2015-2016 Johns Hopkins University Application Thread

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Speaking of second look…

I’m just curious as to if an honest disclosure was made with regard to the ongoing problem of medical student mistreatment at Hopkins….

If not, it’s time to let everyone in on the open secret at JHUSOM.

LCME, the accrediting body for medical schools, absolutely ripped Hopkins for medical student mistreatment during the organization’s most recent site visit
.

The administration did everything possible to keep this hush-hush for the past two years. Recently, it appears that someone done goofed and uploaded a document summarizing the issues to the public internet.
https://portalcontent.johnshopkins....cal_Student_Mistreatment_at_Hopkins_BRIEF.pdf

In summary, more than half of Hopkins students reported being publicly embarrassed by their teachers. Nearly a third of students described the behavior they were subjected to as going far enough as to constitute public humiliation.

While the extent of degrading behavior on the part of residents and faculty is truly disturbing, a couple of further findings are absolutely jaw dropping:

Hopkins medical students reported being asked to perform personal services for those they report to at 2X the national average.
Moreover, students reported being subjected to abuse so severe *that it actually led to physical harm* at 3X the national average* (!).

A few observations…

The document linked above contains a lot of language representing the administration’s attempt to conduct damage control by minimizing/denying the problem.

What is conveniently left out is that there is good reason to believe that the survey numbers are actually artificially low. Everyone who has been at Hopkins for more than two weeks knows that surveys purporting to be anonymous are anything but that. Plenty of us who have been on the receiving end of retaliation learned the hard way to never put anything negative in an “anonymous” survey.

Finally, despite the passage in the document describing the plan to create an ombudsman to advocate on behalf of medical students, it never actually happened. In fact, absolutely nothing was meaningful was done. The “response” to being confronted with this data was simply a charade designed to placate LCME so that the institution could survive with accreditation intact.

And *BOOM* goes the dynamite…

Stay tuned. Plenty more details to come…

#informedconsent

#jhusomopensecret

#USNWR#3studentmistreatment#1

#itsbettertobefromhopkinsthatathopkins
 
Speaking of second look…

I’m just curious as to if an honest disclosure was made with regard to the ongoing problem of medical student mistreatment at Hopkins….

If not, it’s time to let everyone in on the open secret at JHUSOM.

LCME, the accrediting body for medical schools, absolutely ripped Hopkins for medical student mistreatment during the organization’s most recent site visit
.

The administration did everything possible to keep this hush-hush for the past two years. Recently, it appears that someone done goofed and uploaded a document summarizing the issues to the public internet.
https://portalcontent.johnshopkins.edu/Housestaff/Uploaded Files/Medical_Student_Mistreatment_at_Hopkins_BRIEF.pdf

In summary, more than half of Hopkins students reported being publicly embarrassed by their teachers. Nearly a third of students described the behavior they were subjected to as going far enough as to constitute public humiliation.

While the extent of degrading behavior on the part of residents and faculty is truly disturbing, a couple of further findings are absolutely jaw dropping:

Hopkins medical students reported being asked to perform personal services for those they report to at 2X the national average.
Moreover, students reported being subjected to abuse so severe *that it actually led to physical harm* at 3X the national average* (!).

A few observations…

The document linked above contains a lot of language representing the administration’s attempt to conduct damage control by minimizing/denying the problem.

What is conveniently left out is that there is good reason to believe that the survey numbers are actually artificially low. Everyone who has been at Hopkins for more than two weeks knows that surveys purporting to be anonymous are anything but that. Plenty of us who have been on the receiving end of retaliation learned the hard way to never put anything negative in an “anonymous” survey.

Finally, despite the passage in the document describing the plan to create an ombudsman to advocate on behalf of medical students, it never actually happened. In fact, absolutely nothing was meaningful was done. The “response” to being confronted with this data was simply a charade designed to placate LCME so that the institution could survive with accreditation intact.

And *BOOM* goes the dynamite…

Stay tuned. Plenty more details to come…

#informedconsent

#jhusomopensecret

#USNWR#3studentmistreatment#1

#itsbettertobefromhopkinsthatathopkins
Interesting. Doesn't seem to be hush hush though. I found a more detailed faculty presentation on the mistreatment topic back in 2014. Mistreatment particularly from residents? Any current M3/M4 students want to comment on this?

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/faculty_senate/minutes/december_2014.pdf
 
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OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations!!!!!! Please choose Hopkins 😉

Received a call from Ms. Mazza. Pulled off the waitlist OMGOMGOMGOMG. 7 days to respond.

