Meet Me Threads: Archives
Here are a few of the questions that I've been asked on the forums...

Question:

" I was wondering, if i want to become a psychologist, where would you say a good place to study abroad would be? 

Answer: I myself am not a psychology major (although I did enjoy the psychology class I took freshman year) and I have not studied abroad yet...although I'm heading to Geneva soon. I am looking forward to it. Studying abroad is rarely linked to a specific academic major unless a student is studying language/cultural studies or engineering. Even so, you don't have to be in one of these programs even if you're in the major associated with them.  I think this is beneficial because it really allows you to go to anywhere that interests you. Many natural science students choose a study abroad site that interests them and then take a breadth of programs...JHU_Michelle is a great example of that. Check her out on Hopkins Interactive to learn about her experience. She's a neuro major who went to the UK to focus on theater. Because Hopkins doesn't have a core curriculum, there is not much of a stress to take certain classes (unless of course you're planning for med school), but most people are able to fit in a semester worth of non-required major courses. I hope you can tell that Hopkins is flexible in not only it's curriculum but its study abroad options.
Check out the study abroad website to learn more about options: http://www.jhu.edu/~advising/StAbd.htm. The study abroad office is open to freshmen, so they can advice you in choosing the right program, one that will suit your interests. This past year Dr. Citti, the director, did a study abroad information session just for freshmen.
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Question:

I'm just wondering can i be a social sciences major n still fill my pre-med requisites?

Answer: I do not know too much about the med school process. However, I believe the pre-med requirements are:
-A year of Chemistry along with the appropriate laboratory courses
-A year of Organic Chemistry along with laboratory courses
-A year of Biology along with laboratory courses
-A year of Physics along with laboratory courses
-A year of English
-A year of Calculus or other advanced math classes, including Statistics

Major requirements/checklists can be found on the Hopkins advising site (http://www.advising.jhu.edu/) The public health (social science) requirements include a year of biology with laboratory courses (which I AP-ed out of), a year of english, and Calculus I and Biostatistics. However, they do not include organic chemistry, intro to chemistry, or physics. Additionally, students that are planning to go to medical school usually take more advanced science courses like anatomy, developmental biology, biochemistry, cell biology, etc. Additionally, pre-med students frequently take classes like Calculus II. With that being said, those that are looking for a public health major and plan to go to medical school frequently are public health (natural sciences) majors, since the major requirements meet and go beyond the pre-med requirements. I do not know of any public health (social science) student that is on a pre-med track, although no one is stopping someone from doing it, the natural sciences track just fits so perfectly with the pre-med requirements, that that would be the more obvious choice to make.

I must say that there are certainly people that are social sciences majors and are "pre-med." Public health (social science) is not the only major considered social sciences--Anthropology, Economics, International Relations, Political Science, Sociology, etc. are also social sciences majors at Hopkins. There are plenty of people that major in one of these and also are fulfilling pre-med requirements. If you have an interest in social sciences there is no one holding you back from majoring in a social sciences major and also fulfilling pre-med requirements, instead this shows that you can do more than just science...which is awesome!

I hope this helped! Feel free to ask me anything else!
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Question:

I'm also majoring in Public Health-social science concentration. I also want to minor in women/gender studies or bioethics or maybe do all three;) but I'm not sure if I would have to time/schedule ability to do it all. Based on your experience, do you think it is capable to major in public health and have two minors?

Answer: To answer your question simply... definitely!

Why? Well...
1) You already know what you are interested in majoring in. Many people spend their entire first year exploring classes that may not even end up counting for the major that they end up deciding on (this is definitely not a bad thing and there is time in college to do this). I definitely recommend exploring classes, but the public health major is SO interdisciplinary that you can explore while fulfilling major/minor requirements.
2) Public health majors do not have distribution requirements like most other majors. This is because the major (especially social sciences) is again SO interdisciplinary that there is really no reason to require other classes.
3) Hopkins doesn't have a core curriculum so while at other schools you may spend over a year fulfilling core requirements, at Hopkins you have this extra time to explore classes of interest to you while taking time to fulfill major/minor requirements.
4) The two minors you are interested in are very interconnected to the public health social sciences major (see the major/minor checklists here: http://www.advising.jhu.edu/checklists.html). For example, the bioethics minor requires general bio (a pre-req in PH SS) and Bioethics seminars which are usually S-discipline classes (S simply means Social Sciences) that you could even count, with advisors permission, to your S-credit public health courses. And the WGS minor also requires upper level WGS classes which are usually S-credit classes. Before you assume that you can cross-list courses, definitely double check with your advisor.

