The "other" Johns Hopkins (no final exams)

roberthhid · 12-10-2006, 05:22 PM

This weekend I spoke with my son, a freshman at JHU, about final exams. He’s not doing any studying at all for exams. No he hasn’t dropped out or flipped out. He has no finals. He has some reading to do and some papers to write. He is a part of the “other” Hopkins, the one you don’t read about much on CC. It seems that almost all the JHU student posters here pre-med or in the sciences.
When I tell people he’s at Hopkins most times the response is “Oh, he’s going to be a doctor!”. (The fact that his parents are physicians may also play into this.) However he’s never liked science at all. He has always wanted to do creative writing. It came down to a choice between Bard and JHU. Bard was attractive because of small class sizes and the popularity of creative writing. However JHU won out with the shear depth and breadth of its Writing Seminars courses.
He went ot a tiny private high school and made JHU in his image. All of his classes are 20 students or less. He takes no science classes (he got AP credit for bio and calc so he placed out of most of JHU's science requirements). He doesn’t know about “cut-throat” competition or pressure to perform. He likes his profs and they like him. Having been there a number of times, Hopkins still has the atmosphere of a science/pre-med/engineering type campus. However he’s found creative writers and theater people to hang out with.
There’s tons of theatre opportunities at Hopkins – at least every other weekend there’s some show going on. Witness theater (student written and directed one act plays) has already had 2 well received showcases. In addition the freshman one-acts by the Barnstormers were put on for the parents weekend.
1st week in December, Throat Culture put on their “Saturday Night Live” type comedy shows. 2nd week of Dec, the campus Improv group Buttered Niblets put on their comedy show. Since DS is involved in all of the aforementioned activities I’m not sure when he gets his class work done! (As an aside, Rushmore is one of his favorite movies so life may be imitating art here.)
Next semester comes more writing classes and an acting class taught by John Astin.
Of course, there’s always a down side. One writing sems senior plans to live in a cardboard box http://www.jhunewsletter.com/media/s...newsletter.com and another is planning to tour with his own heavy metal band http://www.jhunewsletter.com/media/s...newsletter.com
If I'm lucky he'll go to grad school or teach. At least he's doing what he wants to do.

Booklady · 12-10-2006, 05:51 PM

That's wonderful to hear! One of my D's close friends is a JHU freshman doing creative writing, and she's also having a marvelous time. My husband is a JHU grad (not a doctor, either, or even a science person) and marvels at how things have changed since he was there, back in the dark ages.

MotherOfTwo · 12-10-2006, 06:59 PM

My neighbor's daughter (she went to a different h.s. than my kids and I don't know her too well) went to JHU to major in International Relations or something similar. Her mother told me that JHU was excellent in her daughter's area of interest.

mootmom · 12-10-2006, 08:18 PM

Writing Seminars, IR, History, and other non-science programs are excellent at Hopkins. It's a shame that most people think only of "pre-med" or "BME" when they think of JHU; as an alumni interviewer, I'm out to help change that where I can. Thanks for sharing your first-hand-once-removed experiences, roberthhid!

(I spent my free time at JHU in the Barnstormers, the only theatre group at the time. It was indescribeably delicious.

)

edad · 12-10-2006, 10:44 PM

and 3 miles south of campus is another part of JHU - the Peabody music conservatory.

Dad'o'2 · 12-11-2006, 08:16 AM

.... and creative writers are from Venus. At $45K/year I want my kid to work hard and study for final exams. It's good that there is a diversity of personalities in this world, but it's hard for us Martians to understand the Venusions.

No offense to anyone: it's just the left-brain/right-brain Great Divide, I guess.

roberthhid · 12-11-2006, 02:06 PM

Dad'o'2: Its just a different kind of work than what we did in the sciences. He reads thousands of pages, writes papers on Marx and Freud, and wonderful short stories. Its just that writing generally comes naturally to him which makes it a lot easier. His parents think he may be one of the very few to "make it" in writing. We shall see.

Dad'o'2 · 12-11-2006, 03:07 PM

"Its just a different kind of work than what we did in the sciences."

Don't I know it!

When I was there back in the late 70's, Writing Seminars had an excellent reputation, but I never knew a soul in the program (and certainly didn't go near that section of the course catalog!) I was always annoyed that they had courses like Statistics for Social Science Majors, but no social science/humanities course for us semi-literate engineering types--we had to take the same intro courses as kids like your son! I'm very happy that your son has found his niche, and kudos to you for not pushing him into medicine! I hope that I would try to support my kids if they chose that direction, but it doesn't look like either one will come close to it, so I will have to be tested in other ways....

In my view, one of the best reasons to go to a school like Hopkins is the strength of the different departments. Who knows--while your son is writing papers on Marx and Freud, he may get turned on to Philosopy, Political Science, or Psychology (now, I knew more than a few of those majors!).

A few months ago, I was back on campus for the first time in years. The place is gorgeous--much nicer than I remember. The facelift and new buildings have really made a difference.

My son is applying there in engineering (he is still wrestling with the essay that I'm sure you son had a blast with!) I have to admit that the cut-throat pre-med reputation even gives me pause, even though I know it is overblown.

Good luck to your son on his grades with all of those activities. Last I heard, first semester was still pass/no-credit.

D2

WealthOfInformation · 12-11-2006, 06:29 PM

Great to hear - Hopkins has had some major additions and changes in the past 5 years and students are incredibily happy there which is amazing to see and hear!

roberthhid · 12-08-2007, 09:34 AM

Well another year has gone by and son actually has 1 final (in some psychology course). Still no pressure at all, papers all done for the other courses. Main reason he couldn't talk to us this week was he was to busy rehearsing for a campus comedy show.

callie123 · 06-29-2009, 05:03 PM

As a 2009 grad, I can say that ANYONE who is lucky enough to attend Hopkins is very, very lucky. It is such a wonderful experience. I am currently beginning grad school at an Ivy, and really, cannot bring myself to even purchase a sweatshirt bearing its logo. I am still that attached to Hopkins.
One caveat: no one should think that there are no exams in the humanities...indeed, there are, and they can be quite challenging. But if one gets in to Hopkins, have no fear...it is quite possible to not only do well, but to sail. Good luck to all.

mantori.suzuki · 06-29-2009, 05:08 PM

Thanks, roberthhid, for taking the time to describe those experiences. I often wonder how non-science and non-premed students fare at schools that tend to emphasize those things. This was very interesting to read. (Looking at the date, maybe the OP is now long-gone, but thanks anyway!)

roberthhid · 07-01-2009, 12:07 PM

Well DS is now a rising senior at Hopkins. This past semester he had 1 final (French). I don't want to imply that Humanities majors don't work its just that with natural writing ability he's not especially stressed when he is resposible for end of semester papers.
His classes have remained at an "LAC size". The main point I had when I started this thread is that the Humanities experience is quite different from engineering, pre-med or hard sciences.

Hope2getrice · 07-24-2009, 10:42 AM

Thank you all for helping to post more and share more of the true insight about Hopkins. I have had a blast at Hopkins thus far and am sure it is going to just get better and better. The nasty rumors and stereotypes people have of Hopkins are really not true and it is really an amazing institution to be a part of. Even in the sciences, the students are so collaborative and intent on motivating one another.

amtc · 07-24-2009, 12:15 PM

Wow - thanks for bringing this thread back! My younger daughter is not a science person but a creative writing type so I would have never thought of JHU but now, given this information I will certainly look into it.