Impressions of Hopkins

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jimi

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Hello out there.

I have a little favor to ask all of you who have had first hand experiences with Hopkins.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I have recently been accepted to Hopkins. However, since my interview experience was a bit negative it left me feeling negatively about the school. Also staying in their residence hall (Reed Hall) definitely did not help.

But since it is such a prestigious school, I'm planning on visiting it again in the spring to make my final decision.

So until then I just wanted to hear from you guys to see what your impressions of Hopkins are. Especially those of you who have visited it or interviewed there. I really want to get an accurate sense of the place and I hate to just judge it on a one day experience.

So I hope you guys find time to post.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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Well, for what it's worth: I, frankly, did not have the greatest experience when I interviewed at Hopkins either. The students I met seemed less interesting than elsewhere, the location leaves a lot to be desired, and I didn't really feel that it was the place for me. Oh, and there's that GRADE thing, too...I can't imagine having to deal with that. HOWEVER, I have also known people who went to Hopkins and speak very, very highly of it -- including the doctor I worked for last year. It obviously offers outstanding opportunities for research and great residency placement. Your idea of going back to visit again sounds very sensible...that's going to be a lot more informative than my opinion, which is based on spending a few hours at the school last year. Good luck! And I should also add that I think you could be happy whereever you end up -- medical school is, ultimately, a pretty cool experience.
 
I'm a first year med student at Hopkins ('04) - and it is **amazing**.

I, too, was a skeptic about the school, but I've fallen in love with the place many times over. Let me address a few of your specific points...

Grades at Hopkins are just like grades at almost every other school. Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail = A/B/C/D at Hopkins. We don't have a +/- system (B+ = B = B-), and the good news is that **85% of students get a B** in any given course. Another 10% get an A, and a few people having real problems are at the lower end of the distribution. In other words, if you can keep out the bottom 5% of the class, you're golden.

Let me dispel the competition myth right away... students at Hopkins are amazing. I wouldn't have gotten through anatomy or molecules & cells (our intro class) without study groups. Since almost everyone does well (see above), there is a lot of camaraderie in the class. The myth of competition has spilled over from the undergrad campus, and it is something the med school doesn't deserve.

Reed Hall isn't the Ritz. But, you don't have to live there! 40% of our class (1st yrs) live there, mostly because it's convenient. (BTW, almost all the people in Reed live in nice suites, not the miserable prison cells inhabited by some interviewees.) The good news is that Balitmore is cheap!! I'm living off-campus in an awesome apartment, and the rent isn't putting me in the poor house. You'll bond just as much with your class if you live off-campus -- I guarantee it.

I honestly believe that Hopkins offers its students world-class opportunities unmatched by any other school. Docs are flattered to have med students as a part of the team. Med students are hot commodities here, not unwanted baggage. What's more, is that as a first year student, you'll have *afternoons off*!! You really will have time to do something besides studying.

By far, the best part about being here is meeting incredible people. My classmates are the most interesting people I've ever met. Their diverse backgrounds and interests are amazing. Everyone here suffers from the "impostor complex" -- we constantly ask ourselves how the heck we ever got in. I still can't figure out how I did it. Congrats to those of you who've done it.

If anyone who's reading this is applying, you owe it to yourself to check out Hopkins. If you've been accepted, come back in April for the Welcome Back Weekend. I can't say that Hopkins is for everyone, but I absolutely love it. Seriously - if you have any questions or concerns about Hopkins, e-mail me: [email protected].

Good luck to everyone,

doepug
(Hopkins Med '04)
 
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THERE IS A GOD!

I have , for so long now , been trying to get in touch with a JHMS insider . I will be communicating with you doepug .
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[This message has been edited by doctorperez (edited 01-21-2001).]
 
doepug,

Thanx for taking the time to post a message. The one thing I've noticed about Hopkins student on many websites is that they all want to stand up for their school...which is obviously a very good sign.

I am definitely planning on returning to Baltimore for the call-back weekend. I just haven't heard anything about when it is!

Also, I was wondering if you could provide some more information about how far you have to live from the campus to live in a relatively safe area. Is the commute bad?

Thanks again for responding!
 
Jimi -

Congrats on getting into Hopkins! I'm glad you're interested in the weekend in April -- you definitely owe it to yourself to check this place out.

As for housing... as I mentioned in an earlier post, 60% of the Class of 2004 lives off-campus, so you won't have to feel guilty about ditching Reed Hall. (The suites are much nicer than the prison cells in the west wing though - check it out.) One of the reasons why Baltimore is cool (besides awesome seafood) is that it is *so* cheap compared to NYC, Boston, DC, or California. You'll be amazed how far your dollar will go for rent.

