Rumors or Facts?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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<p>I'm still thinking about whether to apply to JHU and have a few questions. </p>

<p>I talked recently to my cousin who was an IR major a few years ago at JHU. He wasn't too thrilled with his experiences there and was sort of dissuading me from applying. Here are a few issues he brought up and I was wondering whether I could get some opinions from others:</p>

<p>1.) The Pre-Med Brood</p>

<p>JHU has sort of gotten a rep for being a spawning ground where pre-meds like to congregate. I am thinking of going pre-med myself. However, I am a bit concerned about the competition and cut-throat nature that seems to be a byproduct of such a high concentration of pre-meds. It's not that I feel as if I can't hold my own. I just would prefer not to spend my life in a tense, stressful atmosphere where anxieties over grades-grubbing supersedes possibilities for collaborative learning. Do students feel such pressure at JHU (especially the science/pre-meds)?</p>

<p>2.) Student body malaise?</p>

<p>Are kids generally happy there and what's the school spirit like? I haven't exactly seen many people wearing Johns Hopkins paraphenalia anywhere. </p>

<p>3.) JHU Cribs</p>

<p>Apparently when my cousin was there, on-campus housing was quite scarce and most people ended up living in off-campus apartments. Is it still like this?
How does this affect the unity of the student body?</p>

<p>Thanks for ur thoughts!</p>

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<p>1.)
Misery loves company :). Just kidding! </p>

<p>I'm a pre-med, and it's really not bad. You create your own environment ANYWHERE you go. If you make it into a stressful place and what not, it's not your peers that are doing it. It would be you. But if you surround yourself around the right people, and not take the people who are "cut-throat" (and there's very few...if any...since I haven't come across one yet) seriously, you'll be fine! </p>

<p>Infact, I think you'll be surrounding yourself around very motivated students who want to do well and are willing to work with others to succeed. If that's the kind of atmosphere you want, then JHU is the place for you! I think a large bulk of us are here to help each other, and conspiring against your fellow students is hella frowned upon.</p>

<p>One thing though...I'm not gonna lie. There are a bunch of nerds here, maybe including me even! Which means a degree of social-ineptitude and a handful of students who just dont get it. Be prepared for that. Once again, you'll find these kinds of students everywhere anyway. </p>

<p>2.)
You don't see a lot of Johns Hopkins paraphenalia because there aren't a whole lot of JHU students out there. Do you like small schools with intimate classes? Here they are! ...except for the large introductory lectures. eek. It COULD be worse, ya. </p>

<p>3.)
Freshmen and Sophomore are guaranteed housing. They are currently CONSTRUCTING a new housing building for Juniors and Seniors only. It'll be done by next fall and has a Barnes and Nobles and Starbucks at the bottom.</p>

<p>Addenda:
They are really working hard to improve the quality of lives of their students here. Honestly, I couldn't be happier and I feel like I came to JHU at just the right time. Maybe it sucked a lot back then, but your cousin might think that it's a completely different place now.</p>

<p>I hope that helped! Come visit, and see for yourself.</p>

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<p>oh, as for student unity...if you like to get involved in clubs and what not...that shouldn't be a problem. you'll meet lots of great people, even awesome upper-classmen. Most of the student body is pretty forthcoming.</p>

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<p>JHU has a reputation for (1) attracting cutthroat undergrad pre-meds, (2) having more strengths in research and graduate programs with some neglect of UG education, (3) lacking school spirit and having mostly unhappy UG students, (4) bad food and (5) being in an unsafe, unattractive location. JHU's reputation has negatively impacted the number of applications (although the applicant pool is very good) and the yield of accepted students who enroll. With the recent murders, there has been even more cause for concern about the school's reputation.</p>

<p>Some aspects of the JHU reputation are probably not deserved. JHU UG education is a lot more varied than just being pre-med with a great many very strong science and humanity areas of study. JHU does attract highly motivated and academically-oriented students but most consider the academics to be challenging, not impossible or cutthroat. Several years ago, JHU conducted a study of the UG programs and did indeed identify some serious concerns. JHU found that, while satisfied with the quality of the education, most UG students were unhappy and school spirit was very much lacking. Search on the JHU webpage if you are interested in the study and the corrective actions. The corrective actions appear to be making substantial improvements. Even the food has gotten better. The housing situation appears to be one of the limiting factors. It is hard to develop a sense of community and school spirit when half of the students must live off campus. Inspite of a very active security program this also limits the schools ability to provide a safe environment.</p>

