<p>I'm shocked that I even have to make this choice. I was set to go to Hopkins until the Ivy decisions came out. Yale is giving even better fin aid than Hopkins (although I could afford both packages) and Cornell gave me the opportunity to be a research scholar which would mean very good research opportunities and Columbia made me a 'Kluge Scholar' although I still don't know what that is. Alas, my heart still lies with Hopkins but I still feel torn...</p>
<p>What do you guys think I should do? Better yet, what would you guys do?</p>
<p>i would probably narrow it down between Cornell, Hopkins, and Columbia, and here’s what I like about all three:</p>
<p>Cornell: Great science programs. You got into the research scholar thing, so you are bound to be one of the top of their picks and get great research mentoring and experiences that will add to your pre-med resume. The location is rather isolated, but Cornell itself is bursting with life and color and beauty.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins: Fantastic science programs. Top 3 Pre-Medical Advising in the country with access to JHU hospital, and numerous research/intern jobs where nearly 80% (give or take) of ALL undergrads participate. It also has the smallest undergraduate population of the three on campus, and seeing as you seem to be such an excellent student, I’m sure you will have no trouble being top of the class there. Open curriculum are you a Woodrow Wilson Fellow? That would be even more prestigious. </p>
<p>Columbia: Great sciences and great location. The only slight drawback is the rather rigorous core curriculum which could hinder some options for exploring other unique classes or minoring/double majoring. However, it is a phenomenal school and I’m sure your scholarship is going to reap rewards at the end.</p>
<p>The only reason I leave Yale out is that it is not as strong as the other three in the sciences, and also, did not give you a scholarship. Yale is an amazing and amazingly prestigious school, no doubt, but it is more suited for pre-law students, imho. </p>
<p>If I were in a similar situation, I would probably take Cornell, unless JHU gave me a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship, in which case, I would go with JHU.</p>
<p>I hadn’t applied for Woodrow Wilson but would that be possible for next year if I attended JHU? I’m also not very big on partying and such and kind of liked the fact that JHU wasn’t heavily involved in greek life because I didn’t want to feel obligated (peer pressure-wise) to join.</p>
<p>Jcan, that’s always possible.</p>
<p>The thing about Hopkins is that they reserve grant money for stuff like this where you can propose a research or study project of your own, and the school would help fund you. For example, I had a friend at Hopkins who wanted to write a novel in Spain, so Hopkins gave her a few thousand to travel to Spain for the Summer and work on writing her manuscript. :)</p>
<p>These are all phenomenal schools, but yes. Hopkins’ Greek scene is probably the least dominating of the 5.</p>
<p>Hmm, any other factors I need to think about? Oh! any info on how the professors are?</p>
<p>in terms of faculty for Pre-Med Advising, it would probably go:</p>
<p>Hopkins
Columbia
Cornell=Yale=Uchicago.</p>
<p>At the undergraduate level, you are only learning the basics of each science, so the faculty strength will not be too different amongst these 5. However, the pre-med advising program is going to be very different. At Hopkins, the head of Pre-Med advising was the former Dean of Admissions at JHU Medical School.</p>
<p>In terms of overall faculty caliber, it would go something like:</p>
<p>Yale=Columbia
Cornell=JHU=UChicago (except for Econ. haha)</p>
<p>the differences are relatively negligibe</p>
<p>Hmm, ok. I’ve also heard some stuff about some Hopkins’ professors not caring about their students, sticking them with most of the work and being overall distant fro students. Any truth to that?</p>
<p>Jcan,</p>
<p>I can assure you that these things you are hearing are just riffraff.
To be honest, aloof professors are found at every single Research and non-research University/College from Brown, to Harvard, to Stanford, to Williams, etc. Just as you probably had bad teachers in High School, college professors are the same. Some will be great. Others, maybe not.
