Hey guys! So here is an archive of the questions I've been asked on here and the answers I've given...the questions are in the boxes and my responses follow. Enjoy!

Hi Dominique,
I am an ED admit, Class of 2013. I also want to major in Public Health (Natural Sciences). I am wondering about first semister courses and especially Calculus. I see two Calc courses. One says Calculus and other one is Calc for Biology and Medicine. Which one did you take ?. which is hardest ?. I am not natural at Math, but i get it when i work hard at it. Hense the concern.

I read on your blog that you have done Calc in first semister. Are you taking it Calc 2 in the second semister too ?. What would be your advise on which calc course to take for some one like me ?. Not a natural math brain LOL .
Thanks!

You are right, Hopkins offers 2 types of calc I and II...one for physical science majors [like engineering, physics, chemistry...] and one is for basically everything else, i.e. Public health majors, bio majors, social sciences/humanities majors.....

I am currently in calc 2 for Biology and Medicine. Note that the Calc for physical science majors counts for *all* majors, but the Bio calc does *not* fulfill the req. for those who are majoring in physical sciences and engineering.

I would say the bio calc is a bit less mathy and has more word problems having to do with population growth and other biology matters. It's generally accepted that the Calc for Physical Sciences majors is harder, basically because those majors need much more math than other majors do.

I am NOT good at math either, but it is very doable if you keep up with the work. A lot of it depends on the professor and how his/her class is structured [i.e. exams, homeworks, etc.]

SO, to answer your question, the vast majority of public health majors take the biology calc.

please let me know if you have any more questions!

Hi Dominique,
Thank you so much for quick response. It is very helpful.

Few more questions...

I seen the Calc for Biology book when I visited the B&N store at JHU. Is it the same book for Calc 1 and 2 ?. I only remember seeing one book.

Does the same professor teach all sections of the Calc 1 course ?. How do we manage to get the best professor ?.

Different question, What is the best thing to do for summer before JHU ?. I was torn between courses at community college versus complete goof off tongue.gif

Any recommendations ?.

No problem!

Yes, the book is the same for both calc 1 and 2. I actually bought mine and the solutions manual [it has the worked out answers to the odd problems] from an upperclassman for less than half of what I would have paid at B&N. You'll see as time goes on and you get closer to the school year that some people get books from upperclassmen [buying or borrowing].

Um, last semester, the same professor taught both sections of calc 1, but this semester for calc 2 there are two different professors teaching the 2 different sections [but we have the same homework and exams]. Um, you won't know who is teaching what class until you start making your schedule this summer...but what I did and still do and recommend you all to do is to ask upperclassmen which professors have been good. There is also a thread on here about great professors.

I don't know much about community college courses, sorry... Whatever works for you, I guess. Whatever you do, try to really relax and prep yourself for school. Whether you take courses or not, you'll still graduate on time.

Hope some of that helped!

hi dominique i go to a baltimore city school and applying for the baltimore scholar when they say "full ride" does that just cover tuition and you have to pay for room and board or is everything covered?

 Hey there!

Full ride here means that tuition is covered for all 4 years, regardless of how much it may increase. Room and board is not covered as a part of this scholarship.

However, when you fill out the FAFSA and CSS as a part of the financial aid process, you can receive additional aid to help pay for room and board if you show need. Also, you can apply for several outside scholarships to help pay for room and board.

Hope that helped!

Thank You it did help me out hows life for a JHU student

There are so many things I could say!  Well, before I answer, I'd like to direct your attention to...

What I learned at JHU Today

Why I chose to attend JHU

Your Typical Day as a Hopkins Student

My Extracurricular life at Hopkins


Now as a Baltimore scholar, JHU is great because I feel like we have a special connection with the city and more of an appreciation or more comprehensive view of it, since we live here and all. I love living close to home (means I can avoid long train, car or plane trips and get whatever I need from the house at any time). We do a "welcome to my city" fair, which has booths and things in the very beginning of the school year so that students can come check it out.