To look at classes for the fall semester, click here: http://www.jhu.edu/registr/course%20schedu...edule_Ugrad.pdf

Anyway, the simple answer is that you definitely can do this andddd at the same time explore during your freshman year. Don't feel obligated to fulfill minor requirements, because most likely your minor requirements will hopefully be fulfilled simply by taking classes you are interested in. But definitely check out Intro to Bioethics (or another Bioethics course) and a WGS course and see if you like them and then continue from there.
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As you can see, I love to answer questions. Feel free to ask me anything! (Well, maybe not anything...)

Thanks for the questions! I first want to say to not stress too much about what you list as your "potential major." It's very common for people to think they're interested in one thing and then change their intended major throughout their first couple of years at Hopkins. With that being said, it's definitely good to have a sense of the majors offered at the schools you're applying to, and I especially like that you've been using our academic blog.

A public health major means many different things depending on the person you talk to.  Some public health majors will graduate feeling prepared for med school, others for law school, and others for the developing world. Perhaps this is why it's hard for you to truly find a single definition.

Public health is the student of health on a population-scale. It's particularly concerned about preventative medicine - which can range from vaccinations to well, handwashing! Are you concerned about preventing carcinogens from appearing in our meat supply? Interested in the development of vaccine to prevent HIV? Worried that people in the USA do not have health insurance? Interested in ways to prevent infection in an intensive care unit in a hospital? Well, then this major is for you. Yes, all of these topics range, but they are all united with the common goal of preventing people from getting sick away from the individual clinical setting, which brings me to my next point...

The public health major is what YOU make of it. I first recommend that you checkout the major checklists: http://www.advising.jhu.edu/degree_checklist.php. You'll notice that there is a new public health checklist, click that and read it.

Notice that there is no longer a natural science and social science emphasis, everyone is now united. This means that for those who really love the natural sciences, or want to be pre-med, these classes (outside of general biology and calculus) will be taken on a student's own time. Don't worry, there is room in a student's schedule to get these other classes you might be interested in. The major, for everyone, is more about understanding how to track diseases (epidemiology), behavior change, cultural factors in health, etc. During a student's senior year, some classes are taken at the School of Public Health - where one has the option of taking everything from immunology to tuberculosis control to reproductive health.

If you're not interested in these topics and are more interested in pure biology, then biology the major for you (and I suggest asking Sarah S. of Hopkins Interactive questions about the biology major!). It is possible to double major in public health and biology, but many times public health majors are encouraged to only major in public health allowing room for study abroad and course exploration.

Undergraduate research? Of course. In ANY major at Hopkins, students will be encouraged to explore research opportunities. I suggest you check out the public health undergraduate research journal: http://www.jhu.edu/ep/. This school is founded with a research philosophy and will continue to have one. I have done research in Brazil on the epidemiology of AIDS/TB, at the World Health Organization on intellectual disability, at the School of Public Health on TB and smoking. And I'm currently writing a historical undergraduate thesis on TB funding. Don't worry, there is tons of research for more natural sciences-minded people in public health who LOVE being in lab. I should also mention that people in other majors, including biology, may find themselves doing public health research even through bench research.

I should also mention that in the public health studies major, as you'll see in the newest checklist, applied experience is a requirement. This experience could be anything from volunteering at the local health department to volunteering at a senior center. This applied experience is a unique feature of the public health major.

So again, don't stress because you can change your intended major throughout your first two years. However, know that at Hopkins you'll have the option to take tons of biology courses (and truly fall in love with cells), but you'll also have the option to view the cell on a more interdisciplinary level with majors like public health studies.

Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Good luck with the application process!

Jessica