The good thing with Hopkins is that every single teacher who will be teaching you will be at the pinnacles of education. You will have people from Fullbright winners, to nobel winners, to future-nobel winners, etc teaching you. The great thing is that all classes are kept to a reasonable size. Of the teachers, most of them that my friends have come across for pre-med have been extremely helpful and supportive of individual students. Professors always welcome you to ask them questions during their office hours. They set up smaller review sessions with TAs so that it’s not just big lectures, but even the big lectures on big sciences are limited to certain numbers and, from personal experience as well as anecdotal experience, the big science classes here are much smaller in comparison to some classes at Cornell and Columbia.</p>
<p>Also, if you do the humanities (which I think you will eventually have to), all of them are limited to mostly under 20 or some around 15/10, and from that, you get really one-on-one with professors.</p>
<p>Professors here do care. Maybe not all of them, but that is common at every single school. I would say that the majority of professors at JHU care about the welfare of undergraduate students and make efforts to help you achieve your maximum potential. For example, one of the Organic Chem teachers (who also came out with two widely used Organic Chem Help books), actually made this often feared weeder class FUN, and would make sure the entire class understood the concepts, going over them even two to three times over if necessary, to make sure everyone would do well.</p>
<p>That is just one example. there are many brilliant and helpful professors here.</p>
<p>You can choose to apply for the Woodrow Wilson scholarship when you are a sophomore. It is not too late to apply for that scholarship.</p>
<p>I think you will do very well as a premed here at Hopkins. All the people I know who turned down Ivies like Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Yale, Penn, Columbia, Emory, and tons of other are epically pwning here. Hopkins has many alumni connects and send the most students to professional schools and graduate schools in the country, so the Hopkins brand name can carry a lot of weight when applying to med or graduate schools.</p>
<p>You guys are really re-affirming Hopkins for me. I’m starting to get excited about it again. That packet needs to hurry up and get here lol. What about the dorms though? I hear the food has drastically improved so that’s good. I’m a bit sketchy about the whole communal bathroom thing.</p>
<p>Jcan,</p>
<p>Freshmen can choose between the traditional dorms u described, and suite-style dorms designated for Freshmen. There’s Wolman Hall, which is not on the freshman quad, that has suites of 3-4 suitemates in two bedrooms sharing a bathroom and a kitchenette. Wolman is also close to the Barnes and Nobles, Einstein Bagels, Starbucks, etc. Then, there are Buildings A/B which are Suites that share a bathroom, but do not have a kitchenette. They are located right on the Freshman Quad and have easy access to the Fresh Food Cafe. The traditional dorms are the AMR’s I and II.</p>
<p>Everything at Hopkins is just getting better and better. Over the past few years, Hopkins has built an entire new quad, the high-rise Charles Commons with Hopkins’ own Barnes and Nobles, Starbucks, Chipotle, etc. And they are refreshing Gilman Hall for 2010, complete with glass pavillions, new archaeology museums, indoor glass skywalk, a lounge, etc, and are building an entirely new library right next to the current one, which will connect to the current one underground and feature open air space and room for social collaboration.</p>
<p>Hopkins is truly improving a lot and this is the perfect time to be a part of hopkins.</p>
<p>It really seems so. I’ve heard that AMRs are the more social dorms though and with me being a nit of an introvert, I figured staying there would make it easier to make friends. Are the communal bathrooms that bad? Can anyone just…walk in on you?</p>
<p>Actually JCan, I would say that that rumor, about the AMRs, is not true.
IMO, they all will differ depending on the people in them. I personally see Wolman as the most social because each hall has it’s own living room with cable TV and couches, allowing hallmates to bond over good and bad TV shows :)</p>
<p>Communal bathrooms aren’t too bad, but of course, suite-style bathrooms are usually preferrable. The only downside is that you don’t get maid-service for suite-style bathrooms :D</p>
<p>You make a lot of sense haha. This is definitely a lot to think about. Alas, I must go contemplate now.</p>
<p>I would choose Columbia, Cornell or JHU depending entirely on best financial package. There is no reason to go into any extra debt or spend any extra money-one over the other. Save that for med school. You will be fine at ANY of these places.</p>
<p>Jcan, even if u have entirely ruled out Yale, there is still a good way to use it :D</p>
<p>take ur Yale acceptance letter and financial Aid decisions and report them to Hopkins or Cornell, Columbia, etc’s admissions office, saying (for each one) that you would LOVE to go to their university over Yale, but that Yale’s better financial aid package is very interesting and lucrative at the moment. Push some hints that a few more dollars here and there could get you to turn down Yale for them ;-)</p>
<p>Trust me, I think any one of these colleges would love the change to snatch a student away from Yale :D</p>
<p>Seriously? You think I could do that?</p>
<p>yeah definitely. It’s been done before. But be sly about how you do it. haha.</p>
<p>Jcan, you can TOTALLY do that. And you should. I did it for grad school 
and it worked like a charm. They didn’t match the offer from the IVY they EXCEEDED it.</p>