<p>As I said, What makes you choose JHU over Cornell?
I choose JHU for its strong IR</p>
<p>I liked the feel of the people better. They seemed a lot more friendly. I also liked how accessible the faculty are.</p>
<p>I know other current JHU students will respond, but I will state two points and one statement:</p>
<p>(1) The reasons one student made their decision should have little to do with how you make your decision. Impressions are impressions. Preferences are preferences. Everyone is different and everyone is looking for different things. Everyone's priorities are different. </p>
<p>(2) VISIT VISIT VISIT - This is the only way you will be able to determine the distinct qualities of each given university. Elite schools are quite similar, but it is the little details about the campus, location, facilities, and people that make the greatest difference.</p>
<p>The other thing I will say is that you will not that JHU students will respond about what they like about JHU by talking about the strengths of JHU -- not by criticizing the other university. I read through the comments on the thread you posted over on the Cornell forums, and was surprised by how much their students decided to attack JHU rather than praise their own school. There is no rivalry between the schools - they are different and it is your personal preferences that will help make you decide which school works for you.</p>
<p>If I get accepted to JHU, I'd pick it for warmer weather, RESEARRRRRCH, beautiful chances at med school, and uhh...RESEARCH!!!!!! >.<</p>
<p>you surely taught me a lesson Admissions Daniel.
Thank you so much.</p>
<p>I'm a BME major, so some of my reasons won't apply to everyone else, but here it goes (in no particular order):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Med school & research - In terms of research opportunities, you're probably going to find more at a university's medical school. Hopkins medical school is ~3 miles from campus and there are shuttles that go there all the time. (Cornell's medical school is over 200 miles from Ithaca)</p></li>
<li><p>Academic "culture" (I don't know what else to call it) - I visited both Cornell and Hopkins before I made a decision on where to enroll and got a really different impression on each campus. When I visited Hopkins, I met a lot of students from a variety of majors who were happy at Hopkins. I also met faculty members and one of the things they stressed was that Hopkins has strengths across the board (in the humanities, sciences and engineering). When I visited Cornell, I also met lots of happy students and I know that Cornell has strengths in all disciplines, but that wasn't the impression I got from talking to faculty. I think I met with two professors in ChemBE and the Dean of engineering and at least two of them emphasized to me that "Cornell is liberal arts school that happens to have a good engineering program". Now I know that Cornell does has really good engineering programs, but that attitude kinda put me off. I wanted to go an university that emphasized its strengths across the board, not downplayed them. I doubt everyone in Cornell Engineering holds the same point of view, but I didn't like the impression I got after my visit.</p></li>
<li><p>Daniel's number two point is really, really important! Don't try to make judgements about any school until you get a chance to visit. I came to my Hopkins visit having head some not-so-great rumors about the school but ended up really liking my vising. On the other hand, I visited another Ivy league school (not Cornell) that I had heard great things about, but I really didn't feel like it was a good "fit" when I visited.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>(That's what I can think of off the top of my head.. Plus, I'm at work and need to get back to my experiments! I might add some more later)</p>