<p>I was wondering if the research programs were all inside Jhu itself, since I looked at the site and say a large list of research centers. Are incoming students able to apply to these centers right after they enter jhu? I've been contemplating whether I should have jhu as my #1 school or a different university mainly because of the research opportunities offered by each.</p>
<p>Also, what's the neighborhood like? I've heard from others that the area that Jhu is in isn't really favorable. Are there diverse restaurants there? As in Chinese food, Japanese food, etc. </p>
<p>Lastly, I was hoping to find out how rigorous the workload is there. Since I'm taking several AP courses at school right now, so I'm curious as to how different the workload at jhu will be.</p>
<p>Most of the research is done at the Homewood campus, but the Applied Physics Laboratory also has a lot going on (Hopkins students are prioritized in APL hiring). I think that a student should be able to apply for research after they get to school, but only if they have the background. </p>
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<p>The few blocks next to JHU are pretty safe and full of opportunities for food and shopping, however outside of those few blocks, the city is rather unsafe. The south side of Baltimore has the inner harbor, the Baltimore aquarium, and other fun stuff. </p>
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<p>The classes are rigorous, but not unreasonable - at least so far as I have seen.</p>
Like al6200 said, a lot of the research centers that you see are not actual physical “centers” or “institutes” but rather administrative groups setup by faculty members. The idea (from what I understand) is to get faculty members from different departments with similar/related research interests together under a single umbrella “research center” so that they can apply for grants together, share resources and funds together etc. What does this mean for you as an undergraduate? Nothing at all. As an undergrad, you can look up any faculty member at Hopkins, email them and ask if they would be willing to let you work with them on their research project. Most research groups will be based at the Homewood (undergrad) campus, the East Baltimore campus, or the Bayview Hospital campus, and if you want to work with a group that’s in East Baltimore (medical school, nursing school, public health school, hospital), it’s really easy to get there by university bus.</p>
<p>As far as APL, it’s a little more complicated. APL does a lot of research for the Departments of Defense and Energy. It’s also located halfway between Baltimore and DC and not really accessible for ongoing undergrad research. In addition, a lot of the work there will require security clearances. I never heard of anyone who’s worked there during the school year, and I would guess that it’s pretty impossible, but I do know that they have summer research programs for undergrads to work on research there during the summer.</p>
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I would agree that the area around campus is very safe and has a lot of different resources available (restaurants, shopping, volunteer activities etc). However, I would disagree with the idea that the the rest of town is “unsafe”. Baltimore is a big city and like any big city, there are some parts of town you want to avoid and other parts that are very nice, and regardless of where you go, you need to have some street-smarts and common sense. Many freshmen and sophomores tend to only leave campus to go to the Inner Harbor, Little Italy and the Towson area (where there’s a mall and another shopping center near Towson University). However, many students, especially after they’ve been in town for a while, start exploring other areas of town and really enjoy Baltimore. As for restaurants, Baltimore has a huge variety of restaurants. There’s an okay Chinese place, a pretty good Japanese place and a pretty good Indian place within two blocks of campus. There are a number of ethnic restaurants (Afghani, Indian, Chinese etc) in the Mount Vernon area, where the Peabody Institute is located (also a stop on the aforementioned university shuttle)</p>
<p>Which generally averages to 4-5 classes per semester for most people. Most humanities classes are three credits while many hard science and engineering classes are 4 credits (and many engineering classes have 1 to 2 or sometimes 3 credit labs that go with them).</p>
<p>"Also, what’s the neighborhood like? I’ve heard from others that the area that Jhu is in isn’t really favorable. Are there diverse restaurants there? As in Chinese food, Japanese food, etc. "</p>
<p>The Homewood campus is very safe and quite pretty. However, immediately to the south and east of campus are areas that can be intimidating, especially if you are not used to seeing large numbers of urban African-Americans. These are by no means the worst areas of town, but they are not suburban America. A lot of students do not venture out into the vicinity because they perceive the area as unsafe (translation, lots of blacks, but no one is going to admit that in our politically correct society!). I think people’s fears are exaggerated. There are far more unpleasant areas of town (West Baltimore, The Wire), but most students never go there. </p>
<p>In regards to ethnic food, there are lots of Thai and Indian options available in the Mount Vernon district, two miles south of the Homewood. There are no good Chinese food options. There is a small Koreatown located one mile south of Homewood with a few authentic Korean restaurants. The Japanese restaurants are all run by Koreans. There is one by campus. It is OK.</p>