Of the people in my class who live off-campus, most live in one of two neighborhoods: Charles Village or Mount Vernon...

Charles Village is a neigborhood around the Hopkins undergrad campus. It's a great part of town (good cheap food, etc), and the best part is that you can take a shuttle to/from school every day. If you make up your mind to come to Hopkins, check out this part of town first, since these apartments tend to go quickly... you'd be competing with undergrads in this part of town. Lots and lots of med students live in Charles Village, and it's a great place to be. If you have a car, Charles Village is 10 mins from the lot where you can park for free - allow another 5-10 for the shuttle from the lot. (You won't be able to park for free at the hospital until after 4 pm on weekdays.)

Mount Vernon (also on the shuttle route) is just north of the downtown area. Rent in Mt Vernon is generally very affordable -- you can get a nice place for very little cash. This area is very fun (lots of restaurants and bars) and is generally safe, though it is more of an urban environment as opposed to a residential neighborhood (Charles Village). You could walk from Mt Vernon to the hospital (~25 mins, safe in daytime), otherwise it's probably easiest to catch one of the shuttles (<10 min ride).

As for me, I live near Mt Vernon in a fabulous neighborhood called Bolton Hill (www.boltonhill.org). It's a residential area, near all the Mt Vernon attractions, inexpensive, and near both the subway (straight to Hopkins) or the light rail (to BWI). I live in a great place, a stone's throw from the Baltimore Symphony and the Lyric Opera. I highly recommend it. I do drive to park in the free lot, but I could just as easily take the subway.

I don't know of a single person in the 120 students in my class who aren't ecstatic about being at Hopkins. Please feel free to e-mail me if you have other questions. Congrats again, and best of luck making your decision.

-doepug
(Hopkins Med '04)
 
I'm a fourth year at Hopkins, and I have nothing but good things to say about it. I want to reply to a lot of what has come up on the subject of Hopkins, but I don't think I can do it all in one sitting, so I may be back for more later, or please, anyone email me with questions.

Okay first of all, GRADES: Emily1 said she couldn't imagine having to deal with grades. But I would ask you, haven't you been dealing with grades your whole life? It IS true that most people get B's here. For the first time in my life I didn't get A's (I got straight B's). Of course some people do get A's (they are Gods, I don't know who they are though), and some people get C's, and they are offered tutoring and extra help.

I think the essential fact is that one works as hard as one is asked to work. And if all you need to pass is a 70, then you'll titrate your studying to learn enough to make a 70. Now if that's all I CAN earn, that's fine, but what if I worked a little harder and got a 90? Then I would know that material better. And this material isn't just stuff you can forget after the test, this is stuff that's going to come up again and again, so it's GOOD to really push yourself to do the best you can. If you were training for a sport, would you settle for easy practices and workouts? (Okay, forget this line of reasoning, I'm beginning to scare myself even!)

Do grades make the Hopkins experience competitive?: It IS competitive, in the sense that everyone's smart, and therefore formerly A students like me get the mean on exams because the bar is higher. But it ISN'T competitive in the cutthroat sense. My classmates are extremely supportive and helpful. I don't know anyone else's grades (even my boyfriend/classmate and I don't discuss grades), because it doesn't really matter to me or impact my life. The only competition over grades is competing with yourself.

One thing that is really nice about Hopkins is the NAME. Residents from smaller (in name) med schools have told me horrible cutthroat competition and stress over performance at their med schools. Now I DON'T think I'm better than average students at other med schools, but other people do (residency directors for example). This is all speculation, but I think that because your whole class has a good name behind you, you aren't competing with each other for coveted residency spots as much, thereby cutting DOWN on competition.

But enough about THAT myth.

One thing that it's hard to imagine when you're applying to medical school is what the experience will be like on the wards. But it's important to consider because it's half of your med school experience, and in its influence on the the rest of your life, it's MORE than half (because it will affect what you go into). Life on the wards is GREAT at Hopkins. We are treated with respect, we have devoted teachers, and we are given a lot of responsibility. The best way to illustrate the responsibility part is to tell you about the Internal Medicine Sub-Internship, which students can do as a third or fourth year (usually late in 3rd to early in 4th year). As a sub-I, you are half an intern, meaning you admit half the patients in a night, and you do half the cross-cover of the other interns' patients. An intern is there with you and the other sub-I overnight, but s/he is really there as a reference for you, or to help you out if you feel like you're in over your head.

