Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins (visited 5/17/17)

Some of the well-landscaped campus

Of course, JHU has a great reputation. Academically, it has a lot to offer. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the information session, as were the 4 students with me. “I don’t know anything more about the school now than when I walked in,” said one as we were talking afterwards. They were unable to provide any information to distinguish JHU from a myriad of other schools. For example, their January Intersession is by no stretch of the imagination “really unique!” as the admissions rep told us … there are a lot of schools that offer 3-ish week January/Winter/May terms that provide experiential learning or chances to learn things outside the mainstream.

A quad with some of the Baltimore skyline in the background

The only real take-away from the session was that there is “Academic Flexibility. There are no general education requirements that every student has to take. The open curriculum means they get to decide what ‘well-rounded’ means to them.” The Admissions Rep mentioned a ‘Distribution Credit System’ which was designed to make sure that students are well-rounded, but was unable to actually articulate what that means even when questioned directly by a potential student. She just reiterated that “students get to decide that they take.” Clearly, they do require students to take classes in a variety of disciplines, like most other schools. The choice factor is not unusual. Many schools provide a range of classes from which students can choose to fulfill their gen ed requirements.

One of the labs with medical equipment students can train on

JHU claims the title as the country’s first Research University. Today, over 75% of the 5300 undergrads do research. The Woodrow Wilson Undergrad Fellowship is open to students in the Arts & Sciences division. Applicants can fill out app in tandem with their undergrad admissions app. Rising sophomores can also apply for this. Recipients can get up to $10000 over the 4 years to help with research-related costs (travel, lab fees, etc). There are also Provost’s Awards and Dean’s Undergrad Awards meant to help with research costs. The sciences are also well funded for research such as RISE at APL (Applied Physics Lab). “There are lots of opportunities but students need to make the effort to take advantage of it,” said our tour guide.

The theater department

“I was surprised by the diversity of interests the students have,” said a student working the desk at the admissions office. “People are involved in things you wouldn’t expect them to be based on their majors.” This seemed to hold true based on even classes that were offered such as ‘Improv for Scientists and Engineers’ – “The goal in that class is to teach them to speak extemporaneously about their work since everyone has to make presentations now.”

Part of the Archaeology Museum

“I was also surprised by the strength of the theater department here. You don’t really think about Johns Hopkins when you think ‘theater’ – but people are really good and there’s a range of productions every year.” Another department that people may not think about is French: it’s one of two in the country recognized by France as the place to learn French culture! The Archaeology Department has a museum on campus that houses “One of the two dead bodies on campus.”

One of the reading rooms with the non-religious stained glass collection

Only 5% of classes have more than 100 students. The tour guide’s smallest had 6 students; his largest had 300 (Intro to Business).

Campus is attractive with several quads and well-maintained buildings. They have one of the largest non-religious stained glass collections. Students can move off campus after 2 years, but “off” usually means within about 3 blocks of campus. There’s a freshman quad and 2 more freshman residences on Charles Avenue across from “The Beach.” Charles Commons is suite-style living for Sophomores. There are plenty of shuttles around campus and around the city.

The Beach (foreground) with 2 freshman dorms in the background. 

Lacrosse is the only DI sport on campus and is huge; they have Homecoming in the spring based on lacrosse rather than football. A few traditions that the tour guide raved about were Hoptoberfest (fall festival with music, outdoor movies, a haunted house, and more) and First Night where the freshmen are welcomed to the university with a candle lighting ceremony.

© 2017