Hey!  My name is Sarah, and I’m a senior from Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania (just north of Philadelphia).  I’m majoring in molecular and cellular biology and Spanish, and I’m also pre-law.

-------------------------------------

Why Hopkins?

To make a really long story short, I decided to come to Hopkins because I wanted to go to an urban school, I wanted flexible course requirements so that I could take a lot of courses outside of just science and math, and the opportunities to do research here are amazing.  Being only two hours away from home is also a plus.   I absolutely love Hopkins and am so glad I chose to come here.

---------------------------

My Classes

Here are the classes that I'm taking this semester (senior spring):
Developmental Biology
Developmental Biology Laboratory
Stem Cells and the Biology of Aging and Disease
Intermediate German II
German Conversation
Italian Elements II

And here is what I've taken previously:

Senior Fall:
Genetics
Organic Chemistry Laboratory
Human Genetics
Intermediate German I
Italian Elements I

Junior Spring:
Virology
Geography and Ecology of Plants
German Elements II
Argentine Literature
Intro to Spanish Literature

Junior Intersession:
German Elements I

Junior Fall (Abroad: Hopkins in Madrid Program):
Hispanic American Literature in the 20th Century
Superior Spanish Grammar
Spanish Golden Age Literature
Spanish culture and civilization
History of Spanish Art
Theory and Technique of Spanish and Hispanic-American Short Stories

Sophomore Summer:
Organic Chemistry I&II

Sophomore Spring:
Cell Biology
Cell Biology Lab
Biology Research for Credit
Introduction to the Human Brain
Physics of Modern Technologies

Sophomore Fall:
Biochemistry
Biochemistry Lab
Spanish Theater in the Golden Age
Biology Research for credit

Freshman Spring:
General Physics II for Biological Science Majors
General Physics Lab II
Calculus II
Fiction and Poetry Writing I
Don Quijote

Freshman Intersession:
Fiction for Foodies

Freshman Fall:
General Physics I for Biological Science Majors
General Physics Lab I
Advanced Spanish II
Calculus I
Expository Writing – What’s Up, Doc: Analyzing Humor

-----------------------------------------

My Extracurriculars

A few of the student groups/ extracurriculars I’ve gotten involved in are:

- Phi Mu Sorority: if you have any questions about Greek Life or rushing, ask!

- Sigma Delta Pi:  I'm the president of the Johns Hopkins chapter of the National Spanish Honors Society, which is a group that organizes hispanic cultural events on campus.

- Research: I did embryology research for a year at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, which is right next to the Homewood Campus.

- College Democrats: we spread awareness about political issues and do fun things like tie dying t-shirts

- Student health advisory board: This group acts as a liaison between the undergraduate student body and the Student Health and Wellness Center.

--------------------------------------

My Dorm Life

This year I’m living in an apartment about 3 blocks from campus, but previously I've lived in Charles Commons and AMR1, Wilson House. 

---------------------------------------

Follow Me

Read my blog
and check out my profile page.

And if you have any questions, please ask!!

Thanks a lot for the reply, it really helped! My Spanish class now is very frustrating for me because I'm trying to advance myself and stuff but my teacher just caters to the students that have no business taking AP Spanish and she just speaks English the whole time. No puedo esperar tomar una clase en Hopkins donde las personas actualmente QUIEREN estudiar espanol!

That's exactly how I felt last year!  You guys have nothing to worry about - college Spanish is totally different and everyone really does take it much more seriously.  Everything is done completely in Spanish, and I don't think I ever even heard my professor speak English until one of the last classes.  Plus, there were some native speakers in my class that were taking the class to improve their reading and writing, and they really helped bring up the level of the class discussion.  The other good thing about college Spanish is that if you're good at grammar, you're going to end up taking very few grammar courses and instead, you'll get to choose literature and culture courses.  In high school, I hated grammar lessons - especially going over weird verbs like pluperfect subjuntive and stuff, and last semester was the last time I'll ever have to take a grammatical Spanish course!  Yay!

Btw... you guys should check out my blog about the Spanish major - it gives a little more detail about what classes are like and what courses are offered.   :)

Hey Josh,

Congratulations on your acceptances!  That's very exciting.

