Hello everyone,

I'm Nick, a proud member of the Johns Hopkins class of 2014!  I hail from Woodbridge, Connecticut, a small town outside of New Haven.  I'm double majoring in Computer Science and Economics.  I'm very interested in computers and technology, but am by no means someone who sits at home on the computer all day.  I enjoy playing tennis and golf as well as anything involving the ocean (fishing, boating, etc.). In addition, I am a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, the Hopkins Emergency Response Unit, and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

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Why Hopkins?

I chose Hopkins because I liked the availability of double majoring, and the intersession program.  For those of you who haven't heard of it, Intersession is basically an optional time during the month of January where you can take a 1 or 2 credit class as a way of "dipping your toes" into a completely different field of study, or where you can take a class completely unrelated to anything you've ever thought of studying.  Another reason I chose Hopkins was because I thought, and still do think, that it has one of the most beautiful campuses that I've ever seen.


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My Classes

1. Automata and Computational Theory (3 credits)
2. Physics II (4 credits)
3. Physics II Lab (1 credit)
4. Macroeconomic Theory (4.5 credits)
5. Corporate Finance (3 credits)
Total: 15.5 credits


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Activities I'm involved in:

Bootup Baltimore- At Bootup Baltimore, we take in old computers through donations (often coming from Hopkins), fix them up, and donate them to people through out the community in Baltimore including public schools with no technology programs and churches.

Hopkins Emergency Response Unit- The on-campus EMS unit responding to medical emergencies here at Homewood.

Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity


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Housing

I currently live in Charles Commons, in an  amazing suite with some of my best friends.  We have 4 single rooms, a common room, kitchenette, and two bathrooms.

If you have any questions, don't be shy! I'm always happy to chat. Thanks for reading!

-Nick

Hey Alfred!

As far as classes are concerned when it comes to double majoring, you may have to take an extra class or two in any given semester.  This is, however not too overwhelming--if your grades are up, advisers are usually willing to grant a course overload.  In regards to being centered around classes and assignments, I wouldn't say your life is completely controlled by work.  As of now, I certainly have more than enough time to handle my work and have free time.

For what you plan on majoring in, I recommend you look at the course websites and see what is required.  Plan on taking 4 or 5 classes per semester, for a total of around 16 credits. See what each major requires and plan around that, as much as you can, to see how manageable the course load will be.  I don't know off the top of my head how many common classes Physics and Philosophy/Sociology have in common, so I cannot attest to the manageability of that combination.

For intersession, I'm not quite sure what you mean. Intersession is an optional time in January where students can take a wide variety of different classes, whether to count towards a major/minor, to experience something new, or just for fun.  These classes are pass/fail and usually worth 1-2 credits.  If you'd like to see the course listing, you can visit here http://orchid.hosts.jhmi.edu/summer/icourses/courses/acad_courses.asp.  

Hope this helps,

Nick

Hey!

Since I'm only a Freshman, it is a little too early for me to start thinking about getting my masters, and I don't really know many students in the upper level CS program to ask.  However, if you would like more information on the concurrent program, you can try going here : http://www.cs.jhu.edu/current-undergraduate/adviseman.html and just doing a search for concurrent and you'll find some decent info on it.  You also may be interested in http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/academics/category/computer-science/, the second blog is from a CS major who was involved in the concurrent program.  I'm sorry I cannot be of much help personally as of now, but hopefully you can learn from those links.

As far as CS class, we cover a lot of ground.  The midterms, for Intermediate Programming (one of the base classes for CS, which I'm taking now) generally consist of four sections.  First, there is true/false, then multiple choice, short answer, and long answer.  Here is the course website, if you scroll down to the bottom there are a few past midterms that you can take a look at.http://gaming.jhu.edu/~phf/2011/spring/cs120/  The final project the past few years (subject to change) has been to create your own computer game version of battleship.  As far as the difficulty and work load, it is both a challenge and there will be long assignments, but it is most certainly doable.  The CS assignments aren't easy--you won't be able to do them an hour before class and expect to get an A, but if you put a few hours a week into it you'll be fine.  As far as manageability of double majoring, it really depends on the person and how well you manage your time.  Some can manage the work better than others, so its really all about how well you personally do your work, although it is certainly possible.

