Johns Hopkins — Bad for undergrad experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an earlier poster who was a happy, social Hopkins undergrad. Not aware of any cheating when I was there, not does Hopkins have a reputation for such. The grad students on the undergrad campus were pretty nerdy themselves, and not really people I would take advice from with respect to any social aspects of college life.

Ooo, nailed it, lol!

(Former faculty PP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an earlier poster who was a happy, social Hopkins undergrad. Not aware of any cheating when I was there, not does Hopkins have a reputation for such. The grad students on the undergrad campus were pretty nerdy themselves, and not really people I would take advice from with respect to any social aspects of college life.

😂

Can confirm.

- married to Hopkins PhD

[Anonymous]

Is it true that Hopkins is kind of like U of Chicago? Life of the mind and all that? But skewed a little more science/tech than Chicago's undergrad population? Maybe that's not true... just curious. TIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that Hopkins is kind of like U of Chicago? Life of the mind and all that? But skewed a little more science/tech than Chicago's undergrad population? Maybe that's not true... just curious. TIA

No ot at all. Hopkins is not an intellectual place, very pre-professional as another poster put it. And I think International Studies remains the most popular major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that Hopkins is kind of like U of Chicago? Life of the mind and all that? But skewed a little more science/tech than Chicago's undergrad population? Maybe that's not true... just curious. TIA

No ot at all. Hopkins is not an intellectual place, very pre-professional as another poster put it. And I think International Studies remains the most popular major.

Chicago’s gotten more pre-professional. And both Chicago and Hopkins are potentially good places (from a faculty mentorship standpoint) for undergrads who think they want to pursue PhD. I think that the two main differences, from a college perspective, are that Hopkins doesn’t have the Core (and the attitudes/undergrads that go with it) and, at Hopkins, the pre-PhD kids were outliers and, as a result, some chose to function more as jr grad students. BA/MA programs and off campus housing facilitated that and there are some newish fellowships/research grants that encourage it as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that Hopkins is kind of like U of Chicago? Life of the mind and all that? But skewed a little more science/tech than Chicago's undergrad population? Maybe that's not true... just curious. TIA

No ot at all. Hopkins is not an intellectual place, very pre-professional as another poster put it. And I think International Studies remains the most popular major.

Chicago’s gotten more pre-professional. And both Chicago and Hopkins are potentially good places (from a faculty mentorship standpoint) for undergrads who think they want to pursue PhD. I think that the two main differences, from a college perspective, are that Hopkins doesn’t have the Core (and the attitudes/undergrads that go with it) and, at Hopkins, the pre-PhD kids were outliers and, as a result, some chose to function more as jr grad students. BA/MA programs and off campus housing facilitated that and there are some newish fellowships/research grants that encourage it as well.

Hopkins has recently increased the amount of on campus housing in the past decade or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it true that Hopkins is kind of like U of Chicago? Life of the mind and all that? But skewed a little more science/tech than Chicago's undergrad population? Maybe that's not true... just curious. TIA

No ot at all. Hopkins is not an intellectual place, very pre-professional as another poster put it. And I think International Studies remains the most popular major.

Chicago’s gotten more pre-professional. And both Chicago and Hopkins are potentially good places (from a faculty mentorship standpoint) for undergrads who think they want to pursue PhD. I think that the two main differences, from a college perspective, are that Hopkins doesn’t have the Core (and the attitudes/undergrads that go with it) and, at Hopkins, the pre-PhD kids were outliers and, as a result, some chose to function more as jr grad students. BA/MA programs and off campus housing facilitated that and there are some newish fellowships/research grants that encourage it as well.

Hopkins has recently increased the amount of on campus housing in the past decade or so.

Chicago has as well, but both are still different from the residential college/everybody lives on campus all 4 years model. I’m certainly not saying a student at Hopkins (or Chicago) can’t have what DCUM considers a typical (or desirable) undergrad-centered college experience — just that both schools leave more space for kids who aren’t really looking for that so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was an earlier poster who was a happy, social Hopkins undergrad. Not aware of any cheating when I was there, not does Hopkins have a reputation for such. The grad students on the undergrad campus were pretty nerdy themselves, and not really people I would take advice from with respect to any social aspects of college life.

I think this is an accurate description of some of the grad students; there are also a lot of foreign grad students. But I don't think those super nerdy and foreign grad students cared much about the well-being of the undergrads. They often had experienced similar environments for their undergrad experience. However, the grad students that cared about the (not small) set of students with an unhealthy relationship to learning (ie - getting ahead of others at all costs) and the school's lack of messaging on this point do not fit into your description. And remember, as noted above, there were healthy undergrad students there like you....we weren't worried about you...

