Johns Hopkins University - american universities

 The campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.We're here on a great spring day in 2015 the end of April and Johns Hopkins is in the heart of the city, so it's a campus within a city, so it has the best of both worlds. What people believe about Johns Hopkins is that it's a research school.

Yes, you're right, it is. But beyond research, they really believe that undergraduate education is really important and they have incredible programs in the liberal arts that most people don't even think about. In fact, it has the number two program in the United States in writing. It's in the top five in history, so I want you to think outside of the box when you think Johns Hopkins. Yes,

if you want biomedical engineering, this is a great school to be at. But if you wanted creative writing, this is also a great school to consider. So when I talk about research, it's test tubes and labs, but it's also the undergrads here get to do other types of research and expanding their own knowledge.

You can do research in the inner city on art and curating art and creating your own exhibit. You can do research on amphibians in the Chesapeake Bay.So it really runs the gamut. Research doesn't just mean test tubes, it means lots of other things. So here's some of the things that surprised me about Johns Hopkins university.

What I found out is a lot of the students here come from New York,Maryland and California. Those are the three top places that they come from.But they're looking for students from all over. Remember this is a private university, so they really want to fill their freshmen class with students from all walks of life.

Their freshmen class is about 1300 to 1400 students and they accept about 3,500 to get to that number.Their acceptance rate this year in 2015 was about 14% so it is a competitive school. And additionally with admissions, what they really stressed, like most big universities now, it's a very holistic view. They look at everything that you do.Grades are not so as important as your grades in the context of what you were able to take.

They want you to take the most rigorous courses available at your school. That's what they look at. Also, they're looking at something called impact and initiative.What impacted and initiative is,

Is what have you shown on your high school campus?

What impact have you had on your high school campus?

What initiative have you taken to make a difference in your world?

If you do it on your high school, they believe you're going to do it here at Johns Hopkins, and that's the kind of student that they're looking for. Another thing about Johns Hopkins is they feel strongly about, and certainly there are different opinions. There is no core curriculum.

There are no classes that everybody takes. However, they have what's called a distribution. The distribution is the humanities and science and the other distribution is the natural sciences and engineering. So you have to take something and these types of areas, but they really run the gamut and I'll give you an example of some of the things that you would take to fulfill
your distribution requirements. One would be Quantifying Shakespeare. Another one will be
Stars and the Universe.

Another one would be Anthropology and the Media where at the end of that courseyou have to create a video that you post on YouTube about anthropology and the media and your grade depends on
how many hits you get on YouTube. That's a pretty good way to get a grade.I think the class of 2015 and beyond would really love that.

So you can see that the faculty at Johns Hopkins really think of innovative ways to have students learn about themselves, learn about the world and expand their knowledge. Another good thing about Johns Hopkins here is there are graduate schools. The graduate schools are really off campus.There's very few on this undergraduate campus,but because there's so many graduate opportunities,

You get the chance to do a lot of research and not all schools have this large of a graduate program that enabled the undergraduates to take part in it. And I think that's a key thing here.

Johns Hopkins university for research gets the most money from the federal government for research. It is the number one recipient of federal money. So there is a lot of research and
therefore a lot of opportunities. The students I talked to that were giving me tours and speaking to us about admission, all of them had to
research every single one of them. And this is the only campus I've been to where everybody I spoke to said they had an opportunity to do research.

And I think that's something that you need to look at when you're looking at universities. So Johns Hopkins is private. Johns Hopkins is expensive. It's going to cost you about $64,000 per year to come here. But here's some things that are really great.

They guarantee 100% of identified need. So if it's identified via the FAFSA or the profile that you have need, they're going to cover it. That's really important. The other thing is most programs, if they have a major in it, you can apply during your junior year and get into the master's program. So you will stay for a fifth year and they will give you a break on your tuition. Half of your tuition
is cut for that fifth year.

That's value for your time, value for your education. So it may be a lot in the beginning, but you're getting a great deal of value. So another thing that I saw about Johns Hopkins was big and small at the same time. It's a big university. If you add the graduate program in, it's a medium size when you talk about the undergrads of only 5,000 it's big when you talk about, it's in the heart of the city of Baltimore,

Yet it's small because it's on a campus within the city. So you really get the best of both worlds. It is the biggest employer in the state of Maryland. There's just a very active community. And the other thing about it being small is the advisors. They believe that your advisor is not only advise you but mentor you.

So you're given one advisor when you arrive that lasts for four years. When you choose your major,
you're given a second advisor. If you have a double major where great majority think they said 60% of the students have a double major or a minor. If you have a double major,

You're gotten a third advisor. And if you're on a pre-professional track pre law pre-medicine you will get a fourth advisor. So out of those four advisors, you know, one, two, three and four somebody is going to click with you and mentor you along and help you not only in choosing your classes but helping you develop a major that you want and helping you look for internships and helping you deciding on study abroad and it helping you deciding on career and job training after you graduate.

And that's how a big school of 5,000 in a big city, cosmopolitan city like Baltimore can be small. And that's a real plus. Another thing that's a big plus for Johns Hopkins is the 300 plus clubs on campuses. 25% of the students belong to the Greek system, sororities and fraternities. But other than that, there are 300 clubs and that's really equivalent to what you would find on a university that has 20 and 25,000 students.

So for school of 5,000 to have that many clubs really shows number one, that students are really making an impact and having an initiative to start things. But number two, the school is funding all of that and really believes that the involvement of students in all aspects of learning in
the classroom and out are an integral part of what Johns Hopkins is.

One of the students I spoke to today is an international students from Milan, and he said an answer to a question from someone that they had heard. Johns Hopkins was not very supportive of students and he was kind of, the student was kind of taken aback and said, you know, that's a reputation they've been trying to shake since the seventies and it came long back from an era when they used to curve the grades and so you were really competing with your other student.

Nowadays, he said, don't get me wrong, Johns Hopkins academically is difficult. You're working for your grades. He said, but now everything is collaborative. There's not one class he's been in that he hasn't worked on a team of people.

Everything he's done, whether it's been research or classroom activities, has been collaborative with fellow students. He said it doesn't get more supportive than that. He said, from my advisor to my mentor to my fellow students, everyone is supporting me to be the best that I can be.

So that old thing about Johns Hopkins doesn't seem to be the case anymore and I really think you need to look at Johns Hopkins and whether you're looking at research, whether you're looking at liberal arts, whether you're looking at biomedicine, this is a place you really should look at. In fact, We saw an actually mock surgery. 

They were actually doing the DaVinci machine where students in biomedical actually get to work the
machines. It's right on. We were watching it as we were touring and I found that extremely fascinating.

So if you're looking at this video, it says to me that you're a top student looking to get into a top school and this is where I could help you. You have great things you're doing, and my job is to help you maneuver and nuance what you do best to get the best light shining on your great attributes.

No one could promise you admission to a school if somebody does, don't listen to them. You get YOU into the school. But I can help you work on your resume, developed some strategies, develop some testing timelines to help you show yourself in your best light.

I really look forward to meeting you and working with you.

 

Thank You.