<p>I was recently fortunate enough to be accepted as a transfer applicant to both Columbia College and UPenn CAS. Currently I am a student at JHU in the school of arts and sciences. I applied for transfer because I was originally disappointed with my senior year results on the college front and sought another chance to reach higher than my current institution. Moreover, I found Baltimore to be rather drab. Entering Hopkins I had no clear path, in terms of major or otherwise.</p>
<pre><code>However, I have since declared myself as a Molecular and Cellular Biology Major on the premed track. SO thus is my question: would I be doing myself a disservice in transferring from JHU when they are so well known for these two fields? And if not, what school, Penn or Columbia would be a better choice for such a track/focus?
<p>You should not only look at a school for its prestige. Especially for pre-med. I know people who went to states schools and got into Harvard Med so the fact that you are only looking for prestige is a bit ridiculous.
That being said, you donât sound like you love Hopkins. If thatâs the case, they why stay? They are several people around the nation applying to transfer to JHU because it is/was their dream school and didnât get in the first time. If you arenât happy here, go elsewhere so that someone who would true appreciate the chance to attend Hopkins can come.
If Iâm wrong, I donât mean to be harsh. Itâs just how I read your question. Go where you will be the most happy because at the end of the day, thatâs where youâll do your best</p>
<p>Just to clarify: when I meant that I was disappointed I meant to say that I applied to Hopkins on a whim, never intending to go, and indeed never seeing the campus before I was accepted. It was a high safety (not in the traditional sense of safety but rather as an excellent school that might be there if I needed it). I knew it was a good school but thatâs about it when I applied. Therefore, itâs never where I wanted to be, regardless of prestige. Columbia and Penn are such places were places that i knew a great deal about and wished to be. whether it was the superior cities, the Greek
Life, the academics, and yes the prestige( but that is not the sole defining characteristic), I found them appealing. My question is simply this: is leaving the school I never wanted to attend a bad idea since I seek to pursue things that school is sincerely known for being excellent in? In other words: would it be foolish to follow my previous desires after new developments (I.e. my choice of major/going premed)?</p>
<p>Iâm an incoming freshman too, but I remember how torn I was, up to May 1, about choosing between Duke and JHU because I heard about how competitive JHU was and how there werenât as many safety nets in terms of professor-student help and advising. And even though I didnât like Duke that much, I was willing to go and be unhappy because I wanted to guarantee my success.</p>
<p>But now I feel (hope) Iâve made the right choice. Nothing will guarantee your success, not even a college known for getting people into med school. Columbia and Penn are excellent schools that Iâm sure have good pre-med programs and, being in cities, will open up tons of opportunities for you to achieve your career goals. But happiness isnât something you can get everywhere, so if youâre unhappy, donât stay.</p>
<p>@OP: Youâve been at JHU for one year. How do you feel about the school now? Is it still a blurry place where you canât imagine having a good life at? From your posts, it still seems that your âprevious desiresâ are your current desires. Sorry if Iâm wrong, though. </p>
<p>^^^ Some options if you need help at Hopkins. I heard that most professors are also willing to help during office hours (if you seek them), and advisers truly push you to pursue research in that they help you find the right lab, etc (I got this from a CC Hopkins '09 alum called tanman). But yeah, I hope I made the right choice too. Congrats on your Duke acceptance btw!</p>
<p>Also, to add to accio, Iâve had professors come in on the weekends before to go over the material with me for a few hours if we couldnât find time during the week.</p>
<p>If you arenât happy at JHU then you should leave. Your productivity will decrease no matter where you are if you arenât happy there. Also it will show when you try to get highly competitive research lab positions compared to other undergrad students. Professors can tell a student that is trying to get into a superstar lab for the purpose of putting it on their med school resume vs the student that genuinely has a passion for the research and can add to the lab. All 3 schools have top biological science programs and research hospitals. Columbia is in NYC so there might be more opportunities in case you decide you want to go into the business side of the sciences instead. But just remember, if you are just going through the motions you will be up against people that want it far more than you. Be honest with yourself, JHU hospital has a few nobel prize winners. They do look for undergrads to help with research. A recommendation letter from them could truly boost a students career. But who do you think will get it? While you have good grades it seems you lack true passion for the subject. Professors arenât dumb. Do you think it will be different at Columbia or Upenn? If the actual environment of JHU doesnât fit your personality thatâs a good reason to leave. But thinking it will help with medical school is absurd and naive.</p>
