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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My father was a professor at Hopkins for decades and he used to say I could go to any college except Hopkins. He wasn't entirely serious but it was commonly agreed among Hopkins faculty that it wasn't the most exciting or memorable undergraduate experience.

The school is somewhat odd. It has absolutely stellar divisions and the medical school and public health are world famous and many of the academic departments even in the humanities and social sciences are first rate. But somehow it's never been able to translate that into a top notch undergraduate experience. You will get a great education at Hopkins but college is more than what you study in the classroom, and that was why my father forbade his children from even looking at Hopkins. The undergraduate component of Hopkins always had a reputation for being dull and overlooked, a place of academic grind and little more. Homewood campus isn't the most exciting place to be. It's a legacy from the founding model of the university, which was based on the German university model (heavily professional, heavily specialist, geared towards graduate students) rather than the collegiate Oxford/Cambridge model (strong undergraduate focus).

Having said that, things apparently have been changing in recent years. Hopkins has poured a lot of money in improving the undergraduate experience. Nearby Charles Village has received a big infusion of Hopkins money and has many more retail and dining options compared to twenty years ago, and the university finally got state permission to have an privately armed police force, which should help with the petty crime in Charles Village (it was never bad but you did have predators looking to mug Hopkins students and even staff). Bloomberg gave millions to improve the campus grounds. Another alum recently donated a huge sum to the Philosophy department that promises to potentially transform it into the most well-endowed philosophy department in the country.

And the location is just fine, for those who are worried. It's not as intensely urban as Penn or Chicago and I like the greenery of the campus and the surrounding area. [/quote]

Fantastic post, thanks. We visited recently and were happily shocked by a lovely campus and adjacent areas of the city that were attractive. After all the talk here you’d think it was a war zone. [/quote]

Step out of bubbles.[/quote]

This is the context of the Homewood Campus:

Directly east is Charles Village, a late 19th century neighborhood of large rowhouses. Most off-campus undergrads and grad students live here, alongside faculty and admin and others. It's a leafy and rather attractive area of big rowhouses, many with porches. There's a retail strip about 2-3 blocks long including bookstore, cafes, coffee shop, pizza places and so forth. There's a fantastic farmer's market every Saturday morning further east. It does get rougher once you get past the farmer's market location.

Directly north is North Baltimore, which is gorgeous and affluent with beautiful homes and landscaping.

Directly west is a park with running trails alongside a creek and on the other side of the park is Hampden, a traditional blue collar white working class area that is rapidly transforming into Baltimore's hipsterville with a thriving dining scene and fun boutiques. A lot of grad students now live there.

Directly south is midtown, which is also rapidly changing. Further south you get to Mount Vernon and then downtown and the harbor. It's all part of the central corridor in Baltimore which offers a nice urbanity. Yes, some petty crime but for the most part it's fine. A bubble, sure, but why not? [/quote]

It’s nicer than it used to be (when I was there it wasn’t uncommon to be mugged in Charles Village) but I also think you’re overstating its charms. It is pretty inexpensive which is nice for students. The busy roads - N Charles St and the one to the west — chop up the campus a bit.[/quote]

Err.... North Charles is the official campus border, isn't it? It's no different from most campuses with a "town" side with retail and off-campus student housing and a few university buildings that crept over, and a campus side. The road to the west is a winding drive that separates the campus from Stony Run Park, and there are trails and streets to cut through the park. I don't get your point.

I don't think I overstated any charms. Charles Village isn't a happening university town like Ann Arbor. But it has its charms and is rather attractive with the blocks of rowhouses and shady trees. It is a bit block by block, some are dominated by cheap rentals and others lovingly maintained by private owners.

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Bunch of dorms are located across N Charles. Kids used to get hit by cars while crossing every once in a while, because there was a single lane that ran in the opposite direction. They finally fixed that.
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