The key is this: as a sub-I, you get paged to the ER yourself, you go see the patient alone, you assess them, admit them, communicate with the family, come up with
a treatment plan, communicate with consulting physicians, and ultimately discharge the patient. Now you ARE supervised, so don't worry about killing someone by mistake, but you are very much practicing medicine first hand. Now this may sound very abstract when you're studying for the MCAT, but think about this: at most residencies, you don't see patients alone until well into your intern year. I think it's a perfect example of performing to the level that you are asked to perform.

Does all that make sense? Am I getting too excited about it?

So finally (I won't even try to write about living in Baltimore now) I'll leave you with one thought:

TWO attendings (faculty) in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston (one of the Harvard hospitals) said to my classmate that they thought that Hopkins medical students are the best in the country.

Is is because we're smarter? I don't think so. I think it's because of the confidence and competence that comes from doing things yourself.

------------------
Linie
 
Linie

Hi , your e-mail seems to not be working . Tried to write to you and came back with an error message .
frown.gif
 
Linie,
Let me just say that your class is the coolest! I had a ball at my JHU interview. I had the opportunity to meet some of your classmates and they were the nicest, warmest, most exuberant med students I've met. Best of luck to you in your career - although I doubt you'll need it!

Tara
 
Hey folks,
Let me just say that I was quite excited to see a discussion on this topic (thank you Jimi) because, in what I can only attribute to good fortune and an oddly comical interview, I was accepted to Hopkins at the end of September.
Those of you who have posted here as med students have helped to allay my concerns over grading and living. Truly, Hopkins provides tremendous opportunities both during and after medical school, and if prestige were my reason for existence, I would decide on Hopkins without hesitation. The hospital amazes me, and students at Hopkins, even compared to those at other top schools, seem completely enthralled in the process of becoming outstanding doctors. However, I'm just not certain at this point. What irks me is my impression that students at Hopkins just work incredibly hard- one first year recently mentioned to me that he had not had a single weekend to go out since starting med school. I contrast such grinding to the many med students I see frolicking and working out at Yale (where I am a senior). My question to those of you at Hopkins is, both in your first two years and during your rotations, do you think that you put in more hours than students at other schools? My feeling is that medical school, as an inherently rigorous process, will be plenty of work wherever I go. I wonder if this perspective is incompatible with life at Hopkins. Thanks for your feedback.

Brian
 
Brian,

Please don't worry about working to hard at Hopkins! Good grief, especially not first year. I find it's helpful to compare my studying in med school to my studying in college.

In college (science courses):

1. Regular courses (eg. bio, basic physics, general chem). I would study for exams in these courses for a solid 2-3 days (8-10 hours in the library). Other than that, I did the problem sets and turned in the lab write-ups.

2. Tougher courses (eg. organic chem, higher level bio). I would study about a week solid, and also did the labs, etc.

With this amount of work I got straight A's as an undergrad in the sciences at Brown.

In med school:

1. First year
-for the more bio-like courses (the "Molecules and Cells" part of the curriculum), I would study one weekend solid, similar to the easier bio courses in college.
-for anatomy I studied about 3 days for exams.
-for physiology ("Organ Systems") I studied about 3 days.

Now first year exams are about every other to every third week, so I had about every other weekend completely free, as in, didn't open a book. I got straight Bs first year.

2. Second year, the exams come once a month, so they cover a larger amount of material. Most weekends were solid study weekends, with breaks on the weekends that fell after an exam (about one out of four weekends). Second year is a tough year, but the material is fascinating. Honestly, I was so highly motivated to study because the material was so cool that I didn't have much to complain about. Most people like second year more than first year, even though it's harder. Also, second year ends in March, and you start rotations after spring break. The rationale for the short year is that everyone knows that students learn better from DOING, than from READING. So they get you out there in the hospital, doing, as soon as possible.

I got straight Bs second year.

3. Third and Fourth year: When you are on a rotation in which you take call, you usually take one night of weekend call during the entire rotation. All other weekends are free. There are exams during rotations, but they don't count for that much. The main part of the evaluations during rotations is based on your enthusiasm, ability to work in a team, knowledge, judgement, communication skills, etc. Studying for exams during rotations is a longer term, less intense process. I usually read along during the rotation, and then spend 2-3 days studying more intensely at the end.

I got mostly As on rotations. For clinical electives, I got high honors.