<p>Hi FinalEyes: I think a lot of us are wondering why you donât like JHU now that youâre there. Itâs understandable that a year ago you were terribly disappointed to have not gotten into your dream schools. And it makes sense that your images of JHU were not very appealing having never visited nor intending to go there in the first place. But now after one year, what is your impression? Was the year still colored by your disappointment of having not gotten into an Ivy school? Or did you get immersed in life at JHU and find that you actually do like it? If the latter is true, I would try to forget Penn and Columbia for a moment and figure out how you feel about JHU now that you have been a student there. For pre-med, JHU is as good as it gets (something which wouldnât have mattered to you as much last year before youâd realized you were interested in pre-med). So the real question is everything else (campus, activities, friends, etc.). The dream doesnât really matter anymore now that your choices are a level playing field (for pre-med). I agree with everyone else here that you shouldnât stay at JHU if you are unhappy. But do you think you would be happier at Penn or Columbia? Or just pursuing a former dream?</p>
<p>FinalsEyes, Iâm also a current JHU freshman whoâs deciding on transferring between UPenn and Wesleyan (and a couple other schools if I get off their wait list). If your main reason for transfer is getting the best education possible for your field, JHU really is the place to be if youâre premed; I donât think UPenn and Columbia would be as cut throat/competitive as JHU, not saying that they arenât as good, but I generally feel like if you strive in a competitive environment over a collaborative one, Hopkins is right for you. Like most people said, it really depends on why you are transferring. BlueJayBJ has it right (I like the username btw), Iâm transferring because frankly, Iâm just not happy here. I really donât like Baltimore, I donât fit in with the general Hopkins crowd, and I think that I could have a better academic experience in a different school and do better where I would be happier. I think if you arenât satisfied with your experience at JHU and you think you can have a better one at a different school, then transfer.</p>
<p>And honestly, I think JHU is just as prestigious as those schools. Sure itâs not an Ivy League but JHU beats out those schools in a lot of different ways (research grants, that stuff). I was able to take a class this semester taught by the 2011 nobel prize winner in Physics, I canât say that if I went to any different school.</p>
<p>@FirstDayOfMyLife: What is the general Hopkins crowd like? Also, youâre saying that the cut throat environment still very much exists? Because I got the impression that it was just a terrible stereotype.</p>
<p>@FinalEyes: Go where you think you will be happy.</p>
<p>I think nowadays people use the words competitive and cutthroat interchangeably. JHU is most definitely not cutthroat, but it is competitive. Competitive in the sense that you have to study and earn As as nearly everyone at JHU excelled in high school.</p>
<p>@chany94 I second what Blah said. The competition is there because youâre thrown into a pool of excellent students and you canât help but feel like you need to keep up with them (Ok, I have a very bad way of putting this into wordsâŠ) And to be honest, it happens in every top college. You can read this blog post: </p>
<p>So far, from the JHU students and alumni that I talked to - they said that they have no problems with studying and working together with peers. Besides, I think the sheer volume of people who are worried about the âcutthroatâ/competitive atmosphere just shows that no one really wants to be that kind of person :)</p>
<p>@chany94 Tbh, it really depends on what youâre studying there and everyone has a different experience here. A difference between JHU and some other top schools is grade deflation (just as an example, the average gpa at brown is above 3.6 and at harvard itâs 3.5 or near there as oppose to 3.1-3.2 here and at places like Cornell). The reason why I say itâs cutthroat isnât because people are literally sabotaging their peers (Iâve shared notes with many of my classmates if they couldnât make class and such). Overall, I feel like thereâs a general sense that your grade depends on your classmates grades more than how well you know the subject. People constantly talk about grades here a lot more than the actual material they are learning, and it could be motivating or nauseating depending on how you take it. Remember though, this is coming from someone who is transferring out. Because of a ridiculously high retention rate at JHU, Iâm quite an anomaly so definitely get opinions from other students here (not people who know about this school, but actual students, thereâs a big difference).</p>
<p>You mention that one of the appeals of Columbia and Penn are their Greek life.</p>
<p>If that is actually something you care about, donât go to Columbia. No more than 10% of the student body joins frats or sororities, and generally frat and sorority people are looked down upon as shallow and ditzy.</p>
<p>Penn, on the other hand, has a robust Greek scene. I think participation is closer to 30%, if I remember correctly. </p>
<p>Columbia athletics are also pretty dismal, and no one cares about the sports teams here. Penn has some pretty great teams, and people actually care about the sports teams there.</p>
<p>I donât mean this post to be a dig at Columbia. I go to Columbia, and I absolutely love the fact that people donât care about sports or frats here. Those were big selling points for me (as well as the city and the core).</p>
) I donât know very much about Columbia - sorry about that.</p>
Some options if you need help at Hopkins. I heard that most professors are also willing to help during office hours (if you seek them), and advisers truly push you to pursue research in that they help you find the right lab, etc (I got this from a CC Hopkins '09 alum called tanman). But yeah, I hope I made the right choice too. Congrats on your Duke acceptance btw!</p>