Excuse me while I dance around my workplace.
 
Just got a call too!!! Phuynh94 do you remember how Valerie said we would have to reply? Do we expect an email linking to an electronic acceptance or do we email her? I was too excited and dont remember exactly lol
 
Just got a call too!!! Phuynh94 do you remember how Valerie said we would have to reply? Do we expect an email linking to an electronic acceptance or do we email her? I was too excited and dont remember exactly lol
AHHHHH congratulations! We get 7 days to reply, and your portal should show the updated decision soon. (You'll receive an email with a link to the portal). Financial aid will only start working on your package if you click to accept the decision (it's not binding) and have all of your forms in. Best of luck!
 
Not to ask tooo paranoid of a question, but anyone here have an idea how full the fb group is looking as compared to years past / if more people held their acceptances this year? Do you think there will be some more WL acceptances?
 
Hey everyone, I need a bit of assistance and was advised this would be a good place to find some. Im doing research at Bayview Medical Center this summer and am trying to figure out housing. Im kind of on a time crunch (it was a busy semester). Im from New Jersey and know nothing about the Baltimore area but I was considering getting housing at JHU as visiting student. However, I don't know which dorm to apply for (I think the options were Charles Commons and Wolman Hall) and I also don't know how far away they are from the hospital itself which may be an issue since Ill be relying on public transportation.
I also looked into trying to find sublets/roommates via cragslist but the whole thing has been a hassle since I don't know what the areas and what they entail. I just read somewhere that Canton would be a good place to look into. Google gives me an idea of where they are relatively but Im still not sure. Id like to be in an area with other college students if I ended up with a sublet.
Can anyone help me out?
 
Hey everyone, I need a bit of assistance and was advised this would be a good place to find some. Im doing research at Bayview Medical Center this summer and am trying to figure out housing. Im kind of on a time crunch (it was a busy semester). Im from New Jersey and know nothing about the Baltimore area but I was considering getting housing at JHU as visiting student. However, I don't know which dorm to apply for (I think the options were Charles Commons and Wolman Hall) and I also don't know how far away they are from the hospital itself which may be an issue since Ill be relying on public transportation.
I also looked into trying to find sublets/roommates via cragslist but the whole thing has been a hassle since I don't know what the areas and what they entail. I just read somewhere that Canton would be a good place to look into. Google gives me an idea of where they are relatively but Im still not sure. Id like to be in an area with other college students if I ended up with a sublet.
Can anyone help me out?

Hey, hope you're excited for Baltimore!

So the multi-campus thing kinda throws some people off in the beginning! Luckily there's a free shuttle system for students and employees that runs fairly frequently. In the map below you can see the Bayview shuttle (lime green route), which runs from the JHU Main Hospital/Med School campus (JHMI) in the west with the Bayview campus in the east.
Screen Shot 2016-05-12 at 10.36.28 AM.png


If you lived up near the undergrad (Homewood) campus, you'd probably have to take two shuttles, connecting at JHMI. It's doable, but if you want to minimize transit time I'd recommend living in the JHMI vicinity – either Upper Fells or Butcher's Hill. There are two large apartment complexes bordering the med campus (929 or Jefferson Square) which are convenient yet pricey. All these areas are pretty saturated with graduate students and visiting researchers.

Canton is a great neighbourhood, but as you can tell from the map it's not exactly close to a shuttle route. I don't know enough about the area surrounding Bayview to recommend living there or not.

Shuttle table for the JHMI – Bayview route is attached. As you can see, it's about a 30 min ride from Wolfe Street (JHMI) to the Pavilion (Bayview).
 

Attachments

Just to confirm, a car isn't necessary in Baltimore, is it? What percentage of current students have one?
 
Just to confirm, a car isn't necessary in Baltimore, is it? What percentage of current students have one?
I was told that approximately 30 to 40 percent of people have cars during MS1. Not necessary,but nice.
 
Has anyone else finished the background check? We literally clicked a few things and thats it, yeah? Does anyone know if we get an "all clear" kinda thing like we did for the AMCAS one?
 
Has anyone else finished the background check? We literally clicked a few things and thats it, yeah? Does anyone know if we get an "all clear" kinda thing like we did for the AMCAS one?
I'm in the same boat as you. Expected to have to fill out a bunch of info and only filled out a couple of lines and was done... Haven't heard anything else
 
Just to confirm, a car isn't necessary in Baltimore, is it? What percentage of current students have one?

