<p>The following is what I have read from alumni:<br>
What do you think. True or not? Refute or Support?</p>
<p>There are so many negative things about Johsn Hopkins that I do not know where to begin. Simple put, there is little purpose for undergraduates on that campus besides paying tuition. Faculty are arrogant, haughty, disinterested in your education/welfare as an undergraduate and absurdly lazy. A few years back, they protested mightily when asked to teach more classes on Fridays (all but the most junior take 3 or 4 day weekends every week). Most "grunt work" is delegated to graduate "teaching" assistants whose bathing abilities are almost as poor as their teaching abilities. If you major in the Sciences... good luck! The sadists who teach those courses will curve you downward. At other universities, there is rightly a concern over grade INFLATION. At Johns Hopkins, the concern is over grade DEFLATION. Your chances for graduate school admission will be adveresly impacted as a result of these practices if you attend Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>Socially, the university is sadly deficient in activities, funds and ideas. Fraternities offer a social outlet which is, at best, lame. The University does not try to provide constructive alternative activites to students. Instead, it calls in the Baltimore Police for a periodic lockup of fraternity brothers. Other activities cost money - calling the police is free. I'm not always a fan of fraternities, but the things for which the University goes after fraternities are generally trivial and have little to do with health, welfare and safety and have far more to do with university image enhancememnt, insurance premium reduction and the general sour-puss mentality which pervades administrative corridors. </p>
<p>The adminisitration is dysfuntional and doesn't care even slightly about the problems of the university or about its students. They even did a survey several years back which determined that this sentiment was widespread. I can remember when I needed the associate dean, Dean Sheppard, to sign 1 piece of paper for my law school application stating that I had never had disciplinary problems (I had none), she never did it, despite the fact that I called nearly every day for a month, and emailed, visited, etc. That is just oen example of what you can expect as a JHu undergraduate student. </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is a boot camp for Pre-Meds and engineers and a purgatorial wasteland for those who flunked out of the above down to International Relations, Econ, and Writing Seminars. Other than that there are actually a few kids who really wanted to be in the latter majors. The school itself views undergraduates mostly as a source of revenue for professor research and the medical and graduate schools. A needy source of revenue that wont quit whining about getting killed and raped and mugged in student housing and being fed inedible food provided at exhorbitant markup to the students by a faceless multi-national company that used to also run prisons in Australia until they were shut down for being unfit for human confinement(Sodexho-Marriot: look it up, they were also kicked off numerous college campuses by student protests at Universities where the student body isn't too busy studying 24/7 to be totally apathetic). To give the students something else to think about, the school also provides a mere 100 dollars (One Hundred, you read it right) per student per year for ALL non-academic student activities funding. This includes clubs, organizations, non-varsity sports, band, drama, conferences, symposiums, student life activities, performing arts, etc. The one gleaming exception is possibly the Digital Media Center which was put in place to cover the gaping chasm of arts at Hopkins. To this the school would probably reply that you can totally take classes at Peabody and MICA. Oh right, and that will be after my 18 credit hours or before I get mugged trying to leave campus? Apart from this, Baltimore is a sickening dump filled with ignorant and pitiful denizens who confer the worst aspects of both Northern and Southern cities upon the area. The Baltimore Demographic encompasses both the ignorant redneck racists of the South, yet is also at its core plagued by the poor, violent, urban slums of northern cities. In short, the only thing good about Baltimore is that is is driving distance from D.C., Philly, and New York, so that you can get the hell out if you have a car. In short, unless you are totally set on being a Doctor or Biomedical Engineer and are willing to step on others in the process, look elsewhere for undergraduate schooling. Oh yeah, they have a really good lacross team too.</p>