I was a 23 year old with no teaching experience when I first precepted at Princeton. I ran discussions and did all the grading for my students. The professor lectured and was accessible at office hours, but I'm sure there were students whose only contact with him was listening to lectures. I had similar experiences as an undergrad at Harvard. (And while my Expos teacher was older than 22, she wasn't in graduate school -- might have had an MFA but I'm not sure of that.) As a faculty member at Hopkins, I taught undergrad courses that ranged in size from 12 to over 200 and got to know some of my undergrad quite well -- in some cases from advising and in others from courses.

Hopkins wasn't that different from what I'd seen in the Ivies and, to the extent that it was, there appeared to be more senior faculty actively involved in undergrad teaching at JHU. Smaller scale may have increased faculty accessibility as well. FWIW, Princeton was more undergrad focused than Harvard. Princeton undergrads did seem more coddled than undergrads at either Hopkins or Harvard. But at all three schools, a smart and academically engaged undergrad could easily get to know faculty in his or her field. At least that was my experience in the liberal arts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teaching is quite poor. Hopkins operates under a different model than most US schools, so there are a lot of young inexperienced grad students providing the instruction (not as TAs but as the instructor).

This is not correct.

My info is based on having taught there as a 22 yo master's student with no teaching experience. I was the instructor for a freshman comp type course - students had no contact with a professor or anybody other than me. I went to a well regarded college and couldn't believe what a crappy course they were getting for similar tuition dollars.

Sounds like a writing seminar class, those are classes in which student write various pieces of fiction and then they do peer review. The TA is there primarily as a facilitator of a class of less than 15 students. sounds like you were the wrong person for the job, I took the class many years ago, my Ta was fantastic and had tremendous literary success ( several published works of fiction). I guess. If I had you for an instructor I may have had a different experience, did you not expect to be teaching Asa graduate student-- peer review is typically at the core of graduate writing classes as well..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teaching is quite poor. Hopkins operates under a different model than most US schools, so there are a lot of young inexperienced grad students providing the instruction (not as TAs but as the instructor).

This is not correct.

My info is based on having taught there as a 22 yo master's student with no teaching experience. I was the instructor for a freshman comp type course - students had no contact with a professor or anybody other than me. I went to a well regarded college and couldn't believe what a crappy course they were getting for similar tuition dollars.

I teach at Hopkins and have no idea what you are talking about. No one in my department would ever dream of having someone like that teach undergraduates. Professors personally advise students, and every undergraduate and Phd course is taught by either a long term lecturer or full time professor (with most being the latter). We might have a few professional courses taught by different types of instructors, but that's irrelevant for undergrads.

I'm not saying Hopkins is perfect in every way, it's not. But I don't think this info represents the norm at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teaching is quite poor. Hopkins operates under a different model than most US schools, so there are a lot of young inexperienced grad students providing the instruction (not as TAs but as the instructor).

This is not correct.

My info is based on having taught there as a 22 yo master's student with no teaching experience. I was the instructor for a freshman comp type course - students had no contact with a professor or anybody other than me. I went to a well regarded college and couldn't believe what a crappy course they were getting for similar tuition dollars.

When DC was looking at schools I was told by three different people who had three different types of connections to the school that it was a cold, competitive place and DC should look elsewhere.

I went to JHU and disagree. It is not as structured as other schools. So, those students with more initiative will survive. Those who need more hand-holding to learn how to take care of themselves, how to find information, resources, etc will not cope well. In my years there, I found those who could either take care of themselves, or learn to take care of themselves did the best. I saw several intelligent products of helicoptering parenting who failed miserably. The school requires that you figure out where and how to look for information and get the most out of your education, but I still have a core group of friends from about a 10 year space of graduating classes and we all enjoyed our time there and got a lot out of our education.

My nephew who just graduated from college, applied there and came to visit and I took him on a campus tour about 5 years ago. The campus was significantly bigger and better than it was in my time and the services were better. I spoke to a number of people on our tour day and we had a nice tour guide. I found that while there were more groups and services, there was still the basic assumption that there was relatively little guidance to get through the school, but that the school offered the opportunities and it was up to the students to choose and take advantage of those opportunities, but very little in the way of mentors, counselors and guidance. And the then current students that we met also enjoyed the school.

So, I suppose it depends much more on the type of person your child is whether (s)he will enjoy and thrive at Hopkins.

Anonymous wrote:When DC was looking at schools I was told by three different people who had three different types of connections to the school that it was a cold, competitive place and DC should look elsewhere.

I actually went there and disagree.

When DC was looking at schools I was told by three different people who had three different types of connections to the school that it was a cold, competitive place and DC should look elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The teaching is quite poor. Hopkins operates under a different model than most US schools, so there are a lot of young inexperienced grad students providing the instruction (not as TAs but as the instructor).

This is not correct.

+1 That it is not correct. The only difference in the "model" is the schedule, which allows students to schedule MTW or TH F to allow them to take a job or internship.

Anonymous wrote:The teaching is quite poor. Hopkins operates under a different model than most US schools, so there are a lot of young inexperienced grad students providing the instruction (not as TAs but as the instructor).

This is not correct.

I went to hopkins. I agree that iit is a school for kids who know what they want their major to be. Majors like marketing and communications just don't exist. I was an international studies major and thought my professors were excellent, a few were from SAIS. Other strong programs include biology, biomedical engineering, English, writing seminars, economics, to name a few, so not just for science majors. I never found the school too academically competitive, it is mainly that way for premed and I think premed programs generally tend to be that way.

Hopkins has built more on campus housing and safety on campus is good. Upperclassman primarily live off campus, and that does require heightened awareness. Nothing happened to my friends but there is crime.

it may be a surprise but Athletics are universally excellent, but everything other than lacrosse is division 3. Somewhere between a third and a half of all students are in fraternities or sororities. There are definitely some people who would rather hang ou in the library than a party, but there is a good social life for those who want it. I was in a sorority.

Career placement services are only ok but graduate school placement is top notch. I went to an Ivy League law school right from Hopkins.

The teaching is quite poor. Hopkins operates under a different model than most US schools, so there are a lot of young inexperienced grad students providing the instruction (not as TAs but as the instructor).

Campus safety much better than 10 years ago.

Social life - not very good. Google "hopkins 500". people downplay it, but social life is not comparable to say peer schools like georgetown or NW.

I would say it has a lot to do with the type of person that goes to JHU vs. Gtown.

JHU is very strong academically but has quite poor OCR/career services for a school of its calibre. It is miles behind Carnegie Mellon for instance or Georgetown in this regard and I have no clue why it is like this. JHU doesn't hurt for resources, especially resources-per-student basis.

I think it is because JHU funnels a lot more students to med and grad school directly from UG compared to its peers on a percentage basis.

I personally would not send a child to JHU unless they wanted BME/medical school badly and were science superstars who thrive under pressure/brutal curves.

I think peer institutions are more well rounded and cater to a broader range of students socially as well as from a career path sense.

How is Johns Hopkins for Undergraduate studies? I know it's highly ranked, but what is social life like? Greek system? Campus safety?