Johns Hopkins University Top Questions

The pre-med classes are gigantic, but that's just the way it has to be. To compensate, much individual and group help is offered that students often do not utilize to its biggest potential (like free drop in tutoring), but is always available.

The teachers are extremely willing to chat with you about class or even just life in general. Professors encourage you to come stop by so they can get to know you. My favorite class so far was a history seminar where everybody regularly participated. At the end of the semester the professor invited us over to his house to hangout and consume lasagna. The academic requirements are extremely flexible so you are not bogged down by needless core classes. I talk an extraordinary intersession class called Concept of Mind which blended both a neuroscience and an anthropology view of the mind and what constitutes it.

Depends on your major, if you take Civil Engineering courses then you will know your professors very well they will know you and there will be great interactions between student and professor. If you take econ, not so much. The larger the major the less likely you are to get to know any of the professors.

I've heard some tough comments about TAs not speaking fluent English, but I've never had trouble understanding international TAs, and if I did, I was always able to go to them after classes to discuss things until both of us came to term. Maybe I'm a little biased because my native language is not English and I've had experiences with many accents. But then ppl should utilize ppl like me more. I like how you can be as active as you wish in class. Some professors will know your name and sincerely help you out if you contribute positively to class. That's how I got the Lab Manager job at Language Acquisition Lab - I volunteered to be a foreign language consultant in one of Dr. Geraldine Legendre's classes, and eventually she was impressed with both my work there and my grades. When I decided to take a year off to apply to med schools after graduation, I was looking for something academic but not too stressful to do. She spent a night thinking and decided to create the position especially for me. She & her husband Dr. Smolensky, also in the Cog Sci dept, even invited me & a visiting scholar to their Thanksgiving dinner b/c they knew we were far apart from our families. We cooked everything together and had a hearty evening. Too bad the couple's leaving for sabbatical next year.

Class participation in the humanities is encouraged and I've found professors to be approachable as well as brilliant. We could do with a few more forward thinking folks but for the most part professors are outstanding. I think there is a great deal of intellectual discussion outside of class -- since everyone carries around the nerd stereotype no one feels "uncool" flexing their intellectual muscle.

Some professors know my name and some don't. You really have to make an effort to get to know your professors in big science classes. I love that there are no required classes to take here and that a lot of my major classes overlap with my outside interests like psychology. (I am a Biology major)

My major (Anthropology) is misunderstood, even at a prestigious university like Johns Hopkins. So it has become my impromptu crusade to educate everyone I meet that while Archaeology IS a BRANCH of Anthropology, it does not cover the entire field of Anthropology. But other than that I love my major. The department's requirements are really flexible, which allows me to take almost all the quirky, off-topic classes which interest me.

Yes, every single one of my professors has known my name. I love almost all of my classes. That is because I take mostly Writing and English classes. Right now I am obsessed with this tiny 3-person seminar. I love every single one of my writing workshop classes; my teachers are so wise. Yes, it is pretty commong. I only try to be friends with people who can, on occasion, have intellectual conversations. Not all the time, (because frequently we talk about food, or sex, or complain) but lots of times when we're drunk we discuss Deleuze, Abstract Expressionism and Henry James. Also the scientists love to battle the Near Eastern Studies kids. Some are, yes. When it's LSAT time, I want to hide, and avoid all future lawyers like the plague. But it's bad form among more normal people to EVER discuss GPAs and to some degree board scores. I love the Writing Seminars department. My teachers are AMAZING critics of my work and everyone else's work. Dave Smith has a Pulitzer, Alice McDermott is superfamous, Jessica Anya Blau is getting her first rave-review novel out this May...they are so fantastic. My classmates are mostly dumb. There are about 3-4 good writers per year. The 100 other people are just blobbing around, trying to "express" themselves and write about New York, teen pregnancy scares, and successful media personalities going through complicated divorces. Um, yes. I used to spend too much time with them, to the point that I spend time more reliably with professors whose classes I wasn't even taking than with my "friends." We have coffee, that's pretty much it. I really like them. No core, take some science classes, some b.s. social science classes, then the rest as you please. JHU seems to think that after graduation, Arts& Sciences kids are only capable of becoming a) Consultants b) Finance workers. There is, like, one class geared to either of these occupations. No one ever says, "You'll need to know this for a job" in class (well, except in really practical classes, like Social Statistics or Computer Fluency). I want to become a social worker and the school has nooooooo resources for that. I don't blame them, though. With writers especially, learning is for its own sake.

Most of my classes are small so all of my professors know my name. I have a lot of favorite classes, one of them was Feminist Epistemology taught by one of my favorite professors Maura Tumulty, it is one of the only classes where I was always disappointed when class ended. We had interesting readings, stimulating discussions and Maura was accessible for any questions and helped explain the difficult readings we sometimes had. My least favorite class was Micro Economics. It was a huge lecture at 9am mtw=awful. Students study a LOT. Be prepared to work hard if you go to Hopkins, it is just a fact. Students are competitive, but mostly only for themselves. Yes students have intellectual conversations outside of class; it just happens when you throw a lot of smart students with different interests into the same environment.

Its all about reaching out to professors. They are there --and most want to help.