In no particular order, here are my five favorite things about Hopkins:

1) Research opportunities.  You've probably heard on a campus visit/tour about how with a few emails, it's pretty easy for undergrads to find a research position on campus or at the School of Public Health or Medicine, but what I think isn't talked about as much to prospective students is how Hopkins has thousands of dollars in grant money available for students to pursue research outside of Hopkins labs.  Obviously some students apply for grant money to do science research, but students have done some really incredible research in the humanities as well.  Like check out this article: http://www.jhu.edu/news/home07/pura/kennedy.html - a Hopkins student got to travel throughout Europe to study literature, and the university paid for it.  This isn't like a hugely uncommon thing that just a few students get to do either - in 2008, there were like 50 students who received the Provost's Undergraduate Research Award (just one of the many grant/scholarship opportunities for undergrads), which is funding up to $2500 for research. So I guess the bottom line is that Hopkins wants its kids to learn outside of the classroom, and it does a tremendous job to ensure that that's possible for everyone.

2)  The professors.  That's a pretty broad topic, but the faculty here is incredible.  Here's a good example: JHU_Joe and I had this physics professor for the first half of the semester who was such a cool guy with a great sense of humor.  I always thought of him as the professor who occasionally shocked himself on his electricity demonstrations and made Anchorman references in class, but then Joe explained to me a couple of weeks ago that he does some of the most cutting-edge physics research in the entire world.  (I don't remember exactly what his research was - something about proton collisions - maybe if Joe's reading he could explain it again because it was really cool :) )  Also, just last week I learned that my Spanish professor is the editor for some versions of Don Quijote that are distributed in public schools throughout Madrid.  It's really awesome that even as freshmen, we get to take classes from professors that are so advanced in their fields.

3) When I was deciding on colleges, I really didn't put much weight on distance from home (as long as it was bearable car ride away), but now that I'm here, there are a lot of advantages to only being two-ish hours from home.  It made move-in really easy.  When I had tonsillitis, my Dad drove down here to go to the hospital with me.  My sister is planning to come down to see a lacrosse game because it's only an hour train ride from 30th Street in Philly.  Even though I'm perfectly content here at school, just knowing that I can hop on the train whenever to go home is comforting.

4) No core curriculum.  This was super important for me in choosing a school - I didn't want my school telling me that there was anything I needed to take.  At Hopkins, we have distribution requirements, which means that you need x amount of credits in the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, etc along with the required classes that pertain to your major, but Hopkins isn't going to make you take math or history or chemistry if you absolutely hate it.  Personally I'm not a fan of history, but here I never have to take a history course again.  Some of my friends hate English class, so they're taking humanities classes in anything from philosophy to Italian to fulfill their humanities requirements.  This freedom to take whatever I want is what's making it entirely possible for me to double major in two completely unrelated things.

5)  Location.  I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of the direct surrounding area of Hopkins, but there is a free shuttle to the Inner Harbor, Towson, Peabody, the Medical Campus, Penn Station, and other places, so you have access to free transportation to pretty much anywhere you would need to go within like 15-20 minutes of here.  The Inner Harbor has some great restaurants and is a neat place to walk around.  My friends and I love spending weekends in Towson - there's a mall, a cinema, and a lot of good restaurants and cafes.  The area around Peabody is really pretty and historic.  The DC area is only a $7 train ride away, so students go there a lot for weekend trips just for fun or for concerts.  Philadelphia is obviously a short ride away, and the school runs a few cheap trips to New York each semester, so there's always somewhere fun to get if you ever feel the need to get off campus.

My least favorite things:

1)  I miss the food you can get in downtown Philly - especially the Italian food.  There are a lot of good restaurants in Baltimore, but it's not like downtown Philadelphia where you can go to South Street or Reading Terminal Market and get some really good food for relatively cheap.  I really don't have any big complaints about campus food - breakfast in the freshman dining hall is really good, and for lunch and dinner there are a ton of options in the dining halls and markets across campus, so there's definitely something for everyone.

2)  I like that Greek life doesn't define the social life here, but there are I think 11 frats and only 3 sororities (we're getting a fourth next year) besides the multicultural and community services sororities and fraternities.  I kind of wish that was a little more balanced.  

3)  As I mentioned before, Charles Village, the immediate area around Hopkins, isn't as much fun as the Inner Harbor or Towson, which are both short shuttle rides away.  Charles Village is fantastic in terms of cafes to study in, grocery stores to get necessities, and affordable restaurants, but after seeing how pretty the area surrounding Peabody is, I'm a little jealous that Charles Village isn't quite as scenic.

4)  Even though you're allowed to have a car here, there's no good place to park it.  It would be nice to have a car so that I wouldn't have to pay for train tickets/ follow the shuttle schedule, but realistically even if I did have a parking spot, there's no way my mom would ever let me bring the car to Baltimore.  I'm not the best driver.

