<p>I am planning to visit JHU over springbeak but I am becoming hesitate after reading this board. How does it compare to the University of Chicago in terms of crime and neighborhood. Also does anyone know of any safe hotels [preferrably a suite] hotel nearby?</p>
<p>There has been a lot of exaggeration going on here. When you visit the Homewood Campus, you will see that it is <em>NOT</em> a typical "city university" -- it is a lovely, good-sized leafy campus set among some working-class neighborhoods, some of which are better than others. It is not in a crime-infested area; common sense and awareness is usually sufficient to avoid any problems when you're out in the city away from the campus. I recommend you <em>do</em> visit over spring break and see for yourself.</p>
<p>The Doubletree Inn at the Colonnade is very comfortable and right across the street from the northern side of campus (University Parkway), very convenient. We stayed there last spring and were very happy with the accommodations.
<a href="http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=BWICUDT%5B/url%5D">http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=BWICUDT</a></p>
<p>the surrounding area around the Hop is perfectly safe. Try to take in a lacrosse game if you can. have fun.</p>
<p>take your gun or a knife just to be safe though..............</p>
<p>just kidding!!! :)</p>
<p>i think this forum is ridden with hopkins haters who just bash balto. great campus, great town, great school.</p>
<p>I spoke with a friend yesterday who said he lived in Baltimore near JHU for about 2 years in the 1990s. He said that he rarely felt unsafe during the day and not often at night. He said he would not recommend going into the bad sections of Baltimore at 2 a.m. I concluded his advise was probably typical for most big cities.</p>
<p>I come from a relatively small city (300,000 ppl) and have no fear of really any city. I mean, use common sense and I don't see where you can go wrong. If you can't handle Baltimore, then I don't recommend going to Chicago, LA, or NYC. I've travelled to many large cities, been around at night, and nothing to be afraid of.</p>
<p>btw, what's the point in visiting JHU over spring break? that's sort of, actually is, a waste of your break:
1) no one will be there, they have break too. if their break is different than yours, then I'm sure their break will be coming up so the school won't be functioning normally since a break is coming up.
2) it wastes your own break. visit JHU during classtime so you can miss school, hehe.
3) visiting colleges over spring break!? nooo, don't do that.
4) it won't benefit you in terms of getting in if you plan on sneaking in an interview or something because they'll probably have most of their decisions completed by then since decisions are sent out late March/early April.</p>
<p>if you want to interview you should make plans this month when it can still help, not a week before they send out admission responses. you should definitely visit JHU but don't waste your time unless you get in first. so I'd visit in April if I were you seeing as how it'll be too late to benefit you in admissions and might waste your time/money if you don't get in if done in March.</p>
<p>ehh whatever, you decide hehe. good luck</p>
<p>I believe the OP is currently a junior, applying next fall. Spring of your junior year is a good time to visit, especially if your break falls at a different time than the school's and if you can swing it financially, if you want a better sense of which schools you might apply to. When we were there last spring in a similar situation, school was functioning normally and it was a great time to visit. By the way, some high schools place a limit on how many days of class you can miss, even for things like college visits, otherwise you may not graduate -- under such circumstances it is FAR preferable to visit colleges over your spring break when you don't lose schooldays.</p>
<p>Interviews won't even be a question until after the summer.</p>
<p>oh, I didn't realize you/they were a junior.
You're right about schools having absense policies including for college visits, but they're pretty lenient. My school gives us 10 per class and then the teacher has the option to drop you or not, but usually the teacher will not care and everything will be fine. If all your absenses truly come from visiting colleges, you aren't going to be kicekd out and not graduate. Come on, be realistic hehe...schools barely even care about attendance senior year, maybe junior year tho. anyways, absenses really aren't going to keep you from graduation unless the absenses cause you to fail your classes. if you're grades are fine with absenses, it's usually no problem.</p>
<p>anyhoo, I still don't see why anyone would want to visit colleges over spring break. every highschool gives enough free absenses to allow college visits. now, if you happen to be visiting Baltimore during spring break, then by all means go look at JHU, but don't go out of your way driving hours or flying just to visit. save that time for a weekend. maybe take off a friday from school and have it continue into the weekend. leave thursday night and get there that night, visit the school on Friday when the school is running, and then maybe stay friday night to experience the social scene. i dunno, makes sense to me.</p>
<p>"anyways, absenses really aren't going to keep you from graduation unless the absenses cause you to fail your classes. if you're grades are fine with absenses, it's usually no problem."</p>
<p>This is not true at the school my children attend.</p>
<p>It is far better to visit any college during the week when class is in session, rather than on a weekend, absolutely. When one lives on one coast and wants to visit schools for consideration on the opposite coast, it makes sense to fly across the country and travel among several of them during a week off from school. My son had 4 schools he wanted to visit on the east coast and we got to see all of them during the week we visited from CA. It's a really good use of your time, and it can actually be fun, if you let it be.</p>
<p>Californiadreaming, let us know what you think after your visit!</p>
<p>My springbreak is different than Hopkins. I am visiting Hopkins,Georgetown, William and Mary, Duke, UNC and Davidson.</p>
<p>Cal, you do know that all of the schools you ar planning on visiting may have different spring breaks. In fact, as far as I know, UNC and JHU have break from March 12-20, while W&M and GeorgeT have their break March 5-13. Hopefully your break is in April?</p>
<p>i live in a chicago suburb. i chose to not apply to u of c, because i've heard from so many people that it's a stressful--suicidal--school.. so.. but i did apply to johns hopkins..</p>
<p>Californiadreaming, you will have to post your reviews of the schools when you get back from springbreak. I haven't been able to visit most of the colleges I applied to and would love to hear what you think of Duke, JHU, and UNC.</p>
<p>uh to all of you who are deciding where to go, JHU all the way. Not cuz this is a biased thread or anything (haha) but cuz its a BE-AUTIFUL campus, great area (despite the rumors that its like all deaths all the time) great (sometimes underrated) education (JHU is tied w/ Cornell at 14 on top US colleges US News) I dont see any cons... do you?</p>