Anonymous
04/19/2026 12:24
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Stupid basis for choosing.
+10000
If kid is worried about getting weeded out, kid doesn’t belong. Go study humanities or something else.
Year in and year out, it’s the kids never thought about being weed out ended up being weed out.
Yes, my kid is heading to JHU for pre-med in 4 months and I'm warning her of the risk of being weed out right out of the gate. She gets it. Still, as a parent I'm worried about her surviving the challenge while maintaining some resemblance of a work-life balance.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:59
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Stupid basis for choosing.
+10000
If kid is worried about getting weeded out, kid doesn’t belong. Go study humanities or something else.
Year in and year out, it’s the kids never thought about being weed out ended up being weed out.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:56
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Stupid basis for choosing.
+10000
If kid is worried about getting weeded out, kid doesn’t belong. Go study humanities or something else.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:52
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A negative of Cornell is the difficulty of accumulating shadowing/volunteering hours for pre-meds as the hospital in Ithaca isn't big enough to provide enough opportunities. Some have to do it in NYC during summer, others have to do it back home during breaks. Baltimore has more than just Johns Hopkins Hospital---it also has the UMD hospital system. In this regard, JHU is similar to WashU in having hospitals downtown St. Louis (e.g., Barnes-Jewish, St. Louis Children's Hospitals), which Cornell unfortunately can't match.
How often do kids do that during the school year though?
When it's so grade deflation, not often.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:44
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
hopkins for grade inflation and more research opps
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:37
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A negative of Cornell is the difficulty of accumulating shadowing/volunteering hours for pre-meds as the hospital in Ithaca isn't big enough to provide enough opportunities. Some have to do it in NYC during summer, others have to do it back home during breaks. Baltimore has more than just Johns Hopkins Hospital---it also has the UMD hospital system. In this regard, JHU is similar to WashU in having hospitals downtown St. Louis (e.g., Barnes-Jewish, St. Louis Children's Hospitals), which Cornell unfortunately can't match.
How often do kids do that during the school year though?
all the time
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:32
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A negative of Cornell is the difficulty of accumulating shadowing/volunteering hours for pre-meds as the hospital in Ithaca isn't big enough to provide enough opportunities. Some have to do it in NYC during summer, others have to do it back home during breaks. Baltimore has more than just Johns Hopkins Hospital---it also has the UMD hospital system. In this regard, JHU is similar to WashU in having hospitals downtown St. Louis (e.g., Barnes-Jewish, St. Louis Children's Hospitals), which Cornell unfortunately can't match.
How often do kids do that during the school year though?
+1. Most kids use summers and a gap year or two to get their clinical, lab and shadowing hours and take MCATs for med school apps. While a few hours a week in an on-campus lab is doable (and my kid did that at Cornell) he and other premeds he spoke with, thought it was counterproductive to risk your GPA by spending the necessary hundreds of hours working and volunteering during the school year (unless you don't plan to do anything else during your years on campus)
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:26
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I respect Cornell as an institution immensely but I don’t know a single Cornell alum who views it fondly
Not a single one.
I do, as do most of my friends.
+1. Four Cornell grads in my immediately family. We all loved our time on the hill.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:13
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:A negative of Cornell is the difficulty of accumulating shadowing/volunteering hours for pre-meds as the hospital in Ithaca isn't big enough to provide enough opportunities. Some have to do it in NYC during summer, others have to do it back home during breaks. Baltimore has more than just Johns Hopkins Hospital---it also has the UMD hospital system. In this regard, JHU is similar to WashU in having hospitals downtown St. Louis (e.g., Barnes-Jewish, St. Louis Children's Hospitals), which Cornell unfortunately can't match.
This was a large downside for Cornell for my admitted kid. It is a big deal, the amount of hours required these days is a lot and not having ability to do some of it during the school year makes it very challenging.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 10:57
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:Choose Hopkins. Has the med school about 20min away, has smaller classes, much less competition for getting research spots and getting to know professors.
Plus CALS at Cornell is considered by others at cornell as the public school, easier to get into, looked down on.
Maybe 30 years ago but not today.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 10:55
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:A negative of Cornell is the difficulty of accumulating shadowing/volunteering hours for pre-meds as the hospital in Ithaca isn't big enough to provide enough opportunities. Some have to do it in NYC during summer, others have to do it back home during breaks. Baltimore has more than just Johns Hopkins Hospital---it also has the UMD hospital system. In this regard, JHU is similar to WashU in having hospitals downtown St. Louis (e.g., Barnes-Jewish, St. Louis Children's Hospitals), which Cornell unfortunately can't match.
How often do kids do that during the school year though?
Anonymous
04/19/2026 10:54
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:I respect Cornell as an institution immensely but I don’t know a single Cornell alum who views it fondly
Not a single one.
I do, as do most of my friends.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 10:52
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
Anonymous wrote:(Frothing at mouth) But, but, but one’s an IVY!
Not when they are 100% down for premed and the ivy is severely grade deflated. It's an investment.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 10:44
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
A negative of Cornell is the difficulty of accumulating shadowing/volunteering hours for pre-meds as the hospital in Ithaca isn't big enough to provide enough opportunities. Some have to do it in NYC during summer, others have to do it back home during breaks. Baltimore has more than just Johns Hopkins Hospital---it also has the UMD hospital system. In this regard, JHU is similar to WashU in having hospitals downtown St. Louis (e.g., Barnes-Jewish, St. Louis Children's Hospitals), which Cornell unfortunately can't match.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 10:44
Subject: Hopkins or Cornell
I respect Cornell as an institution immensely but I don’t know a single Cornell alum who views it fondly
Not a single one.
Not a single one.