<p>The negative aspects of JHU's past reputation were of benefit to my daughter. She was admitted with pretty low SAT's (in the bottom quartile for JHU) and she received mostly rejections from schools of similar of lesser quality. Thankfully, JHU was her dream school and she was admitted. Even starting from a weaker academic level, she is not finding JHU to be overly difficult and is able to handle 21 credits. She is taking midterms and says she is doing "ok" or "pretty well", which I think means really well. She has no complaints except for the food, but she is a vegan and very picky.</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/0603web/expect.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/0603web/expect.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This is the study of UG education at JHU. In spite of some problems it appears that JHU is very committed to making improvements.</p>

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<p>It never fails...every month or so a thread begins on CC about the great MYTHS of life at Hopkins. I honestly believe there are more misconceptions about Hopkins than any other school out there. When I applied to Hopkins a few years ago I read about the rumors as well, but I decided to visit and I witnessed a completely different school than those dumb guide books and "word of mouth" comments I had been hearing. Now nearly a year and half later I laugh about some of the concerns prospective students have about JHU.</p>

<p>First, Hopkins is a much different place than it was 10, 5, or even 2 years ago. That article is dated June 2003 -- so much has changed even since then and so much will change in just the next few years. Student life is improving exponentially, especially starting next year with a new student center, new dorms, and new dining.</p>

<p>Second, Hopkins is what you make of it. There is tremendous freedom in academic and social life here that students really can shape whatever kind of life they want. JHU is a school with over 300 clubs and organizations, a beautiful campus, access to a city, amazing academic programs that span the humanities - social sciences - natural sciences - engineering. It is not for everyone though, and hopefully you all can come visit and see if it was you want out of your college experience.</p>

<p>Third, I honestly have not met a single student since I have been here who would label Hopkins cut-throat, competitive, focused too much on grad students. School spirit exists if you want it to -- go to a LAX game and you will see spirit. I would agree that safety is an issue but things are being addressed. I would also strongly agree that food is bad, but changes are coming too. </p>

<p>Fourth, I must disagree with the statement "JHU's reputation has negatively impacted the number of applications" as for the past 5 consecutive years the applicant pool has grown in # and quality. Working in the Admissions Office I speak with the counselors regularly and there is no concern about the applicant pool size nor quality. Actually, the "rumors" help weed out a lot of students who don't take the time to get to know the "real" Hopkins, and that helps the adcoms as most JHU applicants are interested applicants.</p>

<p>In the end, my advice is two-fold. One, come visit and see for yourself. And Two, get a lot of opinions. Clearly I love Hopkins -- but connect with other current JHU students and find out what life is really like here. If you can't visit, you can always email a student (<a href="mailto:askastudent@jhu.edu">askastudent@jhu.edu</a>) or participate in the online chats. Plus, in November there will be some cool new functions on the JHU website to connect with even more current students.</p>

<p>Sorry for my rant and Good luck.</p>

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<p>If I was not clear, let me clarify that if was referring to the past reputation. The article is also out of date, but does explain the past and ongoing efforts to make improvements.</p>

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<p>edad, i give props to your D and her 21 units! yikes!</p>

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<p>there is even a thread called "life at JHU" stickied at the top for anyone else who wants more info.</p>

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<p>I took a tour of Hopkins over the summer and they took us into a single room dorm. The walls were bare and you could see the concrete blocks used in construction. They said that the dorms with doubles were newer and nicer. I'm not sure why they showed us the ugliest rooms, but I was wondering if the doubles were nicer, or at least respectable.</p>

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<p>Wow, at least you got to see the dorms. Both times I've been there, the tour guides have told me we weren't allowed into the dorms. Security reasons. Well, it's not as though we'd be spending a lot of times inside the dorms, so it shouldn't be that big a deal. The rest of the campus is beautiful. Do you know the name of the dorm you went into, johnny1010220?</p>

