Johns Hopkins University Top Questions

At Hopkins, many of the students are involved in some sort of mentoring/tutoring group, and there are a great number of these groups, including Jail Tutorial, Project Tutorial, Incentive Mentoring Program (IMP) just to name a few. IMP is a group dedicated to mentoring at-risk high school students with not only academics, but also social, economic, legal guidance. Thus, the focus of the group is not solely academic, but covers a wide range of topics and activities. Many of the rest of these questions depend on the students. Many students do keep their doors open, but it also depends on some personal preference (obviously) or the dorm you live in. Athletic events tend to be less popular (mostly Division III sports) except for lacrosse, which Hopkins is very competitive in. Partying depends on the student. Some go as often as once or twice a week, while others never go party. Frats and sororities do play a role in Hopkins life, especially if you want to go party. If not, there's always Inner Harbor, which, among other things, has the National Aquarium (which is awesome). There are usually very good turn outs for any guest speaker events, as the guest speakers are usually pretty famous. Speakers in the past few years included Bob Woodward, Thomas Friedman, Jerry Springer, etc.

There are 1034928509248093 clubs on campus and TONS of ways to get involved. The student body is interested in so many different things, that I honestly can't say that there is one club or group that most students are in!

Greek life has a pretty solid presence on campus, but it's by no means exclusionary; you can still be social without pledging with a fraternity/sorority. On any given weekend, there's multiple frat parties or mixers, and sports houses typically have something too. Outside of the party scene, there are always concerts going on nearby, guest speakers, free Friday night screenings of recent movies, poetry readings, and more. The most popular athletic events are the lacrosse games in the spring (our Homecoming is actually in the spring because of lacrosse!) but there's still a good turnout at the Division 3 games like soccer and football in the fall. Specifically for freshmen, people say that the AMR's are the best/most social dorms because they're traditional hall style, but I live in Wolman (a suite-style dorm) and I'm friends with almost everyone on my floor. People's doors are always open, and we all go out together, study together, or just hang out and watch TV in the common room together.

There are literally more than 250 student groups on campus. No group 'category' predominates over the other. Performing arts are a lot of fun and I enjoy attending the dance or a-capella shows. Greek life is present if you want to get involved but it does not predominate the social scene. Dorm life is a lot of fun and people usually leave their dorm rooms open so as to encourage socialization. The nightlife is also fun and helps keep students' busy lives balanced.

There are always a TON of events sponsored and run by different clubs, organizations, and extracirriculars. I would think many students participate in volunteering - a popular one is JHU Tutorial. Other students play club sports like lacrosse or soccer or participate in the arts - like dance, acapella (very popular), film, and theater. There's also Greek life, which often throws many fun events.

Lacrosse is really big here, though I haven't been to a single game. I met my good friends through Hillel- the best way to make friends is to join activities. Fraternities are sororities are really big. Because Hopkins is not the most social campus, the way many people make friends is putting themselves in social groups to meet people. Baltimore has a pretty solid music scene, so a lot of people go to concerts on the weekend. The Baltimore Inner Harbor is also gorgeous.

I think this has changed quite a bit since my day. If I was awake very late on a weekday, I was either in the Hut undergrad reading room cramming a semester of the history of Occidental Civilization into 3 days or dancing in the basement of a fraternity house. Sororities and Fraternities were big, but not in a state school kind of way. They were just social groups that offered some fun parties and comraderie and an opportunity to meet people you wouldn't necessarily meet in your dorm. As for sports, lacrosse is a big deal. Soccer is occasionally exciting and that's about it.

If it's a club or organization, we probably have it. It's pretty normal that someone's social life takes a back seat to school work, but usually not for too long a period of time. Also, if you make friends with the right people you never have to go out and still have a great time. If you do go out, though (especially to frats), if you don't like drinking and/or dancing, you won't have a good time so don't bother.

I think that the most popular social groups on campus are the sororities, fraternities and sports teams such as soccer, lacrosse, baseball, waterpolo etc. because they make it easier for everyone to meet and socialize. On the other hand, I wouldn't say that they dominate the social scene. I'm a member of Alpha Phi, and even though I have alot of friends outside of the sorority and the greek system, I'm glad I joined because it allowed me to meet and become friends with so many more people. The AMR freshman dorms were also a greet environment to meet everyone. Lacrosse games and big name guest speakers are always popular as well as the Barnstormers plays and comedy events. I met my closest friends during freshman year in my dorm and through friends. The dating scene is pretty active on campus and it's relatively easy to meet people, but not everyone is in long term relationships. The events that happen each year that are a lot of fun are fall festival and spring fair. For fall festival, they normally bring a comedian to campus (last year was Bob Saget) and spring fair always has a band and tons of stalls with food, jewelry, clothes etc as well as a beer garden.

People party thursday, friday, saturday. Sometimes even Sunday. On a Tuesday night, you're probably hanging out in someone's living room eating ice cream.