Apply to Johns Hopkins.

Hey there! I'm Jordan M. from Succasunna, New Jersey, and YOU should come to Johns Hopkins.  Why? I'll explain it to you shortly. Patience.

I'm a neuroscience / computer-science dual major, and I haven't ruled out the possibility of adding a robotics minor from the LCSR program as well before heading off to medical school.  Or, at least, such is the plan right now.  If it changes, I'll be sure to let you know immediately.

Like JHU_Alexa, I'm a bit of an 'order'-freak -- though I know I can't live up to her quality of forum-post formatting.  What follows is my (comparatively weak) attempt to make my page look as good as hers.

Chances are you've heard the name "Johns Hopkins" before.  That's because it's a world-leading reseearch institution in both healthcare-related as well as not healthcare-related fields.  Perhaps you recognize the names Woodrow Wilson, Adam Riess, Daniel Shectman..., all Nobel Prize winners who have roots at Johns Hopkins.  Or maybe you're more familiar with the baby-health-scale created by Hopkins graduate Apgar, or the New Yorkian Bloomberg, or Nightmare on Elm Street director Wes Craven -- all Hopkins alumni.

Hopkins is a truly exceptional college, home to the first academy of music ever established in America as well as some of the most groundbreaking medical and scientific discoveries of all time.  On top of its unbelievable repertoire of contributions to the humanities and medicine, you'll find the fantastic Johns Hopkins community that I've grown to love infinitely.  Whatever your personality type, we have a place for you here -- come find it!

(PS: You'll notice that I'm a freshman, and all of my courses are taught by professors with terminal degrees... Cool stuff, man.)

 

• Foundations of Brain, Behavior, and Cognition with Dr. Linda Gorman
• Applied Chemical Equilibrium and Kinetics with Dr. Jane Greco
• Calculus II For Biology and Medicine with Dr. Turgay Bayraktar
• Intermediate Computer Programming with Dr. Peter Fröhlich

• Cognitive Neuroscience: Exploring the Living Brain
• Expository Writing: The Utopian Imagination
• General Physics for Science Majors and General Physics Lab I
• Data Structures

Hopefully this list grows significantly in the near future:

• The Student Admissions Advisory Board is, naturally, the greatest club on campus.  We're charged with the duty of telling you, prospective students, how great Johns Hopkins is by means of the interwebsmachine.  Are you convinced yet? Yes? Good.
• NeuroJAYS is an awesome club where a bunch of Neuroscience students (or people who are simply interested in the topic) from all grades get together and review recent awesome neuro literature.  It's a great opportunity to meet up and see what kind of awesome stuff is happening in your field of study, and to meet other neuro-heads like yourself!
• The ACM at Hopkins is like a computer-nerd's dream.  Except it's all so real.

I am sorry to say it.  It pains me sincerely to tell you, my prospective students, but it is true: There are people who will lie to you at Hopkins.  They will bare their fangs, hiss savagely, and tell you that the AMRs are the best housing on campus.  They will coil their sinister webs of untruth around you and try to convince you McCoy is the place to be.  They will tempt you with their wicked songs, unjustly praising Buildings A and B.  They know not of what they speak.  For only a privileged few -- myself (gloriously) included -- know that Wolman is truly the best dorm.

Wolman is conveniently located right next to the Beach, which is a good angry toss of a 'good-for-nothin'-textbook' away from the MSE Library (the one with D-Level, yes...).  It's also the perfect place to start your expeditions into the surrounding areas of Baltimore, whatwith the awesome places to eat along St. Paul and Calvert and the cool stores you can get to quite easily from your front door.

Now, I grant thee, ministers of AMR & A/B dark witchcraft, that thou art nearest to the FFC than McCoy or Wolman.  But trust me, the air conditioning is quite nice, and having the CharMar right next door is so wondrously wonderful... I have no words.

Just.... just.... Wolman.  That's all I have to say, we're done here.

Hey Sam!

The cool thing about Hopkins (well, one of the many cool things about Hopkins) is that you don't necessarily have to choose! Of course, I daresay neuroscience is the coolest major out there no matter what, but that doesn't mean that IR isn't just as awesome.  Because there's no core curriculum here, you can spend your freshman year (or your fall semester of freshman year, or your freshman/sophomore years, or whatever you like) taking whatever courses you're interested in, without having to worry about "WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF ME IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY MAJOR IS" and such.  The only person that's going to judge is JHU_Alex, and you don't have to worry about what he says anyhow.