You also get 5 months of vacation during rotations. There are the scheduled vacations of spring break, winter break, etc., which everyone gets, but beyond that the number of rotation months exceeds the number of required clerkhips by 5 months. I took one month to study for Step 1 of the boards, one month off for residency interviews, and I'll take two months after the match to do whatever I want. I did one more elective than I had to.

Another way to measure the amount of free time (for me) is the amount of hockey I was able to play. As a first year, I played on a travel team, with two evening practices a week, and games every weekend as far away as NYC (about 3.5 hours away). On most non-practice/game days, I worked out for about an hour. I had to miss some games, but I was there for most of them. Second year, I didn't have time to play travel hockey, but I went to a clinic and a pick-up session every weekend, and I worked out during the week. Third year, I didn't play travel because I thought I wouldn't have the time. Looking back on it I probably did. Fourth year, I'm playing travel again, and working out like I was first year.

So don't worry about not having time for yourself in med school. I have classmates who have kids, my hockey-playing doesn't compare to that for time commitment.

Does that help?

------------------
Linie
 
I should also add though, that I was a Bio major. Non-science/Bio majors tend to have to study a little more to catch up in the beginning of first year as they get used to science speak and science thought.

------------------
Linie
 
I completely agree with Linie.

You'll love being a first year student at Hopkins. We have almost every afternoon off in the fall term, and a few each week in the spring. The work load here is entirely reasonable, and no unrealistic expectations will be placed on you.

I was a biochem major as an undergrad, and I have to admit that this helped me a great deal with Molecules & Cells. Most of the info (except clinical points) was a review of material I had before. Admittedly, non-science majors worked harder, although I don't think anyone was completely stressed. Our class has its share of parties and there are always social opportunities.

While I'm just a first year student at Hopkins, so far my academic experiences have been great. I guarantee that you'll work before exams, but you'll have more than enough time to come up for air and enjoy life.

Good luck,
doepug
 
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Does anyone know when JHU stops interviewing or if they've already sent out all the interview invites they're going to? Any information would be appreciated! I'm wondering if I should abandon all hope at this point in getting an interview invite.

Thanks,

diligence72
 
I don't know if their procedure has changed this year from last, but a good friend of mine was offered an interview there last year at the beginning of February. She was not too keen on Baltimore and had already been offered full tuition at Mayo, so she turned it down. Therefore, I cannot tell you if she was interviewing for a place or for the waitlist.

 
Linie - or anyone else from Hopkins,

Do you think that Hopkins encourages students toward specialties, vs. primary care? I have heard that and am interested in hearing your impression. I don't know which direction I will eventually follow, but I want to make sure that I am supported either way.

Thanks!
 
I'm interviewing at Hopkins this Friday. For any current JHU students, would you mind pointing me to any med students who are willing to host a prospective, this Thursday night (Feb. 1)?

My email is [email protected]

Really appreciate any help!
 
Call the admissions office. They are supposed to have sent you the name of two people who can host you. If neither of them were able to, they should be able to give you names of some more people to call.

------------------
Linie
 
Hallie,

I have several friends who are applying for primary care residencies. The primary care/specialty decision isn't one that you have to make now, you'll most likely make it at the next step when you apply for residency, or even during residency.

One thing to be aware of though, Hopkins does not have a family practice department. Students who want to go into family practice work with an advisor from the University of Maryland (our brothers and sisters across town) which is much more family practice-oriented. There is usually 1 or more students per year who apply for residency in family practice, compared to many schools where the majority are headed for family practice.


------------------
Linie
 
Sweet bustin' BUMP!

Oh man Hopkins is simply my number one choice too! To actually read all this cool stuff makes me less furious and more happy. <img border="0" alt="[Lovey]" title="" src="graemlins/lovey.gif" />

It's SO irritating...infuriating even, to have to wait so long to apply. In many countries, medicine is something you don't need to go to undergraduate school before starting. Medical school in those countries replaces undergraduate school. Too bad it ain't like that here, but I'd rather wait a lifetime and be an M.D. than be a FMG in no time flat.

Mr. :mad: :p :mad: :p :mad: :p :mad:
 
Hey Furious!

The U.S system is actually the best! I'm nigerian and one goes to med school there based on one's numeric score on a certain exam taken in highschool. No interview required. England's system is just as ****ty. I came to the States for college versus straight med school in England. After college here I even took a year off and got a master's. What's the rush?

