<p>I am deciding betwwen Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore. If i know what I want to major, it would be easy to decide; unfortunately, i really don’t know. I am leaning toward JHU at this moment. It seems that Johns Hopkins has a better recognition across the nation-and internationally. Guys, what do you think?</p>
<p>It’s hard to give you advice because the schools are so different. Swarthmore is one of the most prestigious and well known LACs in the country. Hopkins is a big beast of a research university. Don’t worry about name recognition–this will not be a huge detriment or benefit. If you, however, want to go to graduate school in a particular field, going to a research university helps–more well known faculty and availability of grad courses matters. </p>
<p>However, you can’t go wrong with either, but you need to know what you want. You don’t want to go to Hopkins if you want a small college with no research emphasis but great teaching. You don’t want to go to Swarthmore is you’re interested in theoretical research and a University feel. But this is purely a personal decision.</p>
<p>I should mention, however, that Hopkins is on the smaller side of research universities.</p>