focuses more on grad school - which I find ironic because there are 4000++ Homewood ugrads and 1000++ Homewood grads. Unless I’m wrong, of course. I mean, Stanford the ‘ugrad utopia’ even has more engineering/science grad students… Anyone willing to clarify if my logic is right?</p>
<p>Hopkins is less well known by the general public largely because it is not a Division I sports school (except for lacrosse which is not yet a major sport). But it is well known by most educated people and extremely well known in academia. If Northwestern was not in the Big Ten, if Duke was not in the ACC, if Stanford was not in the Pac 10, and if Cornell was not in the Ivy League, they would be far less well known than they are.</p>
<p>But Accioknight–your statistics are misleading because you are only focusing on graduate students at Homewood (i.e., arts and sciences, and engineering). Hopkins has numerous professional schools which boost those numbers significantly–Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, SAIS, Carey, School of Education, Peabody,etc. There in fact are more graduate students than undergraduates at Hopkins (and, if you include part-time graduate students at satellite campuses, far more graduate students than undergrads). Nevertheless, I agree with your general sentiment that undergraduates at Hopkins are not second class citizens; most of the programing at Homewood is directed toward undergraduates, not graduate students. The overall situation is no different at Hopkins than at most of its peer schools.</p>
<p>@accioknight: Math, not Applied Math And I’m male.</p>
<p>While JHU does have more grad students than undergrads, I would say it’s an undergrad-focused school. While many of my economics classes had 50+ people (which will be the case anywhere you go save for liberal arts schools), after freshman year most of my math classes had 10 or fewer. I don’t have any experience with “popular” majors like International Relations and bio so I can’t comment on them but if you put in the effort you will get to know pretty much any professor you want to. Cornell is much larger and the classes will have many more people (and it’s in the middle of nowhere). I dont’ know much about Northwestern other than about its economics department.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s better than cornell or northwestern for its focus on undergrad. Hopkins has 5000 or less undergrads and Cornell and NW definitely has over 8000 or even 10000+. Plus, even though hopkins has world class grad schools and a lot of graduate students, a lot of those schools are located on a separate campus (i.e. medicine, public health, nursing in E. Baltimore campus, International studies in Washington DC, Italy, and China, business school in downtown/Harbor East Baltimore). So most of undergrads are located in its own secluded campus in homewood (you will see some Ph.D. students from engineering and arts and sciences, but they are fewer in numbers than undergrads on homewood campus). You get the best of both worlds: world class professional/grad programs (profs. from other campus from medicine or public health or international studies actually come to our undergrad campus and teach undergrads separately) and its own dedicated campus/faculty for undergrads.</p>
<p>JHU has always been able to attract top profs in all subjects due to it’s reputation and location. Baltimore is a great place to live, in spite of what you see on TV shows and it is much cheaper than DC, Philly or NYC but still close.</p>
<p>I’m double majoring in Applied Mathematics and Economics, though I’m interested in the field of biostatistics, which Hopkins is ranked very highly in. Practically all of JHU’s programs are highly regarded, and the general public immediately thinks of the hospital when you mention Hopkins. If you’re looking to go to graduate school and are interested in undergraduate research, it’s an all-around excellent place to be.</p>
<p>Hello, I am interested in transferring to JHU math department to be a math major (in pure math). And I wonder if you could tell me a little bit more about undergrad math major at JHU. Thank you so much!!</p>
<p>Stanford alumni are nearly as arrogant as Notre Dame alumni. JHU grads have no reason to be bashful. I’d stand up JHU as higher than NWestern, Stanford and many of the Ivy schools.</p>
<p>Hopkins has top BME, ChemBE, International Studies, and Writing Sems programs as well as really good physics and bio departments. Just because it’s known for its medical school don’t think Hopkins is only good for medicine. </p>
I was a Neuroscience major but I took some phenomenal coursework in art history with (what I later learned) some very highly-regarded professors in the field. Nonetheless, Hopkins has been trying to shake this perception that it’s only a place for the sciences and engineering for some time. Those in academia know otherwise, but the general public thinks of the med school (it is constantly referenced in pop culture) and maybe the engineering programs and Applied Physics Lab (which came up a lot recently for all of their military drone research).
I had a friend in the electrical engineering program who admitted it was a difficult, but great, program. I’m convinced that the best position to be in as a graduate is to have real-life experiences under your belt for employment purposes (or grad school, for that matter). For the sciences (and I would argue any field) research exposes you to real-world problems, lets you develop marketable skills and puts your education to use as you reinforce what you learn. Few schools come close to the sheer amount of research opportunities that Hopkins offers (along with the NIH which has labs in Baltimore too), and Hopkins’ active enforcement of its research-driven vision really pushes undergrads to pursue these opportunities. Hopkins has a small undergrad population with plenty of resources to go around, and I can attest that they delivered in that regard. My freshman year I sent out a single email to an NIH lab and I was working there 3x/wk a month later. I spent all four years getting multiple publications and real-world experience in that lab, and that has really helped me in my post-grad endeavors. Don’t let a program-ranking survey dissuade you from a school that delivers where it matters most (in my opinion).
But I get what you mean. People have been asking why I turned down NU for a school with an excessive amount of ‘s’ in its name.</p>
I mean, Stanford the ‘ugrad utopia’ even has more engineering/science grad students… Anyone willing to clarify if my logic is right?</p>
And I’m male.</p>
Sorry for the bad use of statistics, OP.</p>