Hi everyone. One of the only things that turns me off about Hopkins is Baltimore. Baltimore is portrayed in the media as a hub for crime and gang violence? Is it really like this? Is the campus in a good part of town? Are students ever affected by crime in the inner city? Thank you all so much!
In every major city there are relatively “good” parts and “bad” parts to put it simply. Use your own discretion, but I would say that eventually one has to be able to accept that fact. Whether it is Boston, New York, or Chicago, use your head. Hopkins is very safe from what I heard from older colleagues who currently attend and have graduated from there. Worry more about New Haven my friend.
Baltimore has one of the higher crime rates of any major metropolitan center in the United States, there is no way around that. Things have greatly improved though over the last 20 years (as has violent crime in all major U.S cities) with the exception of the past three years where violent crimes have increased. This is largely attributed to growing civil unrest escalading to the riots that occurred earlier this year. Keep in mind though the Baltimore has not been on the top-10 list of highest murder-rate cities for some time, though it definitely is within the top 20 (as are Philadelphia, D.C., and Chicago). See this link for a year by year breakdown, but note that when you exclude cities with less than 100,000 people Baltimore does jump to the top 10 in the nation (since other notorious cities like Flint, MI now have less than 100,000 people).
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/top-lists/highest-murder-rate-cities/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate_(2012)
Now that I have thoroughly terrified you, let me clarify some things and put this in perspective: Whether the murder rate of a city is 15/100,000 (e.g. Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C.) or 35/100,000 (e.g. Baltimore, New Orleans) you still practice the same commonsense safety. While it’s true being in one city over another may increase your chances of violent crime, theft, etc. (say, double it), what really increases your odds of a violent crime occurring is being in the wrong part of town, walking alone at night, being drunk, flashing your iPhone, etc., regardless of what major U.S. city you are in.
The JHU undergrad campus is about three miles north of the downtown center in a residential area that borders the wealthiest neighborhoods in Baltimore. Neighborhoods that surround Hopkins to the north, east and west include Guilford, Remington, Hampden, Tuscany-Canterbury and Roland Park. These neighborhoods range from 70-95% white, with median property values from 380-800k, statistics that are not representative of Baltimore as a whole. This does create the “Hopkins bubble” that students talk about. To the west and south of JHU is Charles Village which, in all honesty, does have its rough patches as you go south of 23rd Street towards the downtown, but it is a brief patch that is quickly replaced by the skyscrapers and frantic pedestrian professionals of the downtown. Nonetheless, I’ve done this walk multiple times alone (during the day), once even in a suit all the way downtown, so I would say it’s rough, but not dangerous (at least while I was there).
http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Federal-Hill-Baltimore-MD.html (You can double-click on the map for each neighborhood’s census details)
This being said, Hopkins is definitely not in a dangerous part of Baltimore, in fact it’s in a very well-established area that is not representative of the city or the hardships it is currently dealing with. Furthermore, the administration takes security very seriously and Hopkins never ever ranks on dangerous campus stats (be it for community crime that affects students or student-on-student crime (i.e. rape, theft)). In fact, you would be surprised what “prestigious” universities have very high crime rates, in general, and in relations to Hopkins:
http://www.psblaw.com/campus-crimes/#
You may be surprised to see that JHU has the fourth lowest number of reported crimes of any of the top 100 Forbes ranked universities (according to above link). The colleges with lower crime, are (to little surprise) military colleges. Note that the size of the school and the administration’s procedure for reporting (as well as a student’s willingness to report a crime) are all important factors that can bias these numbers, but under federal law schools are required to report all crimes on and around campus (loopholes undoubtedly exist). Nonetheless, I believe there is some credence to these statistics and they should be considered.
While saying Hopkins is one of the safest campuses in America may be overdoing it, it goes to show the common misconception of conflating campus safety with the surrounding city statistics. You are living on or near the campus, not “in” the city, and rarely is the campus itself in the most dangerous parts of the city, the areas that highly contribute to city statistics on crime. This is something prospective students and their families often confuse when looking at colleges, and is exactly why the federal government requires campus crimes be reported, to ensure transparency and that students have access to data that more directly affects them.
Lastly, I am thankful for Hopkins and my college experience for exposing me to the realities of a metropolitan center and the harsh realities that unfortunately often coexist there. I did research at the Bayview Campus so I rode the Hopkins shuttle or public bus (on weekends) through East Baltimore, one of the more notorious areas of Baltimore (don’t worry, it’s many miles from the JHU undergrad campus). I also volunteered downtown with at-risk inner-city Latino youths, and so between these experiences I did observe (and intervene to some extent) gang activity and the effects of drug addiction, racism, and poverty on communities. While it was definitely uncomfortable to be around at times, I am pursuing medicine and dealing with these hard truths is unavoidable if you want to work with people and make a difference in their lives. My experiences undoubtedly helped me grow as a more informed, compassionate individual who will be a better doctor for understanding the problems my patients face outside of the clinic. Say what you will, but I believe attending college in a posh collegetown would have shielded me from these realities (as occurred during my childhood), and my college experience would have been less informative, and I, less mature, as a result.
Baltimore is a great city, especially if you’re white, Asian, or (to an extent) Latino. Johns Hopkins is in a very rich, white, educated area. The campus, like most, is an impenetrable bubble. Super easy to stay safe but also to stay sheltered. You will never be directly affected by crime and you will never feel it unless you choose to. All the violence in Baltimore is very real, but the city is so segregated that unless you are directly involved, the violence itself goes unnoticed. The portrayal of Baltimore in the media was not an accurate representation. The “riots”, looting, etc. were dangerous but like I said, fairly isolated. At the exact same time, you can walk eight blocks in the opposite direction and find white people having a peaceful family BBQ. I’ll backtrack for a minute to clarify that if you go a couple blocks in the wrong direction, you will end up in an area that is much more obviously the remnants of severe urban plight, which really is prevalent in Baltimore. There is a lot of poverty- if you walk downtown, you will see a lot of homelessness and hunger. You can’t necessarily escape it, but you can forget about it.
I really can’t stress enough how easy it is to ignore all of the things I just mentioned. However, it is also VERY easy to be involved. There are so many non-profits, organizations, peaceful protests, and companies that are doing great things for the city. It is a good chance to involve yourself in the dialogue, if that’s what you want. Baltimore also has an insanely active and wonderful art scene- JHU is especially involved with this as they are in a partnership with MICA right now. Bmore is a great city for foodies. It attracts good concerts and cool events- especially underground/niche things. It’s insanely easy to go to DC if you want to leave Bmore. Despite its many problems, there are a lot of uniquely great things about the city and your experience here, in terms of safety, would realistically be no different than in any other medium-large sized city. I’ve lived downtown for my entire life and I honestly love it. Hope that was helpful!