Why is Johns Hopkins not mentioned much here?
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Anonymous
| Our foreign visitors knew the name Johns Hopkins, had not heard of Georgetown. |
Anonymous
Some of us do actually live in Baltimore City, and, much like D.C., despite its many problems it can be a perfectly nice place to live, work, and raise a family. |
Anonymous
Um . . .so? Don't you want your doctors to get the full training? |
Anonymous
Less conspiracy theory laden version of PP: I think the Johns Hopkins med school and hospital complex do have a problematic relationship with the surrounding poor, African American communities. JHU has pushed for several urban renewal projects in the area, promising local residents that they would bring jobs and improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods. Instead people have been forced out of some areas, and others have been purposefully left to decay. JHU needs human subjects and populations to study, and has this neo-colonial relationship with the surrounding neighborhoods, acting as if these poor populations are a natural resource that can be exploited to produce studies-but despite hundred of years of being studied, the people in those neighborhoods are no better off, and probably worse off. |
Anonymous
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Actually, JHU undergrad can be an excellent place for a humanities student who may be PhD-bound. Like University of Chicago, Hopkins is a grad-oriented institution. But scale is small enough that a bright academically-oriented undergrad has real access to faculty members, grad seminars, etc. Most of the undergrads aren't at JHU for that reason, which makes the kids who find this kind of opportunity exciting stand out all the more.
I agree that too-close-to-home is one reason lots of local kids don't consider Hopkins. Safety/neighborhood isn't a problem. Undergrad culture might be. Baltimore can be a more fun/interesting city than DC, depending on your kid's tastes and/or comfort level with city buses, cabs, and light rail. (Lots of the fun stuff isn't within walking distance of campus.) |
Anonymous
| Wait, u Chicago is not undergraduate focused? |
Anonymous
Not sure how the above "irreplaceable" list was "developed," but here are some glaring omissions: West Point -- USMA William & Mary UVa Notre Dame U. Chicago Presuming that the list reflects historic significance and substantial contributions to American culture/educational advancement. |
Anonymous
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Geez - every neighborhood in Baltimore is not like The Wire!
I did part of my undergrad at GW and my grad work at JHU! Acutally, more "bad" stuff happened to me at GW....muggings, break-ins. The big thing about that part of Baltimore was the "quick transition." You could go from a "good" block to a "bad" block and not realize it. But if you were careful and used good judgment, there were no issues. Then again, I grew up in an urban environment so I had street smarts going in. The suburban kids would leave laptops in plain view and stuff like that. That was trouble at both schools. As far as things to do...Baltimore was great! When I was in school, the Inner Harbor was still hot and Fells Point was emerging. Baltimore has far more character than DC and the neighborhoods have identities. |
Anonymous
No -- it's a research institution that's more focused on grad students and faculty. Doesn't mean you can't get a great undergrad education there, but that's not it's center of gravity. |
Anonymous
But that's true of any top "research" university, such as Harvard or Yale as well. Not sure why you'd distinguish Hopkins or Chicago. |
Anonymous
No. Over the past ten years the university has done much to improve the undergrad experience (e.g., new dorms, better career advising program, better athletics program, etc.), but, the faculty are still primarily focused on grad students. |
Anonymous
thanks for this tip! At their presentations in the area, I never got any inkling of this. |
Anonymous
Scale and vibe/ethos. At Harvard, undergrad culture is strong (and well-supported by the administration -- this is the donor pool after all) even in the context of a research university. Also you definitely encounter some faculty who see the undergrads as future movers and shakers and/or the best and the brightest and who therefore take undergrads seriously. Chicago and Hopkins are much more academically-focused and smaller-scale. Whereas rival cultures exist and are valued at Harvard, Chicago and Hopkins feel much more focused on academia to the exclusion of many other things that undergrads might value. Don't know from Yale. And Princeton, despite being a major research university, is undergrad-centered. I think many of the "public ivies" work on the same model as Harvard -- they may have both a strong undergrad culture and a strong research culture. |
Anonymous
+1. This poster is spot on. |
Anonymous
| Because fluff majors are not respected there. |