<p>So I was considering these schools as reaches for premed, but I think I’m on the verge of eliminating JHU for good for these reasons:</p>
<li><p>Although JHU is obviously a lot of doctors’ dream school, its extremely competitive in that people will sabatage in order to make you fail…I just can’t put up with that isht.</p></li>
<li><p>JHU = Major grade deflation.</p></li>
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<p>So I’ve been really really considering Wash U, especially since I like the STL area, but I’ve also heard that it is basically an up-and-coming JHU with many of the same problems. Can anyone confirm or deny this, especially the reasons that I gave for disliking JHU?</p>
<p>WashU is not cutthroat : )
The general trend is that people work together and help eachother out, and are very supportive of eachother here. I'm not premed, but I'm in biology, so I'm taking mostly the same courses as the pre-meds. The courses are tough, but I don't think anyone purposely makes others try to fail. That would just go entirely against the personality of WashU. I have a friend who goes to JHU, and she is completely stressed all the time about the competitive atmosphere. As far as number 2, well, it is possible to get As in chemistry, but you definitely have to work for them. One more thing, about the atmosphere, one of the main (yet optional, ie, you can participate or not, but most people do) offshoots of general chemistry is PLTL (peer-led, team learning). In your PLTL group (roughly 8 to 9 people), you are given a set of unusual problems, and the whole group works together to arrive at the answer. If one person is confused, or doesn't understand the concept, the group backs up and explains the concept to eachother. I hope this helped....I know it seems kind of biased : )</p>
<p>the nice thing about WashU is that you can be anything and pre med, like one of my friends is art history and pre med. however PNP is a very popular major. a lot of people like it because it approaches similar concepts from three different sides, also i know psychology itself is normally the #1 or #2 major. PNP is a really popular major to be pre med with, also when eleph said they are bio but not pre med they meant that they are a bio major but not on the pre med track, however many of the courses overlap. washu is not competitive at all, my room mate and i are in many of the same classes, help each other study and are generally encouraging and barely even discuss grades.</p>
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When you say you are bio but not pre-med, what exactly is the difference? I thought premed was not a major but rather just a plan...
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At WUStL, not everyone who's pre-med is a biology major, but most biology majors are pre-med. 75%, to be exact.</p>
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1. Although JHU is obviously a lot of doctors' dream school, its extremely competitive in that people will sabatage in order to make you fail...I just can't put up with that isht.</p>
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<li>JHU = Major grade deflation.
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JHU doesn't really have grade deflation; it just doesn't have grade inflation. Not quite the same thing. Have you visited Hopkins? I got exactly the opposite impression, especially in the humanities.</li>
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<p>Did alot of research on both these schools. Here's my 2 cents with the caveat that this is all based on research not personal experience! JHU ,while having the stronger reputation for medicine, is known to be a pretty intense place to go to school. You will get an incredible pre-med education at JHU, but you might not have a great time doing it. I've heard that JHU is trying to do things to shake its "where fun goes to die" reputation, and admitting more mainstream and humanities types. So maybe things are changing and the reputation is just dying slowly. On the other hand, whenever you ask people about WashU they say "everyone loves it there, everyone is happy there" or "everyone is so friendly and nice"...etc. You hear that pre-med is difficult at WashU, but that is is not cut-throat because cut-throat is just not in the school's personality. Also, people say that pre-med permeates the campus culture at JHU, whereas WashU culture is more varied and mainstream.</p>
<p>Also, the professors at JHU have been known to concentrate more on research than undergrad teaching, therefore you may not get the same experience with classes. Also, I know WashU reserves many more research opps for undergrads (even 1st years) than JHU.</p>
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Also, I know WashU reserves many more research opps for undergrads (even 1st years) than JHU.
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I can't find WUStL's data, but 70% of JHU students have done research by graduation, and there are scholarships for research (including one specifically for freshmen). For example, I know of an esteemed professor at JHU who annually brings undergrads to her dig in Egypt (this is very, very, very rare).</p>
<p>I don't know much about WashU, but JHU has a ton of really good opportunities for pre-meds. They have a lot of programs affiliated with their hospital/grad school where students can shadow doctors for credit for a semester (called 'Medical Tutorials'), or perform research. A lot of undergrads do research, and although pre-meds don't permeate the atmosphere per se, a large variety of majors incorporate pre-med requirements (public health, neuroscience, bio, etc.)
The medical school advising is great, and a cutthroat atmosphere isn't palpable at all. Plenty of people help each other out preparing for tests, proofreading each other's papers, etc.</p>