<p>Please list the Strengths and Weaknesses of Johns Hopkins in all areas, including but not limited to the academics, the professors, the fine arts, the living conditions, the costs, and any special/strong programs.</p>
<p>Strengths:
- World-renowned academics
- Especially strong academic programs: econ, public health, international relations, sciences
- Campus is beautiful
- One of the best places for research (easily available to students?)
- No “core” curriculum </p>
<p>Weaknesses:
- Expensive without financial aid
- I don’t think it’s especially focused on fine arts?
- I’ve heard some professors are more focused on their own research than the class?</p>
<p>no core? Reading the materials it seems there are required courses in multiple areas. (Math English etc). Can someone verify this? Brown as I understood it has no core but JHU does?</p>
<p>There are the requirements for your major, and for some majors, there are distribution requirements. For example, if you are going to major in English, you are required to fulfill your major requirements and then these distribution requirements: 12 credits of N, Q or E and 18 credits of S, N, Q or E (N = Natural Science course, Q = Quantitative course, E = Engineering course, S = Social Science course). Other majors are inherently interdepartmental, such as Public Health, so they have no distribution requirements. Additionally, every students must take 12 credits worth of writing intensive courses. </p>
<p>Regardless, not every student is required to take a “core” set of classes. For example, not every student has to take Calc I or Expository Writing. If I was an English major, I could take 12 credits worth of JUST natural science courses and then 18 credits worth of JUST social science courses. </p>
<p>Hope this makes sense.</p>
<p>Thanks, it makes sense, but it seems more a middle ground compromise between a college with core requirements and a college with “no core”. Not a complaint really, just an observation. I was told that although Brown doesnt have a core, 95% of students do at least a course in Math, Science, History, etc. (so, 90% would fulfill a core requirement anyway.</p>
<p>“Core” is what Columbia has. There are certain classes that every student must take to graduate. Hopkins has distribution requirements, which is essentially technical jargon for “take classes outside your major!” A lot of students here double-major, and in different areas (humanities, social sciences, physical sciences/math, engineering) so distribution requirements are very easy to fulfill. For example, I’m math/econ. For math, I have to take 30 credits that aren’t Q (quantitative science). By majoring in econ, which is a social science, I get all of those S credits and I didn’t even have to do anything extra. With econ, I get my non-S credits in the form of my math classes. And as spanglish pointed out, everyone in A&S has to take 12 writing credits (6 for engineering), but these can be any writing classes that interest you that have a W label.</p>
<p>May I ask a qustion? The 4-year graduation rate of JHU is 81%, relatively lower than that of other similar ranking univs, which is 87-88%. Should this worry me as I consider ED?</p>
<p>One of the main reasons for this is that the Whiting School of Engineering (1/3 of Hopkins) has a very high number of 5-year combined Bachelor/Master’s degree programs and students who enter these programs do not receive their Bachelor’s until the end of the fifth year with their Master’s. There is also the same thing for students who want to do a MPH (Master’s of Public Health) and I know that there is a 5-year International Relations program as well. Because of the abundance of 5-year Bach/Mast. programs, these students finish in five years. This opportunity appears to be more prevalent at Hopkins than most others places.</p>
<p>In short, I would not be concerned about it. :)</p>
<p>Wealth is correct. I have two friends who are doing a combined MA program in the engineering school (although one came in with so many credits that he’ll get it done in 4 years). If you’re worried about people failing out, that’s not the case.</p>
<ul>
<li>high achieving, dedicated, diverse students</li>
<li>great lacrosse</li>
<li>small classes</li>
<li><p>fun, social campus</p></li>
<li><p>parking is atrocious</p></li>
<li><p>expensive school, without FinAid (tho comparable to others)</p></li>
<li><p>can be intimidating to be around incredible faculty and students, not for everyone</p></li>
<li><p>doesn’t guarantee housing for 4 yrs</p></li>
</ul>
<p>@Wealth, @Yanks: Thank you so much!</p>
<p>bump 10 char because of the other thread.</p>
<p>-large class sizes in the sciences. I am not sure whether this is unique to Hopkins as a top undergraduate research school, but I was certainly shocked at the size of introductory and intermediate science classes are. Understandably, most of these classes are required for the pre-med track, and there are lots of pre-meds, but I would have expected to see class sizes of around 100~, not 300.</p>
<p>^Frankly, I don’t see any difference between a class of 100 and one of 300 in an introductory survey course. They both work the same way, i.e., the professor lectures a couple of times per week and then the large class is broken up into small sections led by TA’s (advanced Ph.D students, typically) for discussions, questions, homework review, quizzes, etc. Grading is done by the TA under the direction and review of the professor. If you want to get to know the professor, you go to office hours. Obviously, the larger class needs a larger classroom, but that is the main difference in my opinion. And yes, most research universities work the same way because it is far more efficient to have one professor teach 300 students who want/need the intro class than to have 3 professors teaching the same course to 100 students. At large research universities (Cornell, for example), 300 would be a small introductory survey course.</p>
<p>LAC’s, which have far fewer students as a whole, will naturally have smaller intro classes and because they don’t have advanced graduate students, the professor has to do it all. Sometimes, this is advantageous but often it is not because, e.g., grading introductory course exams and papers year after year gets very tedious. TA’s are often better at it because they are still fresh. </p>
<p>Once you get into more advanced courses/seminars, the class size shrinks dramatically. Premeds tend to see more large classes because medical schools still require the same wide array of introductory courses of all applicants. Conversely, if you are simply majoring in one of the sciences and don’t plan on meeting all the premed requirements, you can advance out of introductory survey courses relatively quickly. Of course, humanities students have small classes from the get go.</p>
<p>^
You’re right. But I think it’s an important consideration for students deciding between top research universities, state schools, and liberal arts schools. Of the two former options, the class sizes don’t differ too much (though from my observations larger schools will offer more class options, you don’t have to take it with professor X at time Y). Of the liberal arts schools I’ve been to, the class size for courses like introductory biology is around 60.</p>