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[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]

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