I do enjoy life here a lot! Just browse through what I posted above and then some to see how we all feel about the school.

Hi liangs4god!

Haha thanks, I try.

Social sciences vs. Natural sciences...

So lemme first say that JHU_Jessica, JHU_Lauren B. and JHU_Saznin are all Social Science Public Health students, so you can ask them any questions you have about specific classes they're taking and their concentrations and what not. JHU_Jessica is in the 2011 thread and JHU_Lauren B and Saznin are in the 2012 thread with me.


So students in both tracks take the *same* core classes: Biostatistics, The Environment and Your Health, Health Policy and Management, and Introduction to Epidemiology, because they're all integral parts of Public Health. These four classes are required of all students in the Public Health Program.

Also, both Natural and Social Science students all must take classes at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health their senior year...it's the Public Health grad school downtown near the medical school and the hospital.


The Natural Sciences track has all of the pre med requirements. So if you know you want to go to medical school or dental school or vet school or any kind of health grad school, you should take the Natural Sciences track. It has general chemistry and lab, organic chemistry and lab, physics and lab, calculus 1+2, and biology and lab included in it.

Natural science students also have to take 5 higher level humanities/social science courses, and 3 lower level social science/humanities courses, in addition to 2 English classes and 2 more writing intensive classes. So it's pretty well rounded--you get your dose of humanities and science!

The Social Sciences track doesn't have any specific science classes built into it. Those students take a LOT more humanities/social science classes than Natural science students do.

They need Calculus 1, 5 lower level humanities/social science classes, and nine upper level humanities/social sciences classes. 3 of those upper level classes must come from one department, 3 from another, and 3 are just from anywhere you'd like. They also need 2 english classes and 2 more writing intensive classes, just like natural science majors.

Both tracks also need electives to fill the credit graduation requirement.


Check this out:  http://www.jhu.edu/advising/checklists.html

Find Public Health in the bottom 3rd of the right column, and click.,..it shows all of the requirements for the major for both social sciences and natural sciences.


So in a nutshell (SORRY FOR THE LONG POST!) if you're interested in med school, or if you just like science a lot, natural sciences is probably for you; if you're repulsed by the thought of calc 2, chemistry, organic chem, physics... then social sciences is probably for you.

Hope that helped!

Hi!! Congrats for getting in! :)

So living close to home...is cool because it makes things like travel or doctor's appointments much easier for me to deal with. I don't have to deal with long and expensive plane and train rides home over breaks.

I don't go home for laundry because my house dynamic is weird in that my mom is all "don't come home for laundry that's too much back and forth"...for whatever reason. Plus I'm lazy. But there are people from bmore who do go home to do laundry.

I never went home for meals because I always had so much food on campus...I was literally never hungry because there was food at my disposal all the time. But there were times when I went home to get some stuff I forgot and my mom would send me back with a tub of food that she had cooked for the house. I didn't want to overdo the whole going home thing because I knew I would get annoyed, being a college freshman trying to develop her own sense of independence. But everyone's different...JHU_Wafa goes home almost, if not every weekend and she loves it. So yea. You have options. :)

But if you want to go home to do laundry and your parents can give you a ride or something to do so, then you most certainly can go home for it and save about 5-6 bux a week.

But living close to home is very convenient for stuff like financial aid paperwork, getting a ride to the store, getting something i forgot, etc. I enjoy it a lot. I thought I would hate it but I like it. However,liek I said, I am careful to not go home too often because I would lose some of the "absence makes the heart grow fonder" effect that many college kids do experience.

 B)

thanks for the info! :)

Hi Telly Monster (cool name :P  )

I have friends from Michigan, one from Grand Blanc, some from Detroit, some from Ann Arbor...so you won't be the only Michiganite here (is that what you all call yourselves haha). They talk to and skype their families a lot, and a lot of the homesickness that may come will dissipate a lot as you meet new people and get into the school/activity grind.