5)  This is a little unfair for me to say seeing that Baltimore had a really unusual amount of snowfall this year where there were like 3 feet of snow on the ground for like half of the month of February, but the school could have done a better job of salting the pathways.  That sounds like a ridiculous complaint, but I can't think of another least favorite thing about this school, and I seriously slipped and fell five thousand times a day for like three weeks because the paths were just sheets of ice.

To answer your other question, it isn't hard to double major at all because there's no set of required courses you have to take here, and AP credits make it even easier.  Having a double major I think keeps me more motivated because if I didn't have Spanish courses, I'd probably feel a little overwhelmed with all the science, and I don't think I'd enjoy it as much.  

Let me know if there's anything else I can help with, and good luck with your decision making!  :)

- Sarah

Hey Gem, thanks for your question!  

Yes, it's very possible to double major in Spanish!  Since a lot of Spanish majors here are double majoring in something else, the department has actually structured the major requirements to be very double-major friendly.  Here is what's required for the Spanish major:

1)  grammar courses (Elements I & II, Intermediate I & II, Advanced I & II)
If you took Spanish in high school, you can skip some of the easier grammar courses by taking the Hopkins Spanish Placement Test.  Most people I know who took Spanish in high school placed into Advanced Spanish I, so they got to skip the elements and intermediate courses and only had to take Advanced Spanish I and II.  

2)  Introduction to Spanish Literature - This is a required semester long course that every Spanish major takes.

3)  5 additional upper level courses - You have a lot of options to choose from, so you can take what sounds interesting to you.

4)  30 credits of distribution requirements - This means that you have to take about 10 courses that are NOT in a humanities department.  If you're interested in double majoring with BME or something science/math related, this should be no problem because the courses you take for your other major will fulfill this requirement.  This works the other way around too - the credits that you earn for your Spanish courses will fulfill your distribution requirements for any engineering/science/math major that you might want to pursue.  This is a big reason why I chose Hopkins: other schools don't have the same system of distribution requirements, so this is a good place to be if you want to double major in two unrelated subjects.

That might sound like a lot, but look at it this way: if you've taken Spanish in high school, you would probably have to take about 8 semester long courses to get a Spanish major or 6 courses to get a minor.  If you've never taken Spanish before, it might be about 12 courses for the major or 10 for the minor.

We actually have 2 different Spanish minors here at Hopkins: Spanish for the Professions or Spanish Language and Culture.  The requirements for the Spanish Language and Culture minor are the same as the requirements for the major, but you only have to take 3 upper level courses instead of 5.  For the professions minor, you have to take the grammar courses, an upper level translation course, either Medical/Legal/Business Spanish (choose one), and one more upper level course of your choice.  So the major is only like 2 more courses than either of the minors.  

I'm kind of in a similar situation as you because I'm double majoring with bio.  My plan is to take a lot of bio this year and then take 5 or 6 Spanish courses next fall when I go abroad so that I'll be done with the Spanish major by next spring.  

Hopefully this all kind of made sense... that was a lot of rambling so if there's anything that's confusing or anything else that you'd like to know, just ask!  If you have any questions about any particular classes or study abroad or Spanish (or medicine!) related extracurriculars, I'll definitely try to help you out!  But in a nutshell I would say that if you're interested in BME/ something with medicine and Spanish, don't steer away from it because it sounds hard - it's totally doable with some careful planning and it's a great combination :)

-Sarah

Thanks, Sarah!
I didn't expect a full-on response. You gave me more than enough information :D
And it all sound so interesting especially the Study Abroad part. Would you like to elaborate on that, please?
Where are you going? How does the program work? And what will you do when you get to your destination?
 
I'm definitely considering that in college despite which college I end up going to. However, I would really like to go to Hopkins and your reply really motivated/inspired me.

Please don't get tired of replying. :X

Hi Sarah,

I met you last year when I came to JHU for a campus tour, I remembered you because I live right down the road from where you live in Philadelphia!  I am in my Senior year of high school now and getting very anxious to find out where I will be going to college in the Fall.  I loved Hopkins and after reading your blogs I even love it more!
I attended an overnight visit in the fall and roomed with a girl in a Sorority.  After that visit I left feeling unsettled about the whole Greek life thing.  Can you elaborate on your experience with Greek life?  I get a sense that it can sometime be all consuming and I don't want to be at a school where Greek life is the only social thing to be involved with.  Thanks for being so open and willing to share information, it is really helpful!  I hope I can do the same if I am so lucky to end up at Hopkins next year!