@panda16 's ballpark is probably right on the nose.

Honestly, having a car here can be more of a hindrance than an asset. Street parking can fill up fast depending on neighbourhood and garage parking is wildly expensive.

I have a car, which is useful when I want to make a monthly pilgrimage to Costco/HMart/Trader Joe's/Wegman's and I really value the freedom it gives me. It's also nice if you want to escape to Philly or NYC for the weekend. Sometimes I go to dinners at my advisor or PI's houses out in the 'burbs, which saves me a hefty Uber charge. Drove to DC a few times, but honestly it's much cheaper and faster to take the MARC ($8 each way). That said, a lot of your peers will be more than willing to shuttle you out of the city. Just ask around; grocery shopping alone is kinda dreary anyways. As for the longitudinal clerkship (which is out in the community and may be up to 30 min away), you'll be given a carpool if you don't have a car.

So no biggie if you don't have one, no biggie if you bring one.
 
Pulled off the waitlist earlier this week as well!

Does anyone know what the next steps after submitting the letter of intent are?
 
Calling all MS's 🙂
Do you guys know what sort of medical history requirements we need to provide prior to matriculation? I'd rather get this kinda stuff done ASAP. Like do we need to prove we're HepB/C neg, titers for Abs, etc?
Thanks!
 
I had a question for those of you who were accepted from the alternate list. I was just called today by Ms. Mazza and was asked if I was still interested in being considered for a spot at JHU. Since I have already moved forward with my other school and did not plan on going to Hopkins even if accepted I told her no and thats that. I was just wondering she simply called for an update or if it couldve been an acceptance call. Where you guys offered acceptance right away when she contacted you or were you also asked if you were still interested?
 
I had a question for those of you who were accepted from the alternate list. I was just called today by Ms. Mazza and was asked if I was still interested in being considered for a spot at JHU. Since I have already moved forward with my other school and did not plan on going to Hopkins even if accepted I told her no and thats that. I was just wondering she simply called for an update or if it couldve been an acceptance call. Where you guys offered acceptance right away when she contacted you or were you also asked if you were still interested?
That, my friend, was an acceptance call. I'm sorry we missed you!
 
That, my friend, was an acceptance call. I'm sorry we missed you!
Hey thanks for the quick reply! I'm quite conflicted with this but I had already made the difficult decision of chosing a school and I'll have to live with it. Regardless, its an honor being considered at this school, and its one hell of a confidence booster haha my spot will surely go to someone who deserves it
 
Hey current students, do any of you know of a good area where a student at Hopkins Med and UMD Med could split a place? Are there any nice neighborhoods in between? If not, what is your housing advice? How is 929? What other apartments have lots of first years? Thanks so much for the info!
 
Hey current students, do any of you know of a good area where a student at Hopkins Med and UMD Med could split a place? Are there any nice neighborhoods in between? If not, what is your housing advice? How is 929? What other apartments have lots of first years? Thanks so much for the info!

Perhaps Mount Vernon would be a good compromise in terms of proximity?

As for 929, @deletedmember837492 has a great summary:
Pros:
- Convenience: Internet, utilities, TV, washer and dryer etc. are all set up. There's a small but functional 24/7 gym. Someone at the front desk is always there to take packages and maintenance tends to happen fairly quickly. The free Charm City Circulator bus, which takes you to Fells Point and Harbor East also has a stop right outside
- Comfort: Apartments are modern and well-renovated
- Community: Many of your classmates will also be living in 929, so it's easy to coordinate study groups and social activities
- Security: Hopkins security guards are in the area, but exercising street smarts is still a must
Cons:
- Lack of space: The rooms and apartments are functional but small (the 2BR/2BA bedrooms, for example, can fit a bed, desk, chair and cabinet, but little else). In many ways, 929's apartments resemble an upscale but glorified dorm.
- Cost: 929 is expensive. You are essentially paying for the convenience and perceived security of the building. I think 929 is a decent option for people not familiar with Baltimore. It'll provide for a relatively hassle-free living experience. The neighborhoods here tend to be 'patchwork' in that the 'bad' and 'good' neighborhoods are interspersed between one another. So, it's sometimes hard to gauge which neighborhoods are safe without knowing the area and physically visiting the property. Having said that, I would say that most people move out of 929 after their first year. You can find huge and gorgeous rowhomes for a fraction of the price. For people looking for housing outside of 929, definitely do ask current students to see if the area is reasonably safe. Hope this helps!


