Op, I am an alum(IR major) and do some advising with current students. Hopkins has about 30 percent of students involved in Greek life, and between those kids and athletes (who generally aren’t allowed to go Greek), there is a core group of kids pursing a traditional college social life. In addition to D1 lacrosse, who is most always very competitive, Hopkins has a long history of successful D3 football, swimming, track and field, and baseball. Soccer and field hockey are often strong but not every year.

There also are kids who may be more stereotypically geeky or quirky who find their people and have a great time at Hopkins.

Hopkins is in North Baltimore and borders two of the most expensive residential neighborhoods in Baltimore — Roland Park and Guilford. Charles Village, where upperclassman tend to live, has a commercial core of two or three blocks with restaurants geared towards students. It’s pretty safe for an urban neighborhood (I say this as someone who also went to UPenn for grad, and lived in Los Angeles, DC (Cleveland Park) and Boston).

NC: Duke, UNC, NC state, and dcum favorite Davidson

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How lucky is the Maryland area to have Big Ten UMD, Georgetown, Annapolis and Hopkins in such a small radius? Outside Massachusetts it's #1

Georgia: Emory, Gtech, Uof Georgia.

Georgia Tech would fit in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This thread has really deteriorated. The pro-Hopkins trolls have emerged from the mean streets of Baltimore.

I agree that it has deteriorated, but most people supporting Hopkins are arguing against this 1 troll who is making general blanket statements about Hopkins grads and baselessly attacking it as an elite institution.

Saying it is top 15 and not top 10 is not "baselessly attacking it as an elite institution." There are hundreds of other schools that would kill to be top 15. And this is not "baseless" - you might disagree, but one can make a reasonable argument that it is true." It is not like saying it is not in the top 10 in the state of Maryland or something ridiculous like that. Lighten up, Francis.

1-6: HYPSM
7: Columbia
8: Penn
9: UChicago, Duke
10: Northwestern

Cannot count to 5?

#5 being your alma mater, Old Dominion, is implied

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How lucky is the Maryland area to have Big Ten UMD, Georgetown, Annapolis and Hopkins in such a small radius? Outside Massachusetts it's #1

Georgia: Emory, Gtech, Uof Georgia.

Not nearly as good or nationally important

Anonymous wrote:How lucky is the Maryland area to have Big Ten UMD, Georgetown, Annapolis and Hopkins in such a small radius? Outside Massachusetts it's #1

Georgia: Emory, Gtech, Uof Georgia.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This thread has really deteriorated. The pro-Hopkins trolls have emerged from the mean streets of Baltimore.

I agree that it has deteriorated, but most people supporting Hopkins are arguing against this 1 troll who is making general blanket statements about Hopkins grads and baselessly attacking it as an elite institution.

Saying it is top 15 and not top 10 is not "baselessly attacking it as an elite institution." There are hundreds of other schools that would kill to be top 15. And this is not "baseless" - you might disagree, but one can make a reasonable argument that it is true." It is not like saying it is not in the top 10 in the state of Maryland or something ridiculous like that. Lighten up, Francis.

1-6: HYPSM
7: Columbia
8: Penn
9: UChicago, Duke
10: Northwestern

Cannot count to 5?

Reserved for Hopkins.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm OP, can we recenter this thread onto why Hopkins might be overlooked? My kid wants to ED, I think it’s a great school for them, & I want informed opinions.

Major? ED1? Male or female?

ED1, Female, W school, 4.00 UW, 1570, Public Health, Bio, & IR. And no, she isn't Asian nor 100% white.

3 things is 1-2 too many. IR will be the easiest admit. Apply for that - if you have the narrative. Public health and Bio are stereotypically female….ED should be good.

IR is also mostly female, more so than bio at Hopkins.

Anonymous wrote:How lucky is the Maryland area to have Big Ten UMD, Georgetown, Annapolis and Hopkins in such a small radius? Outside Massachusetts it's #1

Never thought of that. So humble to not brag like UVA area which is far inferior. The lack of boosting is enviable

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm OP, can we recenter this thread onto why Hopkins might be overlooked? My kid wants to ED, I think its a great school for them, & I want informed opinions.

It's not overlooked when it gets 50k applications a year. This is one forum that is not representative of the country. Georgetown also doesn't get talked about much and UMD to a lesser extent. I think it's the local effect. The closer you are to something, the less you visit it like a theme park.

It's a fabulous school depending on major. And it has major grade inflation now (College GPA is a 3.8+). However, it is not the right school if you don't prefer an urban environment with a stem lean (ala Stanford, Penn, MIT) vs a more humanities focused school (Dartmouth, Brown, Vandy).

Humanities at Hopkins are actually very strong. There is no undergrad business school, though, and that probably is desired by some prospective students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Hopkins and took my kid there (TJ student) and he was luke warm to it.

They explicitly said in the admissions presentation that [b]children of divorced or broken families were not welcome which was very shocking to me.
[/b]
The campus feels more secure than when I went there. I was a TA and student advisor for one of their more "cut throat" programs and it didn't feel cut throat to me (compared to my HYPSM experience). The research opportunities are top notch, music, business and medicine are too.

??? You must have heard that wrong.

+1. I only know a few JHU kids and they all fit this description.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, JHU does have a reputation as a grinder school and its Baltimore location likely turns many off, but I also think it suffers from some lack of brand recognition, especially amongst this set. It’s not an Ivy and like Rice or CMU, it doesn’t really have the sports to give it a big national profile (unless you’re a lax head). Doesn’t move the needle as much for the prestige whore moms in NoVa and MoCo. Obviously an objectively “elite” institution, though.

Is its reputation as a no-fun school warranted, compared to similar STEM institutions?
And is its Baltimore location really unsafe? We drive to Baltimore every weekend for youth orchestra, and while certain areas are terribly rundown and depressing, others are pretty nice.

Hopkins alum here, no, campus area is safe and campus itself quite pretty.
.

My son toured the campus and was non-plussed by it. Not far from some rather tough parts of Baltimore. He wound up at Georgetown and likes it quite a lot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This thread has really deteriorated. The pro-Hopkins trolls have emerged from the mean streets of Baltimore.

I agree that it has deteriorated, but most people supporting Hopkins are arguing against this 1 troll who is making general blanket statements about Hopkins grads and baselessly attacking it as an elite institution.

Saying it is top 15 and not top 10 is not "baselessly attacking it as an elite institution." There are hundreds of other schools that would kill to be top 15. And this is not "baseless" - you might disagree, but one can make a reasonable argument that it is true." It is not like saying it is not in the top 10 in the state of Maryland or something ridiculous like that. Lighten up, Francis.

1-6: HYPSM
7: Columbia
8: Penn
9: UChicago, Duke
10: Northwestern

Cannot count to 5?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm OP, can we recenter this thread onto why Hopkins might be overlooked? My kid wants to ED, I think it’s a great school for them, & I want informed opinions.

Major? ED1? Male or female?

ED1, Female, W school, 4.00 UW, 1570, Public Health, Bio, & IR. And no, she isn't Asian nor 100% white.

3 things is 1-2 too many. IR will be the easiest admit. Apply for that - if you have the narrative. Public health and Bio are stereotypically female….ED should be good.

She is planning to just put Public Health as her primary major and IR as a secondary academic interest. Duke ED is also a strong contender for her. They're definitely different in terms of social scene, but they offer the best Public Health curricula.

Just go IR for Hopkins if you want the best chances. Still competitive as it is a top 5 major but easy to switch after getting in. Public health and bio is more competitive (I think they are top 3 majors).

*[Typo] Public health and bio are more competitive (I think they are top 3 majors).