Decision time - Johns Hopins vs Amherst college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im confused by your post. Are you working on the assumption Hopkins is perceived to be a better school than Amherst? That's not the case. If kid prefers Amherst, go to Amherst. Arguably Amherst is more prestigious. Are you from another country?

You must be joking. Hopkins is a top 10 national university while Amherst is just a LAC.

Your ignorance is showing.

Not really. The opportunities available are just different at a LAC. Leading faculty and top research are found at the T10 national university, while an undergraduate teaching emphasis is at the LAC. Some kids don't need to be taught and can already lead.

Too bad the top research goes to grad students. Not so at Amherst where there is precisely zero competition from grad students

For all this talk of graduate students at Hopkins, they don't have a huge presence on the Homewood campus. The medical, public health, and business schools all have their own campuses elsewhere in Baltimore. As one of the leading research universities in the country, I think research opportunities would be better at Hopkins than any LAC, even with the presence of grad students. None of this is relevant to op's daughter.

But OPs child is interested in political science - which has it's graduate program at Homewood (same as undergrads). Same with graduate department in economics and there is also the Institute for Policy Studies there. There are also SAIS faculty who come teach (work) up at Homewood frequently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a top SLAC and the next year entered an MA program at Hopkins in a humanities department.
At 22, I was a TA for an undergrad writing class. I say TA — but I was responsible for devising a syllabus, conducting all classes, writing final exams, deciding grades. Ostensibly, we TAs (I think there were 8 or so of us in my department) reported to a supervisor. But we were the teachers.
I put alot of time and effort into teaching that class, but it never failed to amaze me that parents were paying for me, an unwitting 22-year-old, to teach their kids and determine their grades.
At my SLAC, my teachers were professors, and were astonishingly good. Most of my classes had under 15 or 20 people in them.
I sent my kids to SLACs.

This is department dependent. At Hopkins, PhD Econ professors teach the economics courses. The large Micro/Marco Principles classes have a once a week session that is run by a graduate student TA but the professor tells the TA's what to cover. Usually it's giving more examples of what is taught in class, or going over homework problems, or exams. The only econ courses that were even close to being designed by a graduate student are a couple of summer course opportunities given to top grad students (as a stipend reward opportunity) who compete to apply. When I got this opportunity, the professor provided me with their entire syllabus and class notes....I could make whatever edits I wanted...but this was FAR from driving the bus. I'd be crazy not to take advantage of all the work that had already been done - since learning the specialty enough to teach it and then teaching each class is enough work. If we wanted to craft our own course - we'd get hired as adjunct at local colleges like Loyola - usually in micro/macro principles.

I also had friends that were grad students in engineering and lab sciences. They also were not doing anything close to what this other person is describing. They usually taught a support/discussion section or helped to run the lab that went with the course. We didn't know English or History grad students...maybe it's different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JHU is a size of a medium LAC and has 6:1 students to professors ratio, much better than many SLACS, just look it up. Most of the classes have less than 25 students. If you are a good professor in any field, I wonder where you want to work and teach and live - JHU / Baltimore/DC area, where all the scientific and other action is or some obscure small school in the middle of nowhere?

I'd rather be alive in the "middle of nowhere" than be killed or harmed in Baltimore

give it a break....

[Anonymous]

Congrats to your new BlueJay!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JHU is a size of a medium LAC and has 6:1 students to professors ratio, much better than many SLACS, just look it up. Most of the classes have less than 25 students. If you are a good professor in any field, I wonder where you want to work and teach and live - JHU / Baltimore/DC area, where all the scientific and other action is or some obscure small school in the middle of nowhere?

I'd rather be alive in the "middle of nowhere" than be killed or harmed in Baltimore

give it a break....

Can’t handle the truth?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have visited both schools, and went to JHU for grad school.

I think Amherst is a much better setting for college.

Hopkins is (TBH) a rather greedy institution, that is very much run like a business (so it does not surprise me you felt more "love" from Amherst).

In the DC area, you can't throw a stone without hitting a Hopkins grad. That lessens the gravitas of a Hopkins degree. I think people in the know would be VERY impressed with anyone who went to Amherst.

Good luck on her decision.

You have to be kidding? They ended legacy admissions before almost anyone - support students with need. Bloomberg gave tons of money so that they wouldn't have to behave as a greedy institution.

And - there is a huge difference between someone who attended Hopkins undergrad or someone who was in the fulltime Homewood campus graduate programs and those in the DC area who took satellite courses or took night classes at SAIS. You know that Harvard has these sorts of classes in Boston too and nobody considers them as Harvard grads.

That said - as a Hopkins grad student - your child should think carefully about what they want college to be. I think Amherst will have a more collegial feeling to it - but it will be a small community. Hopkins has less spirit in their undergrad community. Teachers at both places will be excellent in their field. Reputations at both will be high.

Trust me when I say ending legacy admissions at Hopkins made no difference. One of the weakest alumni loyalty of any of the top 25 schools.

[Anonymous]

Haven’t read all the comments, but I’d choose Amherst. Top school. Pleasant location. Individualized attention. Go to a place like JHU for grad school.

[Anonymous]

I think most people really like Amherst and many really dislike JHU for college, but many like both. Amherst grads tend to write very well.

By the way, I'm a graduate of a big research u but I think many people do better at LACs and that is what I wanted for my kids.

Amherst college is also exceptionally beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Amherst in a second. First, I think Amherst is a better name than JHU (though I mention only because you did and don’t think it should be determinative). More importantly, from your description it seems clear that A is a better choice for your kid. You child will get a great education and lots of opportunities at A.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, congrats to your child - what amazing options to choose from! I can only speak to Hopkins as I attended Hopkins as an undergrad as an International Relations major (so a lot of overlap with Poli Sci) and absolutely loved my time at Hopkins. I still keep in touch with one of my professors from my time there and some of my classes by my junior and senior year were small enough that the students got to develop really close connections with our professors - that helped when asking for recommendation letters for grad schools and references for jobs. Whatever college your child chooses, best wishes to them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do costs and financial aid compare? I might base the decision on price. If the LAC is significantly cheaper, then go LAC.

OP here, Amherst is more expensive, but give more aid than JHU, in the end it's a little less, it makes no difference.

Appreciate all the posts here, will let kid go with her gut feeling.

[Anonymous]

Amherst likely if Poli Sci. If sciences, I would do JHU.

[Anonymous]

To confuse matters a little more, here is Niche's rankings for Poli Sci. Hopkins 48 and Amherst 50.

Not much of a difference. This seems odd though for a ranking. GW 59th in Poli Sci?

Anyways, I think Amherst could transfer to an Ivy in a year. Hopkins too but I think as far as SLACs Amherst is top 3-5 and will open up transfer doors and open up lots of slots.