Thanks,
Lindsey

Hi Sarah!

First off, I'm from Flourtown, so Philly ('burbs) shoutout! I'll be coming to Hopkins in the fall, and I was wondering if I could have some advice in selecting courses. I'm an engineering major (ChemBE) who wants to major in Spanish. I was planning on using my AP credits in a few areas, so I will have a pretty hard courseload coming in. I figured I could use covered grades to push myself and get ahead (and perhaps turn that minor into a major).

My question has to do with picking a fourth course for the fall. In addition to Physics, Calc, and Chem (both Calc and Chem are not introductory level because of my APs), I was planning on taking either IFP or Advanced Spanish II. In terms of workload and enjoyment, which class would you recommend I take? Thabnks for your help!

Hi Sarah,
I've been in your blog once before asking about double-majoring and study abroad programs.
Now, I'm here to ask about financial advice. Although I would REEEEEAAAALLLLLYYYYYY like to go to Hopkins, my parents are a bit iffy about the fiscal matters. ): I understand that they don't want me to have a lot of debt getting out of college, but I would still very like to go to Hopkins -- if not for undergraduate, maybe for graduate or medical school. Would it be harder to get in graduate school at hopkins if I came from an in-state college?

Any advice?
/:

Thanks,
Gem

A series of questions and answers previously posted to JHU_Sarah's thread accidentally were removed. Here they are now:


Posted by elias_davis on July 30, 2011

Hey Sarah!

Ill start off by saying that currently i live in Lima, Peru and am very interested in Johns Hopkins (planning on applying ED for class of 2016.) I have a few questions about the work load at Hopkins in terms of any major having to do with the science department. I plan on going on the premed track, but i'm not too sure about which major is right for me. In terms of the biology major, because of my move from Miami, Florida, to Peru summer into my 10th grade year, I never got to take a biology or chemistry. But, once I got to Peru, the senior requirement, was to take organic chem, so i'm doing that now. Im worried that since i never got to take chem and bio, being a bio or chem major, i wont be able to sustain the workload. For example is bio I or chem I start from is to say "the first page of the chemistry/bio book"?. Another topic i was hoping you could help me out on was the "covered grades." Is it only the first semester? Or the first whole year?

Thank you! And if you ever need some help me spanish, since i'm fluent in spanish, ill be glad to help!

Hi Elias! These are great questions!
First of all, no worries about not knowing which major to choose yet, you'll have plenty of time to decide.

One of my good friends never took a biology class before coming to Hopkins and he took general biology I & II with the corresponding lab courses this year and said that they were his easiest classes. I've never taken the class, but I know the professor pretty well (she's my research sponsor) and she's fantastic! She's so patient and has a reputation for going above and beyond with giving extra help to anyone who needs it. Everyone loves her, she's like the nicest person ever!

I really think chem I and II would be totally manageable for you too: a lot of my friends who took it freshman year didn't remember a lot of the material from high school, so even though you've never taken chemistry before you're not necessarily going to be behind everyone else. Also, chem I and II seem like very collaborative classes: my friends who took it did problem sets together every night, studied for tests together, etc.

Chem I and II labs have a reputation for being pretty difficult, but not very many people got much chem lab experience in high school so everyone thinks this class is hard regardless of whether or not they've taken chem before. You'll have a lab partner to work with and I'm sure there be other people living on your floor in your dorm that are also taking this class, so you'll have plenty of help available to you. The teaching assistants for the lab courses are also great to use as resources - you can go to their office hours or email them anytime.

That's great that you're taking organic chem though - very few people have had that in high school so you'll have a head start for when you need to take it here!

To answer your question about covered grades, they're only for first semester. Basically you only get an "S" (satisfactory aka C- or better) or a "U" (unsatisfactory) on your transcript for every class. You'll be able to see your actual letter grades at the end of the semester but med schools/ grad schools won't because none of these classes are factored into your GPA. I really liked having covered grades - it was nice being able to adjust to college life without having to worry about grades.

Don't hesitate to ask any other questions you have & good luck with your application if you decide to apply ED! Oh and thanks so much for the Spanish help offer! I'm leaving for Spain in less than two weeks and I haven't spoken Spanish since like November... yikes. Hopefully it comes back quickly

***********************************************************************************

Posted by Stephanie on September 8, 2011

hi

i am looking for universities and i have decided on Hopkins. I was wondering if i could come into the school then chose what i want to study... you know just enter the university without a course in mind then just pick one after being accepted.