I'd say 929's greatest asset is the convenience: no utilities, friends just a second away, and you can wake up 15 min before class starts and feverishly bolt to school. It really is a great way to connect with your class. That said, you pay a lot per square foot, the neighbourhood is "up and coming" (aka: slowly gentrifying), and there is relatively little to do in the area. If you're not having a kickback in 929, you're either walking/Ubering to Fells or Mt. Vernon for fun. Depending on what floor you're on, you may get a lot of street/construction noise, as they're building a hotel adjacent to the complex... so it may be worth it for med20 folks to shell out for the "sunsoaked" rooms, which are on the upper floors.

As for apartments with lots of MS1s, I think it goes:
1. 929 (probably 50+ people)
2. Jefferson Square (about 4-5 people, but a lot of MS2s) – a slightly more expensive, but much more luxurious apartment just a block south of JHMI
3. Waterloo Apartments (3-4 people) – large complex in central Mt. Vernon near the shuttle stop
4. Various other Mt. Vernon apartments with 2-3 students: 520 Park, Symphony Center, Professional Arts Building, etc. Some people even snag rowhouses in Mt. Vernon, but it seems the majority live in apartments.

Here's a snapshot from a 2015 housing presentation, though I would hazard to say these average rent figures increase every year. Also, I have found that Pat Park is usually much cheaper (~$600-$750) than Butcher's Hill + Fells (anywhere from $600 – $1K depending on the location and age of house).
Screen Shot 2016-05-25 at 8.22.41 AM.png
 
For those who have been accepted off the waitlist, how long did it take the Office of Financial Aid to send you a financial aid package after clicking accept in the portal?
 
For those who have been accepted off the waitlist, how long did it take the Office of Financial Aid to send you a financial aid package after clicking accept in the portal?
I uploaded my documents to the CSS profile/IDOC that same day. It took them 3 days to process and send it to JHU, who then had it for me that afternoon.
 
I uploaded my documents to the CSS profile/IDOC that same day. It took them 3 days to process and send it to JHU, who then had it for me that afternoon.

Thanks! I actually just heard back from them. Just to be clear, the amount under "general scholarship" is a grant that is not expected to be repaid? And is it subject to change from year to year?
 
Thanks! I actually just heard back from them. Just to be clear, the amount under "general scholarship" is a grant that is not expected to be repaid? And is it subject to change from year to year?
Yay! Yes, it is a grant. You will have to reapply yearly.
 
Thanks! I actually just heard back from them. Just to be clear, the amount under "general scholarship" is a grant that is not expected to be repaid? And is it subject to change from year to year?

Echoing @phuynh94, 100% correct.

And for anyone coming out of a gap year or full-time job, they do recalculate your aid every year. My scholarship package for MS2 went up significantly as I only had half a year of income reported in my 2015 taxes... and it was spot-on with the projection they gave over a year ago at SLW.

I also had some friends receive Perkins loans (which I had thought were a thing of the past), so your loan profile *may* become more favourable with chance/time.

Either way, I have had nothing but excellent interactions with the finaid department here.
 
Hopefully a current student can answer this for me - what is the testing schedule like? What days of the week do you take tests during ms1 and how many weeks between the exams?
 
Hopefully a current student can answer this for me - what is the testing schedule like? What days of the week do you take tests during ms1 and how many weeks between the exams?

Totally variable. I think tests have been on almost every day of the week, though they usually try to hold them on Mon/Tues. The scientific foundations of medicine (SFM) block, which is held Oct-Dec, is much faster paced than anatomy (aug-sept) or genes to society (jan MS1-feb MS2). I think tests were held roughly once a week during SFM, but once every two/three weeks for GTS and anatomy. However, the final part of MS1 GTS, neuroscience, was comprised of four tests which were held about a week apart... though if you did decently on the preceding tests, you could usually relax a bit more to the end.

So there are more tests than schools who teach multiple subjects at a time, but you avoid having a "finals" week of multiple exams back to back. Before breaks (winter, spring, summer) there will be 3-4 day blocks of elective courses – known as TIME courses – that often just have an online quiz.
 
What is a typical day like? What time do classes start and end?

Also do you need to bring your own stethoscopes and scrubs?

Thanks.
 
What is a typical day like? What time do classes start and end?

Also do you need to bring your own stethoscopes and scrubs?

Thanks.
If you're on the FB class page, a really nice timeline was posted by one of the current MSs. We get our stethoscopes from JHU a little after anatomy. Dunno about scrubs. If you're really hurting, I'm sure you can find some around the hospital relatively easily.
 
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