Hopkins huh? The starter of this thread (Jimi) ended up at Hopkins. What a shame! She should have gone to Duke instead. :p
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by Original:
•Hey Furious!
The U.S system is actually the best! I'm nigerian •••••Well, ya know, if I were Nigerian I too would think the US system is the best. :wink:

As for Duke, from what I read in some posts here Duke seems to be lost in its own world. :mad:

Mr. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Hey dude I was trying to calm you down not make you more FURIOUS. And the Duke thing was a joke, hence the " :p "

BTW be more appreciative of what you have instead of being so damn insensitive. Good luck in your quest for Hopkins and Stanford.
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by Original:
•Hey dude I was trying to calm you down not make you more FURIOUS. And the Duke thing was a joke, hence the " :p "

BTW be more appreciative of what you have instead of being so damn insensitive. Good luck in your quest for Hopkins and Stanford.•••••As a fellow Intel Pentium III processor user, I feel your pain. But I'm not insensitive, I'm very sensitive which is why I easily get FURIOUS! But I'm not questing for Stanford, though, you must be thinking of some other FURIOUS poster. Seems to be a lot of them, at least once a month :D

Mr. :mad: :p :mad: :p :mad:
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by MrFurious:
•Seems to be a lot of them, at least once a month :D

•••••But you're a "MR"Furious..How come you have a period :confused: But hey, to each his own. Don't worry, you'll fit-in like a glove at Hopkins. Just kidding Hopkins is a great school :p It's just unfortunate to get a bad wrap from the haters.
Just kidding about that joke too. We're cool. Stop getting so mad though.
 
Hey I am so excited to see some JHU students who actually love their school! Anyways, my question is that from your personal experience or opinion, do you think that JHU accepts a good number of August MCATers? Or are the August people at a HUGE disadvantage since JHU is rolling?
ps- as you can see I am going to take the test this august!
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by bond007:
•Hey I am so excited to see some JHU students who actually love their school! Anyways, my question is that from your personal experience or opinion, do you think that JHU accepts a good number of August MCATers? Or are the August people at a HUGE disadvantage since JHU is rolling?
ps- as you can see I am going to take the test this august!•••••Bond, I can't answer that question, but I support what you say: JHU students absolutely LOVE <img border="0" alt="[Lovey]" title="" src="graemlins/lovey.gif" /> going there.

And so will I, someday. Ahhhhhh... <img border="0" alt="[Lovey]" title="" src="graemlins/lovey.gif" /> Johns Hopkins!! Ahhhhhh.... <img border="0" alt="[Lovey]" title="" src="graemlins/lovey.gif" />

Mr. :mad:
 
Hi everyone, I apologize if this is a repeat of what someone else has said in this thread but I just thought I would let you know anyway:

The Class of 2006 (and on) will be Pass/Fail at Johns Hopkins

This is a VERY VERY recent development. I interviewed on 1/31 and the dean made the announcement to our interview group. He said that the decision had just been made the week before in response to current trends in medical school curricula. So don't worry about grades at Hopkins (not that it was a very big deal anyway)!! Good luck to all!!
 
CaliBoy, that is amazing! (about the P/F thing)

When you say the dean, I assume you mean Dean White? Or Dean Weiss?

The grades concept never really bothered me anyway, but I still think the switch to P/F would be great.

Has anyone else heard the same thing? And CaliBoy, would you happen to know if this is pure P/F (i.e., they won't use records to rank students anyway despite the P/F system)?
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by R.A.B.:
•CaliBoy, that is amazing! (about the P/F thing)

When you say the dean, I assume you mean Dean White? Or Dean Weiss?

The grades concept never really bothered me anyway, but I still think the switch to P/F would be great.

Has anyone else heard the same thing? And CaliBoy, would you happen to know if this is pure P/F (i.e., they won't use records to rank students anyway despite the P/F system)?•••••Hey R.A.B: I meant Dean Weiss. Several other people have heard this and I think there is a new Hopkins thread all about this (look at the most recent threads). Apparently its not going to be a strict pass/fail but some sort of honors/highpass/pass/fail which is just about the same as ABCF grading. The intent is that removing letter grades somehow subconsciously relieves some of the stress in studying. I wonder how true that is, though..

GOOD LUCK! I hope we all get our phone calls soon. :cool:
 
Hi...
I'm an MD/PhD applicant, accepted to the Johns Hopkins MD/PhD program. I'm very strongly considering going there because during my visit I absolutely fell in love with the place. I agree East Baltimore isn't NYC, and the competition/grades etc. isn't like Yale, but regardless of competition, the med students end up with fantastic residency matches, and for me at least, the list I received showed that in 2000 and 2001, 100% of MD/PhD students received their first choice (most of them matched with Hopkins Hospital, U.Penn, Harvard/MGH/BWH etc). So even if a B student can do this, I don't have a hesitation about receiving a "B". But we'll see.

