<p>It’s not “cut-throat” but yes it is competitive, as is every other school (kind of). When you’re taking your AP’s, you’re competing with the rest of the students around the nation for that 4 or 5. When you’re taking your SATs- same deal. Classes at Hopkins are either “curved” or not. Classes that are not curved means that your final grade is what you earned. If you aced all your exams, you’ll earn an A. If you passed all your exams with a C, your final grade is a C. This means that YOUR grade is independent of your classmates’. On the other hand, “curved” classes mean that your final grade is relative to how others do. If, for example, your average exam grade is a 65, but the class average is a 50, you’ll probably get an A regardless of your raw “65” score. However, if you take an exam and received a 70 and the class average is an 80, you’ll end up with a B. What I’m trying to say is that in these “curved” classes, the competition is more apparent because how you do depends on how your classmates do. It may sound kind of complicated. Basically, I honestly think that there IS competition at Hopkins- almost everyone here is very motivated and works very hard. So if you expect to be cruising through your undergrad while the rest of your classmates go out get drunk and you end up valedictorian, that probably won’t happen (the classmates getting drunk part). But it is NOT cut throat, it IS competitive, just not cut-throat. It’s not competitive in the sense that people will steal your books, burn your notes, or drug you before your exam just so you’ll fail. It IS competitive in the sense that the majority of your classmates will work just as hard as you.</p>