Johns Hopkins University Top Questions

Bill Nye the Science Guy was awesome and he wore his bowtie. there are always things to do if you look for them. i go eat at the inner harbor and little italy.

I don't like the party scene at Hopkins because it focuses so much on binge drinking and emotionless hook-ups. Instead I take advantage of the student groups - I am part of the orchestra and also the outdoors club. These are great ways to either escape the stresses of the campus or to let my mind escape the rigors of the academic challenges of Hopkins.

There are many students groups that are very active. Additionally, most students are active within at least one student group, which makes for a very lively community. Activities/events hosted by the university can sometimes be few and far between, but there has been much improvement in this area over the years. There isn't much to do in the immediate neighborhood around Hopkins, so most students either have to go downtown or up to Towson (we're pretty much right in the middle of the two). However, the university does provide free transportation for students to get to these places.

Most of the social scene is based around off-campus frat parties or smaller group activities. Those who live on campus tend to be more social, especially in freshman housing. It is easy to travel to other cities on the train but most people stay on campus or in the surrounding areas. There seem to be more planned activities on campus than students who want to attend them, so most events will either be sparsely attended or packed.

The most popular groups on campus are the fraternities and sororities. I'm involved with the Student Art League which is a brand new group on campus that was formed because there is an obvious lack of art on campus (we don't have enough funding, enough classes, enough facilities, etc.) I find the dating scene to be somewhat limited because lots of people who go here are Asian (not my type), frat brothers (not really my type), or waaaay to nerdy for me. I met my closest friends last year because we all lived in the same house in AMR II - Clark. People definitely party every weekend - work hard, play hard. Last weekend I did the first 3 performances of the musical Pippin and went to a cast party on Saturday night. Off campus I go to D.C. just to enjoy the city, go to the Inner Harbor, go to restaurants, shop at Cloud 9 or Urban Outfitters, etc.

Much of freshman life revolves around frat parties, which quickly get old for most students who move onto other social activities such as finding things to do around baltimore

There are constantly speakers coming to visit. Even in the so called un-social dorms there is constantly people in the hallways.

Hopkins Baseball is by far the greatest social organization on campus. There are a million baseball players and they all like to get out and have a good time. Often overlooked the D-III sports program at Hopkins is highly competitive nationally and the athletes are much more approachable than the D-I counterparts at Hopkins. The athletic community at Hopkins is very tight knit, but more importantly very open to meeting and embracing new people.

Dorm doors are closed most of the time, I guess because people use them as study rooms or just spend most of the time outside, esp. in the library, and don't want their stuff stolen. That's reasonable. I actually didn't get to meet one of my closest friends until the Senior Week at graduation. But finding a great friend through socialization wasn't really on my priority list while I was a student - I'd rather get a respectable grade, get to help other people study by tutoring them, and get involved with volunteer / community service activities. That's how I met people and I was perfectly happy not spending additional time with people. I met my sweetheart in Terrace while dining with other church friends. We were both of similar international backgrounds and we spoke 3 common languages (almost) + the language of BME, so we had a lot to share. I am indebted to him for introducing me to Student Technology Services, one of the greatest places to work on campus. Through training at STS, I spent a lot of time drawing and designing digital art for student websites. I became so passionate in it that I would spend whole weekends at it. Naturally I had a lot to share with my fellow digital artists and programmers at STS. STS was indeed a very comfortable place to be: the director Debbie Savage might be a little intimidating at first, but she made sure everybody was on their feet. STS really worked as a team.

Students in freshman dorms leave their doors open. Doors in other dorms can't physically stay open. I met my friends through activities. Some people party all the time, some never. Frats are important freshman year and sororities just don't make sense. Why anyone would rush is beyond me -- there are no houses, no parties and generally nothing worhtwhile associated with sororities.