Also, JHU recently finished building Malone Hall, a building solely focused on integrative and collaborative medical research combining CS with engineering and medicine. Dedicating and designing a whole buildings to encourage cross-disciplinary research is a newer concept and shows the school’s commitment to innovative and interprofessional research. Always look to see where an institution is spending its money to determine its focus and priorities. Anyone can talk, but until you spend the money, it’s only words. The fact that this building is on the undergrad campus and not a graduate campus is also telling, and hints to the opportunities you can take advantage of as an undergrad.
Lastly, the same three rumors that come up again and again are that Baltimore is a war zone, people at Hopkins don’t have social lives and that Hopkins is a cutthroat premed environment. Honestly, none of these are true, so make sure you speak with actual students when making this important decision and not just rumors or assumed stereotypes. Hopkins does have many premeds (probably about 30-40%), but being a premed is not a major, there are History of Art majors who are premed, so it definitely is not a homogenous bunch and (in my opinion) it doesn’t take away from the diversity of the student body. It surprises people to know that (often) some of the top ten most popular majors on campus include International Relations (often the second most popular major, and a feeder into the well-respected DC-based SAIS program), English, Writing Seminars (a creative writing major), Economics, and History. Additionally, the Classics, French, and History of Art departments, while small, are very well-respected academically.
Here are some previous threads where common JHU misconceptions are addressed:
Social Life/School Pride/Greek Life/Food: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/johns-hopkins-university/1878658-johns-hopkins-vs-cornell.html#latest
Hope this helps!