Lastly, when it comes to prior experience, it definitely helps but is not needed.  Intro to Programming with JAVA will teach you everything you need to know to build off of for your CS degree.  Also, programming, although a major aspect of it, is not the only thing CS majors need to know.  There are several aspects of the CS major that do not have to do with programming, so even if your not the best at it (and I assure you, I am far from the best), you can still get by.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Nick

Hey! For intermediate, we used two (copied from the course website):
Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie: The C Programming Language, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 1988.
Andrew Koenig, Barbara E. Moo: Accelerated C++, Addison-Wesley, 2000.
Since the course mainly focuses on C and C++ is only the last part of the semester, the C Programming Language book is the main one.  
For Intro, the textbook is "Introduction to Programming with Java, A Problem Solving Approach" by John Dean and Raymond Dean.
I thought the Java textbook was really good, I've actually used it recently for some programs I wrote outside the class and it was able to help with some of that code.  As for the Intermediate books, they were a bit more confusing (I actually never even got the C++ one), but the C one was kind of a hard read (although the class revolves mostly around writing programs, not what you read in the textbook).  Then again, it could just be that C and C++ are inherently insane to learn, so writing a textbook teaching them to someone in simple terms is a difficult task.

Hope that helps!

Hey!

So the "best of dorms" debate is one which has been raging here for a long time. Each dorm certainly has its pros and cons. I, personally, loved living in the AMR's, but there are many who have different opinions than I.  If you'd like to see other thoughts on each dorm, check out this thread: http://www.hopkins-interactive.com/forums/housing/dorms-amrs-ab-wolman-mccoy/. Also, check out our Cribs videos (including mine!!!) to see Hopkins students showing off their rooms so you can really get a feel for what you want. http://www.hopkins-interactive.com/videos/

In terms of living in a single, I'd recommend you at least consider having a roommate. I believe it is really part of the freshman year experience. However, if you decide a single is the way to go, they are certainly available and it is essentially a lottery as to who gets one.  When you get all your housing forms and such, just check the box and that would be the best way to get one freshman year. As a sophomore, your odds of getting your own room increase a lot, since 3/4 of the Sophomore dorms are comprised only of suite style singles, so when you get to be a sophomore, just hope to get a good lottery number. That really is the best tip I (or anyone else) can give you.

Best of luck!

Hey! So the career center is very helpful for finding internships. Companies, including some of the ones you listed, often come to campus via the career center for information sessions and recruitment visits. The process of obtaining one varies from student to student and firm to firm. Some firms like to make a lot of use of the career center in applying, others will have you apply more through them directly than with the career center.

Typically, you can find offers in finance through J-Connect, an online job posting board that the career center hosts. Once you've found something that interests you, there is information in the posting regarding how to apply, the requirements for applying and people to contact if you are interested. Like I said, though, there are different requirements for every firm, so some may have you go through a different process.

When I got my internship in finance this summer, it was from a posting on J-Connect which led me to go to a career fair in New York, partially sponsored by Hopkins, which then led to an interview and eventually an offer.

So, in short, yes, there certainly are internship possibilities and the career center will help you seek them out. If you'd like to learn more about the career center, check out the blog I wrote about it yesterday (http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/nick/2012/04/why-hopkins-for-jobs/).

Hope this helps!

-Nick

Hi Pradyumn,

I can totally understand your dilemma, as choosing between the two schools for computer science is certainly a tough choice. As far as opportunities go, you'll find that many of the computer science professors are very engaging, both during and after class. For example, a friend of mine is concentrating in Natural Language Processing within the computer science department, and was able to find a research opportunity just by talking to one of his professors after class. In addition to research, internship and job opportunities are pretty prevalent, and just for this summer I know people who got internships at places such as Microsoft and Facebook. Seeing as I don't know much about Berkeley's post graduation opportunities, and as a sophomore I don't know much about Hopkins' either, it is hard for me to make a comparison in this respect. I hope this helps, and feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

-Nick