Northwestern vs JHU

Hope2getrice
Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:08:39 +0000

JHU is definitely not cut-throat. Pre-Med at both schools is probably equally cut-throat. Don’t let anyone on this board convince you otherwise (because 80% of them haven’t even stepped foot on Hopkins’ campus).

The social scene, however, is different. At NU, the greek scene is very big, and there are frat-parties often. If Greek is not really your thing, you might opt for Hopkins which has only half as many participants in the Greek Life.

The campuses are different too. Hopkins is very traditional college with big quads, grassy area, and uniform red-brick-and-white-marble-georgian, while NU is more ecletic with everything from the beautiful gothic dorms to the ugly brutalist part of the library, and not as many stereotypical Hopkins’-esque quads.

Food at either school is nothing to brag about. Hopkins’ undergrad pop is a little smaller than NU’s undergrad pop, which might be a plus or minus for you depending on what size school you want.

In terms of prestige, a pre-medical education at JHU is unrivaled. Maybe if you studied journalism, NU would get you more “WoWs”, but for pre-med, JHU is definitely the more prestigious of the two.

I am also aware that there are more research options at JHU than at NU. More than 80% (statistically) of the Hopkins undergrad pop completes at least one research endeavor during the time that they are undergrads. Hopkins also awards research money every year to select students with good research ideas, with each award totaling around $3k, not to mention the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award of $10k for independent research.

In terms of faculty caliber and renown, they are probably on equal footing, though the medical school access to Hopkins is definitely unparalleled.

Overall however, these are two very superb universities. You can’t go wrong with either.