We were worried about the others that would come after every test and argue for points (like I have a 98% and want a 99%), and those that would take a final exam (or test) at a different time from the rest of the class so that they could take it in a room at the professors department. In our department, that was the graduate student library - and we had multiple cases of students blatantly opening books and notes during their exam to cheat...right in front of grad students (which was always reported immediately). Even more, the professors most often would give them the lowest possible "passing" grade for that test/exam and when the prof would leave, the undergrads would appeal to the grad students to ask the professor to give them a higher grade because they wanted to apply for grad school and didn't like how it would look on their transcript. This happened more than once. It was so unhealthy and we always wished the school would provide more guidance on honor.

[Anonymous]

I am a professor and we do not give passing grades to students who cheat.

If, indeed, that is Hopkins' policy...it is more evidence that they want to keep their (high paying) customers happy at all costs. A business mentality, rather than one providing higher education to young adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s just say it’s an extremely self-selected bunch in a school with no school spirit in a not great city.

You’ve clearly never been to a Hopkins lacrosse game.

There are far more old alums and locals at lacrosse games. When's the last time you saw an undergrad at a game who wasn't in the (terrible) band?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a professor and we do not give passing grades to students who cheat.

If, indeed, that is Hopkins' policy...it is more evidence that they want to keep their (high paying) customers happy at all costs. A business mentality, rather than one providing higher education to young adults.

I'm 11:23 and I'm glad to hear this. Personally, I would have failed these students for any test/exam that they cheated on and their final grade would reflect however that test/exam weighed into the total. But it wasn't my call.

I think the professors just didn't want to deal with having a kid fail a class - especially the seniors (it was all juniors and seniors doing this).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was an earlier poster who was a happy, social Hopkins undergrad. Not aware of any cheating when I was there, not does Hopkins have a reputation for such. The grad students on the undergrad campus were pretty nerdy themselves, and not really people I would take advice from with respect to any social aspects of college life.

😂

Can confirm.

- married to Hopkins PhD

LOL, +1
Hopkins Alumni
They’re social awkwardness— it’s still so cute though!! 🥰

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a professor and we do not give passing grades to students who cheat.

If, indeed, that is Hopkins' policy...it is more evidence that they want to keep their (high paying) customers happy at all costs. A business mentality, rather than one providing higher education to young adults.

I agree with both points. Former student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a professor and we do not give passing grades to students who cheat.

If, indeed, that is Hopkins' policy...it is more evidence that they want to keep their (high paying) customers happy at all costs. A business mentality, rather than one providing higher education to young adults.

I agree with both points. Former student.

I was actually on the Ethics Board when I was an undergrad there in the 90s. Cheating was handled by group of students and professors, and generally the students were much less understanding than the professors were when it came up which I always found interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did my undergrad there in the early 90s. Not premed. It’s not a school with a lot of hand holding but that was fine with me. I have nothing to compare it to but I went to plenty of parties, had interesting friends , smoked weed, the usual college stuff. And while Baltimore gets a bad rap the Charles Village area where most students live is great ( and so much nicer now!). It’s certainly not for everyone, it’s culture is pretty pre-professional, but it certainly wasn’t miserable.

Are you me? Had the same experience in the 90s. I have a fondness for the quirkiness that is JHU experience of and Baltimore.

The three of us probably know each other because I read this and thought...same. Except I attended mid-to-late 90s.

I will say that it is an excessively nerdy school full of very earnest people. The pressure is real there, but I thrived on it. I liked the fact that I could smoke some weed, drink and party on weekends and not get crap for spending the rest of my time at the library on weekends studying because that's what everyone else was doing. Hopkins people are very quirky and like to think out of the box. I think the people who hate it do not like the intense academic environment of the place. It is for real really, really hard but I had a fantastic, rigorous education with professors who really cared and knew my name. I also loved that, as an elite university, I lived in the dorms with so many different kinds of people: NBA player's kid, a volunteer firefighter, the winner of teen jeopardy, a rich Chevy Chase girl (new for me, I thought that was an actor), and so much more.

Other than STEM, the most popular major is International Relations, which is very well-regarded. I did well for myself post-Hopkins and rode the name for a good decade, getting great jobs at big-name places before really establishing my professional reputation. I loved my time at Hopkins and still have a group of close friends from my Hopkins days who I consider life-long friends.

NP here. I'm older than you all. I was an undergrad in the mid-80's. But I worked for Hopkins Hospital for almost 6 years after graduation, so I stayed in Charles Village until the early 90's and I have a few friends from the couple of clubs that I occasionally participated in after I graduated (Bridge Club and HopSFA), so I know some students from the early 90's.

My friends and I did enjoy our time at Hopkins. It was academically a grind, but most students found a niche with friends who they hung out with. I've still got a decent connection with a number of my Hopkins friends who have moved around the country. The one key thing I know is that the majority of friends who actually matriculated from JHU seem to have done well. Even those of us who did not go on and pursue postgraduate degrees.