Johns Hopkins University

Date: Apr 27 2011
Major: Engineering Department (This Major's Salary over time)
Being perfectly honest…Hopkins is a great school if you are going to be premed or bio or any major other than Biomedical Engineering. There definitely is a social life on campus, but Biomedical Engineers (BMEs) do not participate in it. The amount of work we are expected to do is Herculean. The program is great but it is taught the wrong way. This is truly a RESEARCH university. The faculty is somewhat concerned about the success of the students but they wind up turning their own current research into impossible problem sets. It truly seems like our department wants to pump out 10-20 high GPA students while the rest of us are fighting for average. Many classes are curved down. Grade deflation is rampant. Math department started new rule where only 10% of students get A's. I don't know if I would say that the students are cutthroat…its just that no matter how hard you try, you will likely be average. Its really depressing. Especially watching all of your friends not in the department go out and have fun when you know that you really shouldn't because you have 2 BME tests on the same day and hour apart next week on top of your 4 problem sets. Each faculty member thinks that you are only taking their class and they put unreasonable demands on you. I've been told to skip a test by my own advisor to go to the medical campus and collect data for a project I am doing on the side. In Hopkins BME…you truly feel like your time isn't worth anything to anyone. I'm taking about 19-20 credits every semester in order to finish the double major I'm trying to do. It's actually hilarious because my BME GPA is right around average while my CE GPA is much much higher. Its not that I can't get good grades, its just that the expectations and the workload and everything else about the BME department is outrageous. If you're reading this and you are thinking about entering the BME program here, I would seriously, honestly, strongly consider any other college offers you have on the table. I really could never wish this on anyone.