I DEFINITELY say join some clubs freshman year. yes yes yes. It is so possible to do well academically and to have some extra stuff going on too. This way, you meet TONS of people and you break up the monotony that comes with doing only school work, you learn more about what you can handle, you develop your skills and interests, and you make new ones! Plus resumes always look better when you have some extra activities on there.

I'm ecstatic that you love the website, SAAB has revamped it to make it much more attractive and helpful to prospective students!

If you want to pledge, you most certainly can...JHU_Lauren B, JHU_Lauren, JHU_Sarah, and JHU_Becca are all part of sororities...plus we have a greek life thread in here somewhere.

There are 3 National Pan Hellenic Conference chapters on campus, as well as 3 National Pan-Hellenic Council chapters (those are the black ones... Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, and Sigma Gamma Rho). Those you can't pledge till sophomore year, but the others you can pledge spring semester freshman yr, I believe.

And in the beginning of the year we have a student activities fair where you will see even more of what we have to offer.

HTH!

No problem! We're happy to have you. Two of my good friends are from Michigan so yea. If you have any other questions, just ask me or wherever else on here, you seem to have a good grasp of the online resources we have :0)

Hey there! :)

Yes, there are many African students here, many of which are my close friends. I would even go as far to say that based on my interactions and knowledge of the student population here labeled "black/african/african american" that half, maybe more, are African students. Most are West African, from Nigeria....there are also students from Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, and many many more. I know a couple of people from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Sierra Leone, and I know there are others I am missing. But yea the majority of African students here are West African, which is typical of many schools with a sizeable African student population.

We have a VERY active and fun African Students Association, known as ASA. Here is its website: http://www.jhu.edu/asa/home.htm

Please check it out and feel free to email any of the members of the executive team (their emails are on there under the tab "eboard." Look at the pictures and the events the ASA has had to get a sense of what it does on campus.

Hope that helped, and please feel free to ask me any more questions!

haha no problem and yea it is a cool site, I like the music a lot. I have been to a couple of meetinds and honestly the topics are relevant and deep, about politics in Africa, different types of music, Africans and African Americans, and so much more. But yep no prob and lemme kno if ya have any other ?s ;)

Hey! I'll try my best to answer them lol.

-About living in Baltimore--I did it because I'm a Baltimore Scholar, and that means my tuition is paid for all 4 years. I thought I would hate living so close to home, but actually I'm really glad I made that choice. It is very convenient in terms of holidays...there's no heavy duty traveling or packing involved, which is nice and it cuts out transportation costs. But besides that, there is a lot about Baltimore that I didn't know even although I live here! I've learned about the history and the culture, and even the neighborhoods around Hopkins. A lot of Baltimore natives tend to not travel to other portions of Baltimore unless they work there or have relatives there... it's like you'll meet people form the east side and they haven't really been to the west side of Baltimore, and vice versa. Weird but I realized that I kinda fell into that category and I've learned a lot more about Baltimore since I've been at JHU. I don't have to see my parents unless I want to, so it's not like they pop up on campus and sneak visit me (my grandmother did that to my mom tho, haha). So yep I love living and going to school in Baltimore. More convenient and cheaper for my family and me.

-I can't really answer the next question because I know NOTHING about Georgetown, and I can only speak on my experience as a JHU student. I'm glad you liked the people here, and that's an important factor to consider when choosing a school because you'll be here for 4 years. I'd look past the prestige and the hype and really consider whether or not you can see yourself here for 4 years and can see yourself happy. Happy with what you're studying (the International Studies major here is great and there's a JHU grad school..the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC, you should Google it if you're not familiar with it), happy with the clubs and organizations, happy with Baltimore, etc. Make a well-rounded decision and realize that wherever you go, your college experience will be what you make of it. I have friends here I can't imagine living without, an awesome major that is a great fit for me, a job I love, and so much cultural exposure on and off campus.

