<p>I'm in the process of deciding what pre college program to go to and am having some trouble. Has anyone heard anything about the johns hopkins pre college (NOT CTY but the actual college's program) I would really love some opinions (great/good/bad/horrible) and any information about it. Are the courses good? Are the students nice? How much homework is there? Anything you think would be helpful would really help me out. thanks so much</p>
<p>yeah im wondering too! quick someone reply</p>
<p>I went this past summer, and it was alright. Most of my friends were biochemistry-types who all wanted to be doctors, so I felt a little left out taking an Intro to American Politics course. A majority of the kids who get into the program are from higher-income families (e.g. children of JHU professors or own vacation homes and yachts) and attend private/prep schools, so it took a little adjusting to since I attend a huge public school. </p>
<p>From what I've seen, a lot of the JHU undergraduates (not the pre-college students) spend hours upon hours in the library studying for MCAT exams, so the social scene is a little lacking. A majority of the students, both JHU and pre-college, are Asian.</p>
<p>If you live in or around the Baltimore area, you can attend the program as a commuter student, which will save you a lot of money. You can still make friends and hang out without having to live on-campus. If you do decide to live on campus, the meal plan is supposedly expensive ($1000, I think?), and the food is atrocious. Most everybody on-campus goes out to eat or eats the cafe in the Eisenhower library. If you are a commuter student, you can't access the dining hall, but you can get into the gym, library, a friend's dorm (A rule about dorms: If you're a commuter student, you have to leave your j-card at the security desk, and males and females are not allowed to visit one another in the dorms; they are also super strict about curfews and signing in and out when you leave the Baltimore City area), etc. with your j-card. There are okay places to eat around campus though; there's a Korean/sushi restaurant, Subway, Cosi, and Ruby Tuesday, etc. all across the street. Also, I don't know if they finished constructing the Barnes and Noble yet, but they were definitely working on one while I was there.</p>
<p>JHU has a nice campus, but it gets unbearably hot during the summer. JHU does have a bus service that goes to Peabody, the Medical Center, and the train station. The surrounding area is relatively safe, but I don't suggest going into the inner city. The Inner Harbor is a tourist area with shops and chain restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and Fuddrucker's, but it's a good place to go on weekends. JHU organizes activities for on-campus students like trips to Six Flags and Towson Town Center, which is a huge mall in the suburbs of Baltimore with Nordstrom, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc.</p>
<p>You can take up to two courses, but I only took one. I personally enjoyed the Intro to American Politics. Professor Ginsberg is a cool guy, but the class is in a lecture-style, where he lectures for 2.5 hours with a 10 minute break in between. There was a syllabus with reading assignments out of a textbook that the professor co-authored and a separate book of essays on politics. My T.A. administered weekly writing assignments which were usually three pages long based on the trips my class took to Washington D.C., where I met congressional staffers, think tanks, etc. I initially tried to keep up with the reading assignments, but I gave up after a while. Our professor gave us a study guide towards the end of the course for the final exam, which consisted of three essays. The final exam was 75% of the grade in that class, and I got an A in both. I don't know about the other classes, but again, the sciences are difficult with all the labs and quizzes/tests in between.</p>
<p>would going to this program give you an edge when you're applying to JHU?</p>
<p>I would also like to know if this gives an edge for admissions.</p>
<p>But is taking two courses very difficult? How many of the people there took two and did okay?</p>