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<p>spikedsoymilk- so pre-med at jhu isn't really that cut-throat? i was talking to someone today (whose daughter is pretty cynical about things), and she was discouraging me from considering applying to jhu (boo to her) because she said that her sister (who i think attended jhu) had said that jhu pre-meds are pretty nasty/mean people...i refuse to believe this, seeing as it's an all-encompassing view of jhu pre-meds. please give me some more reassurance?</p>

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<p>well, you can't assume they'll all be nice/mean. You just have to pick the people you hang out with, I guess.</p>

<p>I dunno if they're mean, but I'm willing to bet they're fairly ambitious and motivated if they got into JHU for premed. And don't take this the wrong way, it's not meant to be mean at all, but sometimes geeks (haha, like me) don't have the best social skills. It's just something you have to work on.</p>

<p>I really believe that a school is what you make it.</p>

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<p>prpltrmpt (whoa, i just got that!)~</p>

<p>here's reassurance:</p>

<p>do i sound nasty and cut-throat to you? :)</p>

<p>Anyway, I wasn't at JHU way back when because it's still possible that things weren't so peachy here then. But I'm telling you what I see at the here and now, things aren't so bad. I'm enjoying myself, really. Besides, you can't count on EVERYONE here being like that. It's like high school, you'll have your a s s h o l e s and the cool people whom you get along with perfectly. </p>

<p>It's all about finding your niche, and you'll be fine. Soumanyon is right though, some of the kids here don't have the best social skills. But they/we all have time to grow. </p>

<p>It's really funny. A year ago, all my friends and I on this board had the same exact questions as you guys. But you'll find that once your here, all your questions will be answered (obviously) and it's not so bad! Pleasant...maybe.</p>

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<p>"But you'll find that once your here, all your questions will be answered"</p>

<p>haha, hopefully we'll get the chance to find out!</p>

<p>btw, spikedsoymilk, since you're at JHU I have a quick question.</p>

<p>My parents (mom especially) are trying to discourage me from even applying because they're a little afraid of Baltimore's crime rate. Is it really as bad as those stats indicate? I'm trying to look for something to reassure them but it's kinda hard since I live in the stereotypical bubbled off suburb-ish area and JHU is relatively far from home.</p>

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<p>I'm from Cali. I know what it's like. But I mean, you can't live in a "bubbled off suburbish area" your ENTIRE life. Although, I heart the suburbs...anyway, I digress. Haha. </p>

<p>Well, if you exercise common sense, you'll be fine. Besides, don't count on walking the streets often anyway. JHU always has security escort shuttles taking people around, even a mere 2 blocks away. Safety IS an issue, don't get me wrong. But it's not one of those places where being boarded up in your room is an absolute necessity. I go out all the time and I feel relatively safe. </p>

<p>Obviously, you're not just going to wander into the REAL shady areas, unless you're stupid. If you don't do that, you'll be fine. Travel in packs. :P</p>

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<p>yay thanks, spikedsoymilk. that's what I THOUGHT, too. down with cynical and narrow minded people! </p>

<p>btw are you asian? haha i just have to ask. (soymilk....) good job for figuring prpltrmpt out.</p>

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<p>yep, i'm asian.</p>

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<p>Hmm...
as per the dorm issue....I saw many tour guides taking place during summer when I was at precollege....the main reason they prly didn't take you inside was because they were INHABITED....haha...with either teenagers or 5-14 year olds (CTY kids). So yeah...I doubt parents back home would want adult male and females wandering into their 6-year-old daughter's dorm =P.</p>

<p>I too had a question...
I heard its reeeallly tough to get good grades...uhh, A's, haha...at jhu (esp since there's no huge inflation like I heard harvard had). Jeff, how much harder are the REAL courses than from precollege courses? (well, not including ur neurosci course, since that was a UG only course). but yeah, I also heard that med, law, business schools know of jhu's tough grading rep, but still....is it really hard to get A's and B's?</p>

<p>Thx! ~</p>

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<p>I have to ask this. Don't take it to seriously though
How are the people? (as in appearances)
Hot guys and girls or... uglies</p>