@LindseyStirling , here’s my 2 cents on the “room for friendships” part of the question. I think it depends on the person and what’s important to you. My oldest is a good student but not crazy competitive about getting any particular grade and finds time to be involved in 2 clubs and greek life. She has found the balance that works for her.
And, yes, she has a social life, is not obsessed with grades and still had a wonderful paid internship last summer.
My others are a little bogged down with the work, but again, i think that’s personality.
I think that you need to make the effort to do things that make you happy, like meeting people, clubs, etc. There are some great people at Hopkins. Hopefully, @jhusenior will chime in, but there are a lot of clubs, fraternity/sorority, cultural/religious organizations, etc., that people manage to fit in with their workload.
As far as how competitive it is, @jhusenior can probably better answer that.