Can you, JHU students, please tell me what are the things one can find only in this university? What makes it unique? It can be anything, a course, a professor, or even something like the Columbia mandatory swim test. Thank you so much.
Well, pretty much all the faculty work only at this university, lol. I really can’t say what one can only find here because I haven’t been anywhere else
- **Academic freedom** -- There are no gen ed courses; instead, you have to take 4-6 classes outside of your major, often in the area that your major is NOT in (humanities / social sciences if you're a natural science / quantitative science / engineering major and vice versa). You also have to take 2-4 writing classes.
- **Covered grades** -- To smooth the transition between high school and college, all your first-semester classes are pass/fail.
- **Strong International Studies program** -- My friends who are in the major love the variety of courses; the chances to double major with German, History, and especially Sociology; and the BA/MA program with the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in D.C. SAIS in itself is unique due to its sister campuses in Nanjing and Bologna, and in particular, the diverse student body that forms a tight-knit community. There are also programs with the schools Sciences Po Paris and Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. I don't know *too* much about the major or the grad schools, though.
- **Strong Psychological and Brain Sciences program** -- Tied to this department are the majors Neuroscience, Behavioral Biology, Psychology, and Cognitive Science (though this one isn't formally in the department). This plenty of opportunity to study the mind and brain from different perspectives and in ways that fit students' needs (Neuro is good for premeds because it contains many prereqs; Behavioral Bio does too, but it is a more flexible major; Psych is also flexible, but without the science classes; and CogSci is good for students who want to overlap with engineering or the humanities). There are also abundant opportunities to do research.
- **Strong Biomedical Engineering and Public Health programs** -- The BME community is also very tight-knit, and it provides a lot of opportunity to do research and design things in teams early on. The Public Health major's biggest perks are the opportunity to take classes at the graduate school for Public Health, Bloomberg, and the abundance of opportunities to get involved with the Baltimore community in ways that really benefit it.
- **Strong premed presence** -- Plus or minus, depending on who you are. It's not the most tight-knit community as a whole, but you never feel like you're struggling alone, lol. The goodness of this school for being premed gets hyped up a lot, though. I can't compare the premed advising to that at other schools, but I have not found it to be stellar, and it can be hard to get quality clinical volunteering opportunities (or have the time to do it).
- **Baltimore is awesome** -- Whether you're interested in public health, education, and community service, or working with the poor, kids, refugees, prisoners, HIV/AIDS patients, etc., there's an opportunity for you to get involved and meet some very interesting people of a diverse set of backgrounds.
@OnMyWay2013 This is an excellent list! I personally did not know about #2 which is a really nice feature. How are non BME engineers treated at JHU? I know BME is extremely selective and one of the best in the world, but what about mech engineering? Any love for the mech engineers at JHU or is the department focused on the BME.
Lol, BMEs don’t get special treatment; I’ve actually run into a lot of them, and they’re pretty down-to-earth, so it doesn’t feel like they’re an “elite” or anything. I haven’t met many MechE’s, on the other hand. I think that department (MechE has its own department) gets the dual benefit of being small and intimate, and being able to branch out in so many ways. They now have a Mechanical Engineering major, the traditional one, and an Engineering Mechanics major, which still has some of the MechE core courses but allows for more flexibility with electives. You also have the options of focusing in Aerospace and Biomechanics. MechE’s can minor at the Arts and Sciences school or the Engineering school, which includes medical minors like Computer Integrated Surgery and Computational Medicine; and non-medical ones like Robotics, Environmental Engineering / Engineering for Sustainable Developmment, and Entrepreneurship and Management. I believe that undergrads can also minor in Space Science. There’s also a combined Bachelors/Masters degree available. I believe most, if not all, engineering majors get hands-on experience from freshman year.
As a BME I can tell you that, in my experience, BMEs aren’t really treated much differently than other engineers. The main differences are that the BME department has lots of money and thus is getting lots of new facilities (is the design studio), BME classes tend to be curved nicely (unlike other engineering major classes), and BMEs have a reputation for being smart which gives them a leg up when it comes to getting research positions. However, the last point is more anecdotal /speculative than anything else.
The MechE department is very small and tightly knit. They also have lots of facilities (machining tools, laser cutters, etc) as well as robotics and other MechE type clubs (Baja).
@OnMyWay2013 @saif235 Can I PM one of you guys some questions I have about engineering at JHU and JHU in general?
@Classof2017 sure
Sure! But actually, if saif235 is a BME, he/she’d be better able to answer your questions.