-Regarding the HBCU...my stepfather wanted me to attend one, but I turned that idea down because I wanted to attend a school with more diversity and I wanted to be around as many types of ethnically diverse people as possible. There's nothing wrong with HBCUs of course, but I knew I wouldn't be happy at one because I wanted more diversity in a student body. Now, Howard is an excellent school and produces many wonderful doctors, lawyers, scholars, etc. I can't speak on how hard the work is there because I don't go there, but if it produces so many successful people then the school must be doing something right! ;-) I can't tell you whether Hopkins can compete with free because as you said, that's a personal decision that you and your parents should talk about in terms of affording the school and how you'd feel if you had to be in debt after graduation. I genuinely love this school and all that is has for students in terms of class choices, facilities, programs, connections, graduate school opportunities, opportunities to serve the community...I could go on.

However, my family and I had a serious understanding that we could not go into debt for college, and that was a very personal and well thought out decision that was reflective on our monetary resources. So, my choosing of schools was based on that. Can Hopkins compete with free? Yes it can, and no it can't, and that solely depends on what you and your family decide.

But if you actually like Howard and can see yourself being there and being genuinely content, you should take that into consideration for sure.

-There is one African American fraternity on campus, Alpha Phi Alpha. The other 4 in the "Divine Nine" aren't on campus but I think at least one of then (Kappa Alpha Psi) has a city wide chapter that men from different campuses can join. That being said, there ARE several black guys on campus who join non-historically black fraternities, so if you're interested in that, don't let race deter you!

-As a freshman, you're required to have a meal plan with the main dining hall, Fresh Food Cafe. You can either get unlimited meals everyday or the 2 a day meal plan (14 meals/week). Both come with "dining dollars" which you can spend at any eating place on campus when you don't feel like eating in the dining hall. Students definitely go out and eat at restaurants so how much you should save depends on how often you go out. Many students have on campus jobs that give them extra spending money, so you can think about that also.

There is a trader joes close to campus... you can take the free shuttle (baltimorecollegetown.org) which stops right here. There is also a Whole Foods market near the inner harbor, and you can take the shuttle again, a new free bus called the "Charm City Circulator" or public transportation to the harbor and go. The only Amish Market I know of is the Pataspco one ( http://patapscoamishmarket.com/ ) and it's not really close to campus. You can take the bus or find someone with a car to give a ride maybe?

You're Jamaican! That's cool (my dad is from Grenada and my other half is from St Vincent) and there are at least 2 west indian restaurants in walking distance of campus. Here's one: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/31/352238/restaurant/North-Baltimore/Real-Deal-Jamaican-American-Carry-Out-Baltimore   and they are pretty good. Probably not as good as your fam's cooking but still good.

I believe there is a Potbelly in the Inner Harbor, which is easy to get to as I've said before.
No, students don't usually drive to leesburg or hagerstown...there's so much to do around campus (Charles Village), in Towson, in Hampden and I'd say that's where most students explore.

So yea, there's a lot to consider when it comes to choosing a college. I dunno if you've read the other blogs from other students but if you do, you'll see that there are a lot of things we do.

Hope this helped!!

Oh it's no problem, that's what we're here for, to answer questions. Thanks for subscribing to the blogs! This site has A LOT of info too so feel free to check it out and ask other students questions too :)

Hi!

I'm not Dominique haha, but I also don't drink and do have fun. I don't feel like I just get by; I really feel like I get to enjoy the campus and its social life. I'm pretty sure most college campuses are not "dry" (and I do not think you can come to any campus expecting that), but I think that JHU is especially accepting of people that don't want to drink. I've been offered drinks at parties, but I just say no and go dance. I even found the frats really accessible too; they let me play flip cup and beer pong with water. I actually felt more pressured to drink when I visited one of my friends at her college. I am very sorry that you felt excluded for not taking part, but from my experiences, I have not felt pressured to drink. :)

Stealing my thunder Kate!! :P JK JK haha. I had my response window up all night so I didn't see yours till I just posted mine. No that was actually really helpful info! :)

I hope that really helps to alleviate your concerns confusedjay, and please feel free to ask anymore questions. :)