<p>Hey so I'm thinking about applying to John Hopkins and I have some questions. Please answer honestly. I realize there are probably a lot of topics discussing this but I really want an updated view.
Please can someone who attends the University give their honest opinion on:
Quality of Food:
Quality of Students (how friendly the students are)
Campus Beauty (seeing pictures online is a different experience)
Average Quality of Professors:
Surrounding Area (Is the area safe? Is there a lot to do in the city?)
Anything else that you wish to add would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!</p>
<p>Hey! I’m a sophomore here.</p>
<p>Quality of Food: I really can’t say how it stacks up to the food at other colleges, but I heard that it’s relatively good. There’s definitely a lot of variety in the freshman dining hall, the Fresh Food Cafe, but many students do get tired of it a few months in. Same with the main upperclassman dining area, Nolans; it’s smaller and isn’t buffet style, so I’d say even more so. There are also other places to get food that are more food court or supermarket style, so people might go to multiple places to mix it up. Personally, I’m not too picky, and don’t get tired of things quickly, so I really like the food at Hopkins.</p>
<p>Quality of Students, lol: I wouldn’t exactly use the words “friendly” or “social” to describe the overall atmosphere of Hopkins, although you’ll definitely find really social groups and individuals, especially if you live in the AMRs or join a large group like the African Student Association or Hopkins Christian Fellowship. Mostly, students are very driven to succeed, and when the going gets tough (usually around the second week of classes unless you have covered grades as a freshman), relaxing in the company of others is one of the first things to go. Students do bond at random events held to get students out of the library–holiday events, speakers, concerts. Students also bond over the struggle of work of Hopkins, support each other, and stay up late studying together if that’s the kind of camaraderie you want. Again, I didn’t come here for its thriving social life. I found a really solid group of friends, get the opportunity to meet new people every so often, and I’m good.</p>
<p>Campus Beauty: I love the campus, lol. I actually visited Duke and thought it was ugly compared to Hopkins. There are a lot of new buildings combined with some older ones, but they’re all decent at minimum, and some are really beautiful.</p>
<p>Average Quality of Professors: Really depends on what courses you’re taking, but you’ll see professors from all over the board in terms of being interesting vs boring, articulate vs quiet / hard to understand, bland vs passionate, etc. You’ll definitely be encountering some of the top people in their fields, though, and most professors are eager to meet and help students and get them involved in research.</p>
<p>Surrounding Area: There’s like a 3-5 block radius that’s pretty safe, although you might hear about the odd thing happening at night or a fraternity party. But that radius is packed with security officers patrolling, so you should be fine. As for beyond that, I don’t recommend it at night, but if you use common sense, you’ll be fine. There’s not much to do within walking distance, except for the Baltimore Museum of Art and some really interesting restaurants, but there are buses going to the other campuses, the Inner Harbor, and Hampden that provide opportunities to do a lot more stuff.</p>
<p>As a senior, I’d like to add my input…</p>
<p>Quality of Food: despite all the joke you’ll hear on campus, Hopkins actually has some pretty awesome food. I recently went to the FFC with a friend (seniors like freshmen/sophomores who swipe them into FFC) and was surprised how much I liked it. The problem is that no matter where you are eating, if you go to that same place every day (maybe even 2-3 times per day) for months on end, it’s going to start getting boring, regardless of the variety of food.</p>
<p>Quality of students: Almost everyone I’ve met was really friendly. And most people here very smart are driven to succeed, which means you do have to work hard to do well in the classes. However, I definitely disagree with OnMyWay on the social scene. I have plenty of time that I fit in my schedule when I relax with friends (most being on the weekends, but I’ve gone out to nice restaurants and played games with friends on lighter week nights as well). Since everyone is driven to do well, people tend to work hard during the week nights and during the day on weekends. But there are still plenty of parties on the weekends if that’s your scene and other types of activities if you are not into partying. Plenty of groups on campus are socially active.</p>
<p>Campus Beauty: It’s a beautiful campus. I know a lot of people who chose JHU partially for that reason.</p>
<p>Professors: can be hit or miss. I’ve had good and bad professors, but they tend to be pretty good. Most are willing to meet outside of lectures if you learn better one on one.</p>
<p>Surrounding area: pretty safe as long as you are aware that you’re still in a city. Like don’t walk alone way off campus at 2am in the morning. The nearby neighborhoods or fells point, canton, and inner harbor are all fun places to visit.</p>
<p>As a point of comparison, I’ll talk about some of these aspects at JHU relative to Princeton (where I am currently).</p>
<p>Food Quality: as above posters said, the quality is good pretty much everywhere on campus (now if you’ve lived on 5th Avenue you’re whole life and Le Bernadin was just another Saturday-night dinner it’s another story). Where Princeton differs is that there are six dining halls (with menus that change every day) and a large campus center so it will take far longer to get bored (but the quality is comparable).</p>
<p>Quality of Students: most people are friendly. I’m not especially outgoing and I’m not a party person so my social experiences were with a handful of very close friends. As I don’t associate much with Princeton undergrads I don’t have a good point of comparison…</p>
<p>Campus Beauty: It’s a nice, architecturally-consistent campus, by which I mean that everything is in the same style and goes together well. That said, I think it gets boring after a while and it isn’t incredible. To compare, the whole northern half of Princeton’s campus is absolutely amazing (mostly gothic) while the southern half is pretty sterile and dull (it’s more modern but the buildings don’t really work well together).</p>
<p>Professors: most want to help you learn the material. The difference is that some love teaching and go out of their ways to be amazing teachers while others will do their best to help only if you ask for it. Every department has at least one or two of the former and it won’t take long for you to find out who they are (either from experience or word-of-mouth). There will always be the occasional few that view teaching as an unfortunate burden but I can’t recall any from my own experience. I should point out, however, that this is likely to be the case pretty much everywhere you go (yes, even at large schools). What’s more important, in my opinion, is the classes (especially upper-level) that are offered because honestly, Physics 101 is going to be pretty similar wherever you go, regardless of who’s teaching it. When you really get to see professors at their best is when they’re teaching the more specialized stuff in a class with 10 students. This, I think, depends on the department. As an example, one of my major’s upper-level offerings are fairly standard while at Princeton, that department offers a laundry list of pseudo-graduate, specialized courses to appeal to a wide range of interests. Again, it depends on he the department.</p>
<p>Surrounding Area: nothing to add, just don’t be stupid.</p>