What kind of applicants is JHU looking for?

[Anonymous]

Masters of their own domain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

same at our private in nyc. oh wait nevermind, im not the same poster replying to myself as above

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

[Anonymous]

Asian

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

for stem, jhu is above many ivies. bme biomed engineering major is akin to wharton and wins against top ivies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

These two are so different. Chicago is about theory, JHU is about curiosity and research. Chicago is Econ, JHU is medicine. Applicant pools do not overlap much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

These two are so different. Chicago is about theory, JHU is about curiosity and research. Chicago is Econ, JHU is medicine. Applicant pools do not overlap much.

Generalize much? I know a number of non-STEM majors who went to Hopkins. And I know multiple brilliant scientists who went to Chicago. Stereotypes are lazy. Someone who went to one of these schools would know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

These two are so different. Chicago is about theory, JHU is about curiosity and research. Chicago is Econ, JHU is medicine. Applicant pools do not overlap much.

Generalize much? I know a number of non-STEM majors who went to Hopkins. And I know multiple brilliant scientists who went to Chicago. Stereotypes are lazy. Someone who went to one of these schools would know better.

Sure, JHU has some excellent humanities and social sciences. Econ is strong too.

Big picture:
JHU: 38% natural sciences, 32% Engineering. 70% combined
Chicago: 15% natural sciences, 17% math and CS. 30% combined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

These two are so different. Chicago is about theory, JHU is about curiosity and research. Chicago is Econ, JHU is medicine. Applicant pools do not overlap much.

Generalize much? I know a number of non-STEM majors who went to Hopkins. And I know multiple brilliant scientists who went to Chicago. Stereotypes are lazy. Someone who went to one of these schools would know better.

Sure, JHU has some excellent humanities and social sciences. Econ is strong too.

Big picture:
JHU: 38% natural sciences, 32% Engineering. 70% combined
Chicago: 15% natural sciences, 17% math and CS. 30% combined.

So Chicago is pretty well-rounded while Hopkins is a STEM nerd fest? Sounds about right. Chicago for the win!

[Anonymous]

lots of $$ AND ( crazy smart OR NERD’ish)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

These two are so different. Chicago is about theory, JHU is about curiosity and research. Chicago is Econ, JHU is medicine. Applicant pools do not overlap much.

Generalize much? I know a number of non-STEM majors who went to Hopkins. And I know multiple brilliant scientists who went to Chicago. Stereotypes are lazy. Someone who went to one of these schools would know better.

Sure, JHU has some excellent humanities and social sciences. Econ is strong too.

Big picture:
JHU: 38% natural sciences, 32% Engineering. 70% combined
Chicago: 15% natural sciences, 17% math and CS. 30% combined.

So Chicago is pretty well-rounded while Hopkins is a STEM nerd fest? Sounds about right. Chicago for the win!

https://mag.uchicago.edu/university-news/top-10-majors-and-minors

25% is Economics. Remaining majority is CS, Math, Physics, Bio, and social sciences. It is a Social Science and Stem school. If you want to call 60% social sciences and 30% stem as diverse, go ahead.

[Anonymous]

STEM is overrepresented at JHU, like most other places, and it has some great humanities departments. so if your kid is into humanities, I'd say they would have an advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. This board takes such strange pleasure in dumping on JHU. It’s a great school, lovely campus, smart students. They have top programs in multiple disciplines from medicine to humanities. The athletes are very smart b/c they have high standards to qualify as a recruit. The students work hard but they also have fun and my kid has lots of friends and is happy. I think its really peculiar that people, even though they don’t have a kid there, bother to click on this link to write nasty things about it instead of offering anything that could help OP. What is wrong with people?

lowering competition. bethesda magazine showed it had the highest number of applications and yield within dmv compared to other top schools. these clowns think they can lower competition when acceptance rate is 5%

Do you have a link to that?

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

Confirmed that you are right about JHU. Competition is the most fierce in dmv:

School Applied Accepted Acceptance Rate
JHU 490 28 (5.7%)
Penn 490 31 (6.3%)
Chicago 171 11 (6.4%)
Duke 363 25 (6.9%)
NU 328 28 (8.5%)

Thanks! Never knew it’s so popular in DMV. Wow

This is certain mid-tier public schools; it is not a popular option with competitive private school kids, even as the ED2 fallback. Hard to convince most competitive kids to even apply.

Same at our private. No one is interested in JHU. It’s a grind school. Quite a few steps below other T10 schools. Chicago is very popular. Kids in mid or below gpa range would apply ED1 Chicago, ivy rejected apply ED2.

JHU is ranked higher than Chicago and Chicago is supposed to be the school where "fun goes to die." So, you're saying that kids at your kids' school think of Chicago as less grindy and a better education than JHU? Here on the west coast, both seem well regarded (both are "Ivy plus" schools) and are difficult admits. My kid visited and loved both. As a parent, I don't love the surrounding areas of either school.

I don't think JHU is materially higher than Chicago. I view the two as interchangeable - just below Ivies (but better than 99% of the other schools out there). I would personally choose Chicago over JHU but I can definitely see why someone might go the other way.

These two are so different. Chicago is about theory, JHU is about curiosity and research. Chicago is Econ, JHU is medicine. Applicant pools do not overlap much.

Generalize much? I know a number of non-STEM majors who went to Hopkins. And I know multiple brilliant scientists who went to Chicago. Stereotypes are lazy. Someone who went to one of these schools would know better.

Sure, JHU has some excellent humanities and social sciences. Econ is strong too.

Big picture:
JHU: 38% natural sciences, 32% Engineering. 70% combined
Chicago: 15% natural sciences, 17% math and CS. 30% combined.

So Chicago is pretty well-rounded while Hopkins is a STEM nerd fest? Sounds about right. Chicago for the win!

I wouldn't say either is well-rounded since Chicago has a huge chunk of Economics and Economics-adjacent majors due to their traditional strength in this area. Chicago sends a lot of kids to Econ PhD programs.