AdamJaz

lagunal, what are you talking about?
Where else should he have posted?

Why does the conversation always return to Hop's rank? If you loved the school, your statement would have been, "why are you trying to prevent kids from applying to this wonderful place".

Professor101

I won't dismiss the OP's post about teaching off hand. I don't know JHU's tenure process. If the tenure process emphasizes on research which most research universities do, then there is no incentives for the professors to teach.

WealthOfInformation

Being a great teacher and a great researcher are NOT mutually exclusive. I think many if not most Hopkins faculty members fall into that category of being a member interested in teaching and their own research. Faculty are teaching almost 100% of the classes for UNDERGRADS so it's very clear that faculty should enjoy teaching if they want to be a part of the JHU community. Most do in my experience.

Professor101

I think that in any research university, you always run the risk of some professors putting research ahead of teaching. A sure way to avoid this is to go to a LAC, but LACs usually don't have the big names associated them. This fact itself shows that teaching well won't give you a big name while doing research well will. Again for professors who want to make a name for themselves, there is no incentives to teach.

MasterMargarita

I think a lot depends on your department. I'm a junior in the political science department and I have great personal relationships with professors who are tops in their field AND excellent teachers as well. I think I'm getting perhaps the best undergraduate political science education in the country -- I couldn't imagine what could be improved.

PrescitedEntity

I'm a Hopkins sophomore, too, and I've had a rough time adjusting, so my GPA is... not ideal, haha (thank you, obnoxious, party-going freshman year roommate). Even so, I'd say that your experience with the professors shows that either you didn't even try to get help from them (or only tried with the Chem Lab professor), or you're just better suited for a more liberal artsy college.

I mean, I'm a Biology BS major, and so far, all of my professors have strongly encouraged asking them for help, save the one aforementioned, and most are quite willing to schedule time outside of their office hours to meet with them. And frankly, I can't blame the biology department for being a bit bitter... they know a good chunk of their intro classes' students are just taking the classes to fulfill med school requirements. That's gotta suck. I find it amusing that they seem pleasantly surprised whenever I tell them I'm not and have never been premed, LOL. ^^;

YanksDolphins

Show interest in what the professor does research instead of just your own ambitions. They'll certainly want to discuss.

spe07

An opinion from a recent ('07) engineering grad.

I think the most pertinent question to ask someone who has been educated at a school is likely, would you do it again if you had the option? And thats where I'm heading.

A lot of people will tell you that college is what you make of it, and to a certain extent they are correct. But to me, this question is more of a two-way street and it is valuable to ask, "how does university aid in me taking advantage of what it has to offer?" On many fronts, Hopkins does shine regarding this. Unlike the original poster here I found most professors to be quite approachable. Both in the form of office hours, additional help that may be needed, career advice, and often presented students with various opportunities to get involved in research around the department, or even elsewhere for that matter (my advisor found me an internship one summer). Not all faculty deserve teaching awards and certainly some were more research oriented, but at any prestigious school that is to be expected to a certain degree. Does someone on the verge of making a career breaking discovery really want to be bothered with teaching something they know inside and out? Its to be expected I think. Nonetheless, I can only say that Hopkins exceeded my every expectation with quality of faculty members in regards to their teaching.

Extracurricularly, Hopkins offers its fair share of groups/clubs to get involved with, and again I was quite impressed with this aspect of the university. They generally support novel groups on campus and there likely something for every niche you could possibly want. To my surprise, the clubs were even fairly well funded which allowed us to really take advantage of the resources of the university.

With that being said, there were 2 things that stick out in my mind where the school was lacking. The first being socially. Its not that Hopkins students aren't social, or that you can't find a party on any given night of the week, more that the way the university is set up and the surrounding area dictate that the students generally have to manufacturer their own fun. There is no true college town atmosphere in the surrounding area, and while its nice to say that the Inner Harbor is just a hop, skip, and a jump away, I found that most students rarely took advantage of it due to the cost/time associated with getting there. The norm, as is true with most campuses, is that students hang around Homewood and Charles Village, which to me were severely lacking when I compare it with others universities that I have since visited/been associated with. Secondly, and somewhat analogous to this I suppose, was the fact that Hopkins has a very pre-"life" mentality. Whether it be pre-med, pre-law, pre-grad school, it seemed like so many of my peers were so focused on the next phase of life that they may have missed enjoying college. The thing is, if you go around and ask current students the majority will rave about how much they love the place, but I seriously do question if that is the case.

So would I do it again? Not in Baltimore. I loved what Hopkins offered academically and extracurricularly (and where it got me, into every grad school I applied to) but what tips the scale for me is Baltimore. The city offers very little when compared with others and the specific location within the city doesn't appeal to me either. If you were to place the academics and opportunities Hopkins offered in a more college friendly area like a Charlottesville, VA (UVA) or a Princeton or Boston then I would do it all over again without thought. But Baltimore did leave something to be desired.

IBclass06

What a great and balanced post, spe07! I applaud your honesty.