Either way, I think what struck me most is people. The faculty members and students turned my opinion around about the school. The MD/PhD students I spoke to had amazing things to say about their program, and were very open about discussing my problems (the fact that I'm not a citizen and not eligible for government money). In fact, one MD/PhD student told me about a new scholarship the school received, and I ended up receiving this scholarship. (I would never have found out about it if not for that student). So for those who need some input from a fellow applicant, I can safely say that I give two thumbs up to Hopkins. I think I will be very happy there.
 
bumping for those accepted to JHU!
 
Yea, that was weird, I saw doepug's message without looking at the date, and he was like "I'm an MS1 class of '04 and it's awesome!!!" and I was so confused...:)

I guess I need to look at the date some of these threads were posted more often...:)

-Ice
 
hi guys,

i'm currently a first-year at hopkins, and i'd like to congratulate you all on your interviews and acceptances. it's fantastic to see so much interest! i've had a great experience so far, and i love being here. it's been 4 months, and i'm still pinching myself every day.

we do have honors/high pass/pass/fail grading, but for the most part people don't really stress each other out about it. we work really hard, but we play pretty hard too. i think that it's pretty much the same at most med schools. there are definitely gunners, but there are a lot of chill people too - it's a pretty diverse mix and i think that keeps the class well-grounded overall.

re: going out on weekends... although there is a lot of work, i haven't found that to be a deterrent at all. there are a lot of class outings, and even on the weekends preceding our exams there is no shortage of people willing to go out and celebrate a birthday, check out local events or party. the post-exam weekends are even better, and i think the vast majority of my class recognizes the importance of balance/relaxation along with studying.

one thing i can't speak highly enough of about hopkins has to be the faculty. our teachers are nothing short of amazing. All of the lecturers are leaders in their fields, and it seems like they pull out all stops to get the best for us. E.g. for a lecture on the molecular mechanisms of cancer, we had the guy who freaking discovered p53. we've had nobel prize winners, department chairmen for clinical correlations, Ben Carson (peds neurosurg) and Pat Walsh (urology) for anatomy, and tons more. our first-year preceptors (doctors we shadow to learn about physician-patient relationships) are consistently some of the best in their specialties - . my classmates google our professors all the time, and it's almost ridiculous how many are complete badasses. they are excellent teachers who love to do it, and we are so lucky to have them.

a major detractor that some of you have mentioned is the city of Baltimore.... although admittedly it's nothing like New York or Boston, many of us have grown to love it. as cheesy as it sounds, it does have a certain charm. the community is extremely proud of Hopkins, and welcomes its students with open arms. there is no shortage of activities and events (both social, cultural and service-oriented), and the campus is very safe. Reed Hall facilities are pretty old/shabby, but its convenience can't be beat. It's super cheap, close to class, and also connected to the classroom building/hospital/outpatient center by underground tunnels, for bad weather days when you don't to go outside. The shuttle system is excellent, and the med school and hospital are very supportive of its students - lots of events and meetings with free food, all the time.

just my $0.02, but i love it here. my classmates are amazing individuals, the faculty and environment is great, and there is such a sense of pride and support for med students. there are negatives (facilities, etc) but in my opinion they are outweighed by the positives. i hope you all will give it a chance! look forward to seeing you at revisit weekend in april ;)
 
It's a relief to hear so much positivity around JH and Baltimore. I just got my interview invite yesterday and I applied to JH as a total reach school, I never thought I'd get a chance to interview! My family lived in Baltimore for a while, me and my brothers were all born there (my brothers were born at JH!), my parents met and married there, and my dad got his PhD at JH so I have a lot of familial connection and fondness for the school. I left MD when I was 2, so I don't really remember much! I was nervous about getting in because I heard so many rumors about how cutt-throat it is, but reading through these posts has helped me to realize that rumors are just that - and rarely true. I can't believe I get to go back to the motherland and interview! :clap:
 
Brickhouse,

Way to go on the invite! I applied to Hopkins as a reach myself. If you don't mind, would you PM your stats/ application story? I want to know if I still have a chance at getting an invite!
 
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S
Hopkins vs Columbia vs Penn
Replies
4
Views
923
Egg-Benedict
E
P
Hopkins (Full COA) vs Penn
Replies
2
Views
331
Egg-Benedict
E
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