Reply to Johns Hopkins — Bad for undergrad experience?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm one of the grad student responders above and have a related question - would the issues with competitiveness and lack of guidance/guardrails for social development occur at all highly competitive schools (HYPSMC plus T10/T20) or is this unique to Johns Hopkins (or JHU plus "some" others). Would like to steer my child away from even considering such schools in their small set of "reach" schools.[/quote]

I'm a prior responder who was an undergrad.  Honest question - what are people thinking other colleges offer as far as "[b]guardrails for social development?[/b]"  Full disclosure I didn't strongly encourage my dd to apply to Hopkins when it came time because I knew she was looking for a different sort of school, but pre-meds are going to be a pretty competitive bunch at any highly selective school.  I was IR (international relations) at Hopkins, I'm not a particularly competitive grind-y person, the environment was great for me.  Hopkins is not a big rah-rah school spirit type of place, and it leans more pre-professional than intellectual (in hindsight I wish I had known that before going.)  But I had some amazing professors, brilliant classmates, and honestly I also had a lot of fun in college. [/quote]

By this I mean some sense of moral compass.  Yes, pre-med is cut throat and schools are competitive.  But even in highly competitive environment, a school has ability to help mold expectations of undergraduates as students and as community members.  Having honor codes and genuinely speaking about (and acting on) doing your best, while still being a supportive community member can go a long way.  It is possible to study hard and be successful without it being at the cost of others.  While I was there (and NOT in a pre-med or engineering field), I never saw the university emulate a community minded posture,  to discourage the rampant grade grubbing, to place any value in an honor code.  I wouldn't have wanted a large number of those kids to EVER be my doctor, or coworker, or employee. (Obviously, there were nice kids who were naturally this way with the help of their own good nature and upbringing from their families).  My undergrad school was very very different.  Community was valued from the top down but so was academic excellence.....for the sake of learning - not to get ahead of everyone beside you.  Work hard, be honest, don't cheat.... don't stab in the back.

I'm not talking about whether kids had fun or went to parties.       [/quote]

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