Clearing the rumours once and for all

tetrisfan · 05-12-2008, 04:40 AM

1. Is JHU actually as competitive as people make it out to be? Or is it just academically intense (which some people think is a synonym for competition).

2. Is the Greek scene the only social scene?

YanksDolphins · 05-12-2008, 07:30 AM

1. LIES, LIES, LIES. It is not this cutthroat environment that it is rumored to be. It is academically intense, which is NOT a synonym for competition.

tetrisfan · 05-12-2008, 08:06 AM

Thank you, YanksDolphins. What about the second question?

*AdmissionsDaniel* · 05-12-2008, 08:10 AM

Answers to your questions from many current Hopkins students:

(1A) Hopkins Forums -> Cuthroat?
(1B) Hopkins Forums -> Competition: Does it exist?

(2A) Hopkins Forums -> Greek Life: Sororities & Fraternities
(2B) Hopkins Forums -> Do you find the time to socialize?

tetrisfan · 05-12-2008, 08:18 AM

Thanks, AdmissionsDaniel! That really helps!

Blah2009 · 05-12-2008, 09:41 AM

"Once and for all"?...how many times has this question been asked? I hope everyone who actually thinks Hopkins is competitive without visiting and finding out themselves should just stay the **** out.

JHUery · 05-12-2008, 12:43 PM

Okay, "academically intense", "competitive", and "cut-throat" are not synonyms, and saying Hopkins is intense vs. competitive is not the same thing. YES it is academically intense, no matter what major you are. I don't think I've seen any student who thinks his/her major is a breeze. As far as COMPETITIVE- it depends on what classes you take. Some classes at Hopkins are curved, whereas others are not. The ones that are not take the grade you earn as the grade on your transcript, you don't have to compete with your classmates to make an A or B, because in those classes, everyone could get an A or everyone could get a C...there are no set number of A's, B's, C's etc given out. However, there are many other classes (ahem premed classes) where you DO have to compete with your classmates because only a certain percentage of students can get A's, B's, C's, etc. As far as CUT-THROAT, it depends on your definition. There are no "burning people's books" or "sabotaging experiments". I mean, would you really risk getting kicked out of Hopkins just to hopefully torture another student? No, most people wouldn't. However, with that said, when I worked in the library, there were a lot of "book-hiding". By that, I mean that a lot of commonly used books were hidden elsewhere and so other students cannot find them. So if you think that's cut-throat, then yes, maybe it is, but the horror stories don't exist anymore (other than the library thing). Overall, prepare to actually do some REAL work when (and if) you get to Hopkins. Remember that your classmates are at least as intelligent as you are- so you're not going to be at the top of your class without putting in a lot of effort.

skp · 05-12-2008, 01:02 PM

JHUery, why does 'book-hiding' happen? I haven't heard of that one.

YanksDolphins · 05-13-2008, 07:35 AM

I have not heard of "book-hiding", but then again, I don't go to the library. It would be so other students can't get access to important material that you might need. With regards to lab, you get a lab partner so they're unlikely to foil your experiments. And others are probably too engrossed in their own experiment.

ekmiss · 05-14-2008, 07:24 PM

book hiding????

JHUery · 05-14-2008, 09:35 PM

I only know about "book-hiding" because I actually worked in the library for a year, and my job was to put all the books back and to make sure books are in place. I hope I'm not starting another "Hopkins cut-throat" rumor, that's not my intention. I only said that because I wanted to give the info that I know instead of only revealing only the positive things. However, back to skp's question, those books that were hidden are the ones that are commonly used for a certain class, say organic chem or calculus. They were purposely placed in obscure sections of the shelves, probably to prevent other students from actually finding them...and thus they have the books all to themselves. I'm not trying to say that the WHOLE LIBRARY was like this, I saw about 1-2 books "misplaced" per week.

Blah2009 · 05-14-2008, 10:13 PM

That doesn't even make sense considering in orgo and calc, you have your own books. There are no reference books. Must be someone extremely cheap thats trying to not buy the book and just use the one in the library. Its not being competitive or academically intense at all.

shelly147 · 05-15-2008, 07:42 AM

I think that sort of behavior would most likely happen with, like Blah2009 said, someone didn't buy the book, they were using the library copy, and then decided to put it in their own spot so that anyone ELSE who was being cheap wouldn't borrow it and prevent the first person from accessing it. It's not intentionally malicious, it's like hiding a dress in a store if you're going back to buy it later and they only have 1 in your size.

...except that most people buy their dress at the beginning of the semester.

littlemage897 · 05-15-2008, 04:49 PM

Clearly none of you have ever tried to locate the hard literature for the upper level labs. Even the librarians were surprised at where it turned up.

Blah2009 · 05-15-2008, 05:50 PM

Do you guys really use reference books for lab? I have numerous friends who graduated last year and are graduating this year in Bio that never went to the library once. One was the valedictorian.