Johns Hopkins University Top Questions

Most classes at JHU, once past the intro classes that are typically 100 or more students in size, are fairly small. Some will be no more than 20 students, and many not more than a dozen. Professors learn your names and if you want will interact with you as often as you'd like. That being said, some aren't friendly and some are immensely friendly. The fact that professors are so invested in their classes they expect a lot from you, and most of them being as small as they are you can't skate by easily. Class participation happens a lot, though often times it ends up being simply two or three (sometimes more) people talking and asking questions while everyone else is silent. Some people discuss things outside of class, though some don't like to mix social with academic. I don't spend much time outside of class with my professors personally, though some students do. JHU education is interesting in that the general requirements are minimal. There are no general classes and the few requirements you do have can be filled by any class you'd like that meets the requirement. The departments do have stricter policies on requirements, however those are always geared towards what you need to be a successful student in that major. This gives people a lot of options as to how they build their degree, and it's a great system. The only draw back is students are mostly left to their own discretion about what to take and typically without a good plan someone can easily have to stay an extra year.

All of my professors (and some who were in my department but never had me as a student) knew my name. I was in two small departments, but I always felt like I was very connected to the university as a whole, and my professors continue to keep in touch now that I've graduated. I had fantastic relationships with my research advisors, and professors were very flexible/encouraged me to take upper level courses early on. Students tend to study in the library or in their room or in the HUT, a big reading room on campus. I liked to study in my room, because I generally felt I could concentrate better there - the library was too social (except on the lowest levels)!! Learning for its own sake is encouraged, but people will help you get a job if that's what you want to do. The assumption is that most everyone goes to grad/professional school eventually, so the Career Center is often focused on banking/consulting/finance/science jobs for those people who want to work and then go back to school.

I love my classes. I'm an IR major, and we have some incredible professors. I took Contemporary International Politics, an intro level class, with Professor David, and it was the best class I've ever taken. He would lecture for an hour and give us so much information, but it was completely organized in a way that made it really easy to follow, and was interesting. I worked so hard for that class, and there was so much reading, but it was all stuff that I wanted to read. And you have to respect it when a Professor has been giving you well-respected journal articles to read all semester, then halfway through you get assigned an article written by him, and you listen to your next lecture and know you're hearing from an expert on it. You can see your professors if you take advantage of office hours. Intro level classes are usually 100 person or more lectures. My least favorite class was Intro Chem. The science professors that teach intro classes hate teaching, don't care about teaching, and teach straight from the book. Then you get the professors that can't really speak English. People do participate in class. Students study ALL THE TIME.

Professors know my name and I have several that I could ask for recs. My favorite is Professor Thornton who invites me over to his house to go over my term paper topics. It's a nice walk through a residential neighborhood and then I get to discuss politics with a former foreign service officer.

Classes are usually larger earlier on, but in most humanities classes (which are taught seminar style) and upper level classes, the size gets smaller. As a 2nd semester Freshman, I am in 4 out of 5 classes that have under 15 people in them. Professors get to know you and can help you. In these smaller classes, class participation is usually a big part of it because the professors want to make sure that students are learning material that they can use by communicating it to others. There is pre-professional advising on campus, but most of the learning is done for learning's sake.

None of the professors I've had for any of my classes know my name. My favorite classes were labs, because I like working hands on. Grading for labs sucked, but the actual procedures/experiments I enjoyed. Least favorite class was organic chemistry. 300 person lecture with a professor who didn't teach well, great experience. Students study all the time. There are easier majors that don't require it, however with any math/science/engineering/premed degree to get straight b's (if you are smart and didn't work hard, got straight a's in high school, good numbers on the sats, etc) i'd say 2 hours a day MINIMUM. Yes students are competitive, it's not an environment condusive to learning, the stress is on one-upping your neighbor to get ahead, so that's how it goes. The engineering department is supposed to be amazing, and for research it's great, but for undergraduate learning I cannot stress enough how little emphasis is put on actually learning. Cheating is a HUGE problem on campus, as students are expected to succeed however they can. JHU is definetly geared toward making lots of money, learning is irrelevant as is helping other people.

My favorite class turned out to be a huge lecture dreaded by most natural science majors--Organic Chemistry. It's tough but my professor is great. He makes every effort to engage students, even though there are over 250 of us. There are also some very interesting small seminar-style classes that allow students to get to know the professor and other classmates very well. All of the classes require work and effort, but what you get out of a class is related to what you put into it.

Some professors are very amicable and know students on a first name basis. Many professors are very down to earth and in tune with the students' needs. My favorite class is Medical Sociology because it eliminates the science factor of medicine and health. The students study an average of 5 days out of the week. In class participation in the majority of classes is highly encouraged, and the professors make a tremendous effort to see this happen. Public Health is an amazing department because it's diverse and open to an individual's interests and passions.

