It was lovely to visit the campus of Johns Hopkins University for an information session hosted by Calvin Wise, Dean of Admissions! Afterwards, current JHU students participated in a panel and led tours and provided many insights into their experiences!
Here are some of the main takeaways from the campus visit!
JHU only has 5,600 undergraduate students and is one of the smallest research universities in the United States.
The donation from Michael Bloomberg to his alma mater has made tuition free for families with household incomes of less than $200,000.
There is a lot of construction on campus right now, including for the Data Science and AI Institute.
New majors include moral and political economy, systems engineering, critical diaspora studies, and Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx studies.
They offer a double degree from Peabody in music or fine arts.
There are no interviews for admissions.
AI is impacting all parts of society, but there was a lot of attention when the TI-83 calculator came out and whether children will be able to do math without it. AI will be disruptive but they will embrace appropriately, and they are not using AI to evaluate applications at this time.
Students say they love the food in the area, Orioles and Ravens games, going to DC, good transportation, and it takes a few years to try everything in Baltimore.
Logistics of getting around include shuttle system for different neighborhoods nearby for off campus students. There is also a bus system for JHU to connect to medical campus – the main campus for undergraduates is Homewood and also can get to Peabody campus in Mt. Vernon. Penn Station nearby has Amtrak; there is also a line for BWI airport on the commuter train. There is also a campus-wide spreadsheet for getting to airport and connecting with other students and splitting Uber; BWI airport is 20-25 minutes away. Dulles airport also in DC. Blue Jay Night Ride operates from 6 pm to 2 am and is an on demand ride service near the Homewood campus.
From my experiences, there is a lot of interest in pre-medicine of course, but JHU is especially strong as well in engineering, public health, sciences, international studies, music, and writing seminars.
