How active is the social life at Johns Hopkins? I am aware that there are pockets of people who spend all their time studying but I am also aware that not everybody is like that. What is there to do on weekends on/near campus?
The social life at JHU appears very non-existent on the outside, but it is there, it is just dispersed and expressed in different ways. If you’re looking for parties at JHU, it will certainly be hard to find them. I went to one frat party during my time there, and found it awful.
That being said, students engage in social activities together, it’s just not partying. I hate to say it, but a lot of students “hang out” at the library. Others go to bars and clubs in Bmore, some hang out in dorms, and a select few do drugs together.
Plain White Ts just played a free Friday night concert on the “Beach” if that counts.
@marsupial1 , I hope it’s not too late for you to see this!
Yes, some people do spend most of their time studying. But most people figure out a way to balance having a fun social life and getting work done.
There’s a pretty active Greek scene on campus which some students participate in. Frats throw parties pretty regularly that are usually easy to get into. The sororities and frats also have social events, both together and separately.
There are tons of student groups on campus as well. Of the performing groups, there’s something like 12 a capella groups, 10 dance groups, theater performance, sketch comedy, improv, and stand up comedy (I’m probably forgetting some) that all perform throughout the semester. That’s all on campus, and shows are usually free.
The Baltimore area has a lot to do as well. The nice thing about being in the city is that there’s always something going on (and it’s only an hour to DC by train, so people day trip there on weekends too). There are loads of restaurants, some right by campus, some further into the city. There’s bars downtown. And Baltimore has lots of neighborhoods that are waiting to be explored, as well as touristy hotspots. A free bus goes all the way to the touristy area once an hour or so, and there’s a collegetown shuttle that goes to other schools in the area and the mall in Towson. There’s a lot to do around here, both on and off campus. It took me some time to figure that out, but once I did it completely changed how I viewed Baltimore.
Yeh, that was sort of socializing when I was there. People in the same class would study together, often at the “Hut”, the old library with secular stained glass table, which had long wooden tables that could be used for group study.
There may be more clubs and stuff than when I was there. I had a feeling that Hopkins took a lot of people some schools turned down because they just studied and had weak ECs . A lot of the activities seemed career related. They had Democratic and Republican clubs, with many of the members from Maryland and in partly on political connections. It would enhance their careers as politically connected lawyers or whatever.
It sounds less weird than when I went there, but even nerdier. I maybe shouldn’t talk about this sort of thing. However, when I went there it was 30% girls, and most of the Hopkins girls had boyfriends who were from fancy backgrounds or really good looking or something like that.
Goucher had a reputation as somewhere you went for a Hopkins or Navy Mrs. degree. It was rated the number 1 school in an article of womens colleges in Playboy Magazine in the 1980s. Under “pickup line”, they said “pay for everything with your American Express Gold Card”. I think it is about 2/3 girls now. I would recommend guys check out the parties there. They certainly are into parties.
The truth is Hopkins’ social life is widely dampened by our school’s academic culture. We socialize a lot in the library and in study spaces because academics here is demanding and time-consuming. On top of that, our student organizations are, quite frankly, sad. Not because we lack passion or talent, but because we simply don’t have the time to cultivate our clubs due to our dedication to studying.
Greek life exists, but parties aren’t huge or particularly wild. Greek life can also be exclusive, but rushing is a lot more forgiving compared to other schools since we’re all just a bunch of nerds here.
There are…some… fun things to do in Baltimore, but going off campus to have fun costs money and takes time away from studying. Our campus is suffocatingly small and boring. And since the majority of your time will be spent on campus, that suffocating feeling will smother you constantly.
I will admit, some people are definitely happy here and will tell you Hopkins is a place where you can be happy. But these people are content with a lifestyle that leaves little time for pursuing extracurriculars with your peers.
My belief is that college is a unique opportunity to do amazing things with your peers, whether what you pursue be art, music, dance, public service, civic engagement, culture, robotics, etc etc. Just know that Hopkins is not a place where interests outside of school can thrive.