I like my Japanese class. Unfortunately, the workload this year is significantly higher than last, but that's to be expected at the advanced level. I enjoy learning languages. I'm not sure about a least favorite, although there were a number of classes I was less than fond of, but I didn't really like the economics courses I took after the basic ones. I was just not very good at them and it was frustrating. You can find students in the library at any time, though of course it really fills up around finals time. Apparently some kids would just stay in the Hut for days, but I never personally knew anyone who did. I'm not really a study-in-the-library type of person. In every class I've been in, there has been at least some participation. I generally don't participate much, myself. The exception is Japanese class, but the class is tiny, so participation is pretty much inevitable. I don't mix much with science majors, so I don't know how competitive they get, but I do know that our BME program is the best in the country so I imagine that it gets pretty fierce. My personal experience has been that people like to study and work on assignments together as possible. I was a little annoyed by the distribution requirements (when will I need science?) but I suppose there is some reasoning for it... I do feel like we are learning for its own sake, which I rather like, though it will probably screw me over in the real world.

Professors know who you are in seminar classes. Whether they know you in giant lecture classes depends on how many questions you ask them outside of class. Don't be one of those people who has discussions with the Prof in the middle of a 300 person lecture. Class participation in seminars is necessary, not just common, though lectures you can sit on your hands and get by just fine. Students study as much as they need to for the class, but there's a pretty heavy study culture here. There's not much competition in my major (Writing Seminars) other than with oneself, but a friend of mine, while studying for finals, once saw a pair of lost glasses in the library, and in his sleep-deprived delirium thought "Maybe it's someone else in my class! I should break them!" Thankfully, he didn't. JHU has some idiotic distribution requirements, and if you aren't in a reading- or writing-related major I hear the writing requirements can be annoying. Still, I took a lot of good classes for my distribution requirements, so I can't say I hated the whole thing. Science majors get you a job, English, writing and humanities majors get you just as much as they'd get you anywhere else.

Classes at JHU are very rigorous. Unlike the Ivy Schools, there is no grade inflation. People really have to work hard for an A and strive to achieve a good GPA. Nevertheless, the classes are manageable and are not that much work. While some people say certain majors are much easier than others, there is the unanimous agreement that Organic Chemistry is not an easy or enjoyable class. Some of the introductory political science classes such as Contemporary International Politics and International Politics, are among student favorites, despite the fact that the large lecture is full with around 300 students. Just as the introductory science classes draw huge crowds, so too do the introductory economics classes. These large classes can be intimidating-- especially if you want to talk to the professor. The good thing is, when you have such a large class you also have a section that is basically a review of lecture taught by the TA (teaching assistant). Sections can vary in size from as small as 5 people to as large as twenty. Having the teaching assistant can be very helpful as a liasion, and rather then ask the professor questions you can first ask the teaching assistant and if your question cannot be answered it can be referred to the professor. The professors are all very knowledgeable and are experts in their fields. This too may be intimidating, but if you ask questions most are very understanding and nice. However, you typically do not see professors outside of class, with the exception of a few special campus events or at lectures in related fields. Some professors may be more geared to teaching than others. For example, in one of my higher level economics classes we played a class wide game where the winning groups won ten dollars each. There was another time in class when my professor auctioned off old CD's to demonstrate the different types of auctions. While the introductory classes may be boring, they also can be particularly interesting. Classes in archaeology, english, and bioethics draw people from all types of majors. Freshmen year, is likely to be filled with introductory classes, but by the time you are a second semester sophomore, you are highly likely to get into the classes you want to take including the smaller, more intimate classes. JHU is a great combination of job-orientated classes and classes for the sake of intellectual enlightenment. While a business school was recently founded, students have had the opportunity to take more buisness-like classes for the last couple of years with a minor being offered in Entreprenuership and Management. This minor offers classes in law, finance, and communications and is a great option for people who want to get an idea of the different careers they may want to puruse after college. Besides the pre-med classes and this entreprenuership minor, most of the classes are geared towards learning for its own sake and pure intellectual enlightenment. Outside of class, it is not uncommon to hear people discuss concepts learned in class. In fact, in some of my philosophy classes it is almost laughable to hear the conversations people have. The discussions are so abstract and may sound pretentious, but this enthusiasm for knowledge can be very refreshing. In fact, a large percentage of students do research off-campus and puruse their own intellectual pursuits at the hospital, public health school, or at other organizations in the city. Students at JHU love to learn, and are open about their opinions and views.