My suggestion? Take Prof. Gorman's Foundations of Brain, Behavior, and Cognition course during your freshman year.  (Also I guess you have to apply first.  I'm getting ahead of myself, methinks) You'll know about four days into that course if neuroscience is for you. (And it totally is.)  That leaves approximately four more courses available in your schedule to take whatever else you want to take -- I repeat -- FOUR MORE COURSES. (Maybe three, if you're seriously hardcore and take all lab courses).  Though I'm not particularly familiar with the Political Science or IR program (though I'll bet if you peruse the forums a bit, you'll find someone who is), I have this sneaking suspicion that they have tons of awesome intro courses as well.

Worst-case-scenario?  You wind up being a double-major in two programs with great reputations at Hopkins.  And believe me, that's not such a bad case-scenario anyhow.

I'm not going to try to convince you to pick one major over another, because it's your brain, and you should put in it whatever you so choose.  But I will say that getting involved in the neuro major is super easy, and there's a huge support network with upperclassmen.  For instance, JHU_Noah leads NeuroJAYS meetings, (see the My Extracurriculars section, above) which is great, and he's also helping me get involved in neuroscience research.  In fact, thinking long-term, he might be a really good guy to ask about what being a neuro major and researcher is like.

Hopefully this helps a bit, let me know if you have other questions!

Thanks for visiting, can't wait to hear back!
JHU_Jordan

Hey there, I'm glad to hear you're one of the wise individuals who knows that neuroscience is where it's at!

The summer of your junior year is crucial to the whole college-app process, but so is senior year and sophomore year and blah blah blah, point being -- don't get too worried about whether or not the program you're doing this summer is going to make the decision as to whether or not you're accepted. You should do what you really enjoy doing, or what you think you'll enjoy doing, because Hopkins loves to see that!

I actually spent my junior-year summer at a lab doing neuroscience research, and some of the things I learned there have carried over into my classes and NeuroJAYS discussions. It really helped me decide that, yes, I was interested in learning more about neuroscience and that I wanted to be a neuro major. If you're not totally sure that you're a neurosciencer, or you want to get some real-world experience, definitely go with the lab work.

Now, to play devil's advocate: Though I never participated in the JHU summer university program, I've heard wonderful things about it, and it gives you an idea of what Hopkins campus life is like. I think that this would be a great idea if you're not sure if Hopkins is right for you (it is) and it could help decide if you do actually want to apply next year (you do). There are neuroscience courses available, so that can factor into your decision as well.


I know that I just gave you two conflicting opinions, and, oh great, that's sooo helpful and all... But hopefully that gave you a bit more perspective. You can decide by asking yourself, are you more sure about wanting neuroscience as your major (then do Hopkins Summer U), or are you more sure about wanting to go to Hopkins (then check out that lab work!)? If you're planning on applying regular-decision, you'll have SOHOP, a springtime sleepover visitation program, to help you determine if you like Hopkins' campus. (You still get to go if you were an Early Decision'er, like I was... And it was still an awesome time. So don't worry about missing out!)




Now, off the record -- if I were you, I would go with the lab work. Having experience in the neuroscience field will help you even if you decide Hopkins isn't right for you, and no matter where you wind up, getting a lab position will be easier if you have previous experience to boast about in a resume.


Hopefully that helps, and I can't wait to see you on campus for some visits later this year!
JHU_Jordan

jr,

Congratulations to you and your son -- the BME program is a tough one to get into, you must be so proud!
My answer to your visitation question is, of course, that you should come to campus for BOTH opportunities -- but if you have to pick just one, here's a quick comparison:

April visitation days are certainly less crowded, though they're not as new-student-centralized. That is, SOHOP, which is an overnight program designed to cram as much Hopkins-ness into 24 hours as possible, offers the SAC Fair (Student Activities Commission), where almost every club on campus sets up a booth on the Freshman Quad and talks to you about their programs, a carnival for admitted students at night, and then an opportunity to check out a lot of the dorm rooms (all experiences that the April visitation days don't generally have).

Pre-scheduled day visits are also awesome for the students, but kind of leave the parents to just mull about, which is fine since there's so much to eat and see and do around campus. Alternatively, SOHOP has programming for parents too -- of course, optional -- that talks about fun stuff like student programming during the year, different advantages to every major, some department presentations, and then the REALLY fun stuff like Financial Aid information sessions. This is all happening while the student is going to similar meetings, talking to Hopkins info-people (like me), eating at the FFC, and more.

If it were a one-or-the-other kind of deal for you, I'd say to drop the April day visit and come during SOHOP. It'll give your son a chance to meet other ED students in person and find some BME's who he'll become classmates with. It's certainly not too crowded, and it is really a day designed for the admitted student, rather than a regular day on campus that happens to include some extra admitted students walking around.

Either way you decide, I can't wait to see you on campus!
JHU_Jordan