JHU or Duke

[warblersrule]

<p>I agree with much of tanman’s post, but I think some of it deserves clarification. For the sake of disclosure, I selected Duke over Hopkins as a senior.</p>

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@tanman

I think the campuses have very different ‘feels’ in terms of size…While Hopkins does have some grad students on the Homewood (undergrad) campus, the majority of its grad students are on the East Baltimore (medical) campus…Duke, on the other hand, has one large, relatively contiguous campus…</p>

<p>…When you walk around campus, Hopkins has a very small, liberal arts college-ey feel; the same is true of some parts of Duke, but others have the “feel” of a larger institution.

In terms of size, yes, Duke’s campus is considerably larger than JHU’s. West campus alone is more than five times the size of the Homewood campus. If you prefer a lot of green space, as I do, you’ll find this very satisfactory. I absolutely adored Duke’s sprawling campus, and the forest was a bonus. I got very spoiled, I think, because most of the campuses I’ve attended or visited since graduation have seemed very small and cramped.</p>

<p>It should be emphasized, however, that undergraduates really only deal with a very small part of that campus. The undergraduate portion of West is bounded by Cameron and Wilson (southwest), Edens (southeast), sociology/psych (northeast), and the LSRC (northwest). Put more simply, a 5 minute walk can take you across one axis of campus (Duke Med to Cameron), and a 10 minute walk can take you across the other axis (bus stop to Science Drive). Sometimes you’ll have to travel outside this loop (say, to the Nasher or Trent), but those are exceptions.</p>

<p>You’ll find that undergraduates heavily dominate their part of campus. The medical/law/business/nursing/environmental/etc. schools are all located relatively far away from the undergraduate residences, classrooms, libraries, dining facilities, etc., so there is relatively little mixing between the two. The div school is the only professional school located near the main part of campus, and they tend to stick to themselves. The undergraduate to graduate ratios at Duke and Hopkins are not significantly different (2.3:1 and 2.8:1, respectively). </p>

<p>While I certainly wouldn’t call Duke a LAC, it’s highly unusual to walk anywhere and not run into at least four or five people you know, assuming you’re even the slightest bit social.</p>

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@tanman

The campus itself: Georgian-inspired Federalist architecture vs Gothic Wonderland. The campus itself (apart from the students) have a very different feel to them. Duke has its classic gothic buildings and is much more wooded, while Hopkins has Federalist style buildings and open green quads with brick and marble walkways.

West is Gothic, but East is Georgian. I’d often go to East to read or study when I got tired of West, and the same certainly holds true for freshmen traveling to West. </p>

<p>Central is just sort of bleh. You also have large sections of campus built in a fairly modern style (French Sci, the Nasher, the LSRC, most of the medical center, etc.).</p>

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@tanman

Campus life: I think that your impression of campus life is really a question of ‘fit’ and should be based on your visit to both schools. From my personal experience at Hopkins and my outsider-view of Duke, both schools seem to have very active and involved student bodies. While both schools have the handful of students who “live” in the library, most students at both schools are very social, friendly and out-going.

I’m willing to defer to your experience here, as I haven’t attended Hopkins, but this was actually one of the primary reasons I selected Duke (financial aid was the other). Duke felt noticeably livelier to me, just as Carolina felt livelier to me than Duke did. I agree that this may be a function of fit; the LGBT community was fairly important to me, and Duke’s was much more active at the time (I don’t know about now).</p>

<p>Other than that, I think your post was spot on, especially your analysis of the locations.</p>

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@al6200

Soft factors aside, I’d go with Hopkins if you plan to go to grad school. If you plan to get a job immediately, I’d tip the scales in favor of Duke…The differences are of course relatively small, but I think Hopkins has better research opportunities and Duke has somewhat better campus recruiting from companies.

I wouldn’t say that at all. My top two choices as a senior were Duke and Chicago, and since I wanted to get a PhD, I figured Chicago was better for that…thankfully people convinced me that Duke would do just as well and made more sense given finances. They were right, as it turns out, and I don’t know a single other Duke student who applied to graduate school and didn’t get into one of his/her top choices (often the #1 choice). </p>

<p>Princeton is the only elite school with more Goldwater scholars than Duke, and Duke has produced twice as many NSF fellows as Hopkins. I’m not saying Duke is necessarily better for research, mind you, but it’s certainly not inferior.</p>