Hey Stephanie - don't worry at all about not knowing what to study: a ton of people enter undecided, and you don't have to declare a major until the end of sophomore year. Whether or not you know what you want to study, you'll get an academic advisor the summer before your freshman year who will help you choose courses that will interest you and will help fulfill your academic requirements.

Hey BlancheBunny
I'm pretty sure there are singles in all of the freshman dorms - there might not be singles in buildings A&B, but there are definitely singles in the AMRs, Wolman, and McCoy. 

After you send in your enrollment deposit to Hopkins, you fill out a housing questionnaire.  This includes questions to match you up with a roommate (questions like are you neat, do you wake up early, do you use your room primarily for socializing or studying) and there are also questions about your building preference and whether you prefer a single or a double.  If you know that you want a single, you can indicate that on the form.  The freshman are entered into a lottery system, so if you get a low lottery number then there's a good chance that you'll be put into a single. 

I had a single in the AMRs and it was great - I was (and still am) really good friends with my hall, so I never felt like not having a roommate took away from my freshman experience or anything. 

Hope this helps!

Hey RJulez!

Studying abroad was the greatest thing ever.  Even if you have no idea where you want to go or what you want to do, I would 100% recommend it.  The study abroad office at Hopkins will help you find the perfect program, which is a big reason why a ton of Hopkins students go abroad every year - I think about half of Hopkins students study abroad at some point in their undergraduate career.

One of the great things about studying abroad at Hopkins in particular is that you can go abroad for just about any length of time.  Most students go abroad for the semester, some go abroad for a year, some chose a one or two month summer abroad program, and some go abroad for three weeks in January on one of the Intersession programs.  Hopkins also makes it very possible to go abroad more than once - lots of people chose to go abroad for a semester and also do an Intersession trip or a summer abroad.

Another great thing about programs at Hopkins is that you usually travel with a very small group of all Hopkins kids, so you get to know a lot of people in other majors that you would never have met otherwise.  I'm still very close with the group I went to Madrid with: we could not have been more different than one another but we clicked really well and had such a great time in Spain.  Also, Hopkins has programs that cater toward all majors, including science majors, pre-meds, and engineers.

I really have no complaints about social life at Hopkins - it seems like there's always something going on around campus, but when there's not, there are plenty of great places to go in Baltimore to hang out.  Freshman and sophomore year I only went off campus maybe once a month just because I was (and still am) perfectly happy just hanging out with friends on campus, going to frat parties, etc.  Junior year, once my friends started keeping their cars in Baltimore, we ended up going off campus a lot and hanging out at the Inner Harbor or Towson or going to restaurants in Hamden.  Towson is one of my favorite spots to go off campus - there's a mall, a movie theater, and a lot of cheap places to eat, and it's relatively easy to get there with the public buses and shuttle system.

Haha I do study a lot, but trust me, I don't live in the library and I've only pulled like two all-nighters in the past three years.  You really just have to learn to budget your time, but you do not need to give up your social life to do well here.  In a typical week I still have time to go to the rec center everyday, usually have dinner with friends, go to club meetings, etc, in addition to studying and doing homework.  My friends and I go out pretty much every weekend and we all still do well academically. If you have any other questions about social life, please ask :) but seriously if you want a social life at Hopkins, it's there and can definitely be balanced with academics as long as you budget your time.

They're very accessible - they are all required to hold office hours every week, but if for some reason you have a conflict or a class that overlaps with a professor's office hours, you can always just email the professor to ask if you can set up an appointment to meet another time.  Even for some of the larger science classes I've taken like physics and organic chem, I've been really surprised at how helpful the professors are during their office hours: even if ten other kids show up, the professors are good about making sure that no one goes away confused about the material.  They really want you to do well and will be happy that you're taking the initiative to go and talk to them. 

For my smaller upper-level humanities classes, I've gotten to know my professors really well from going to office hours.  I still go to one of my freshman year Spanish professors every once in a while for advice on things totally unrelated to Spanish like what I should do with my life after college or whether I should take a senior year German class.  So to sum up, my advice would be to go to office hours as much as you can, no matter how big or small the class is.  For your smaller classes, absolutely go to office hours because chances are there won't be that many other students going to office hours, so you really have an opportunity to get to know the professor.  It's always good to make connections because you can always go to these professors for advice, even later on in your college years.

Let me know if you have any other questions :)