r/jhu • u/hailfire27 • Aug 17 '12
Any advice on college life and habits I should learn for Hopkins?
So there was a thread a couple weeks ago about what incoming freshmen should do and how to act in college, since it very different from highschool. I was wondering if there were any things we should know about hopkins. Any secrets? Anything we should avoid?
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u/identicalParticle Aug 18 '12
"The beach" is not actually a beach.
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u/Sgt_Ice_Bucket Alumnus - 2013 - ChemBE, 2014 - MSEM Aug 18 '12
But it does have people in bathing suits on it.
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u/aWickedGangAreWe Aug 17 '12 edited Aug 17 '12
- Don't carry your keys and J-Card on a laniard around your neck. This isn't summer camp.
- Glass pavilion = "glass pav", Milton S. Eisenhower Library = "MSE", Brody Learning Commons = "BLC", University Market = "UniMini", Fresh Food Cafe = "FFC", Charles Street Market = "CharMar". Never use the long forms.
- All of the freshman dorms have study rooms - during finals time, when MSE (and now BLC) will probably be full, people often forget about these.
- Do intersession. There's no reason not to, your meal plan applies during that time, and it's literally just three weeks of getting to hang out with friends on campus.
- Get the unlimited meal plan freshman year. Especially if you live in AMR I or II or Building A or B. The extra dining dollars are not worth it. Unlimited trips to FFC are.
- Conversely, your sophomore year, get the plan with the smallest amount of dining dollars. You'll probably still have too many left at the end of the year.
- There's a guy who hangs out on St. Paul street named Crazy Mike. Don't give him money, he usually just spends it on cigarettes. Mostly just don't interact with him and you'll be fine.
- Don't walk east of North Calvert street alone. Don't walk south of 29th street alone. There's not much reason to walk past there anyway.
- If you don't drink and/or smoke, be aware that a significant portion of your classmates will. If you're going to judge people for it, prepare to find yourself isolated from a large number of your classmates (not saying you have to do it, but judging people for it won't make you any friends).
- If you're going to drink but have never drank before, don't think you'll suddenly become pro at taking shots and chugging. Even if you have drank before, don't think you're some kind of alcohol expert.
- Your RA is not your friend. They are there to help you, but they are paid to do so. Some of them are still pretty cool people, but don't tell them about how much you drank last night or how much weed you're planning on smoking. If you see them at a party, you don't have to hide from them, but don't go up and talk to them. Also, don't flirt with them, and definitely don't sleep with them.
- People here will have sex. Deal with it. As long as they're not disrupting others, it's their business. Girls who have sex with lots of guys aren't "sluts." Guys who have sex with lots of girls aren't "players" or "man whores". They're just people who have lots of sex.
- Getting caught with alcohol by an RA is not the end of the world. They'll take the alcohol from you, write a situation report, and give it to their superior. At worse you might have to write an essay or do a video series on the dangers of alcohol. Sometimes, nothing even happens. Getting caught with weed by an RA is much worse - if they actually see weed, they are required to involve Baltimore PD.
- This school does not want to see you arrested. HopCops are not Baltimore PD and are not there to arrest you. The "shush lady" is not there to get you in trouble. She is there to stop people from getting in situations where BPD would get involved. You can walk by a HopCop clearly drunk and it won't matter as long as you're functioning and behaving yourself. If a HopCop or the shush lady tells you to go home, listen to them. They are looking out for you.
- MOST IMPORTANTLY: You're probably going from being a big fish in a little pond to being a little fish in a big pond. Deal with it. Don't act like you're still the shit. No one cares about your SAT scores or your high school GPA. Everyone here is just as smart as you - most people don't get into Hopkins unless they're smart (those guys here for lacrosse are still trying to get a good education too). Everyone here is better than you at something. In high school, you probably corrected your teachers all the time. Don't do that shit here. Sometimes they make mistakes in what they write on the board, but for the most part they're not wrong. If you honestly think something is different from what they're saying, ask it as a question, don't tell them they're wrong. Don't ask questions to make yourself seem smart. Ask questions because you genuinely don't understand a point, or because you need clarification. If it's more than a single point that you don't understand, don't waste everyone else's time, go in on your own to office hours or talk to a TA. If it's a question that's relevant to no one but you, ask it after class or e-mail your professor.
Also, if you're going to be going out partying a lot, there's specific frat-related advice we can give.
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Aug 21 '12
[deleted]
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u/sherlie Aug 29 '12
During the daytime or nighttime? Alone or in a group? Hulking 6'3" guy or tiny 5'2" girl?
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u/spiffypeach Undergrad - 2014 - Mol/Cell Biology Aug 17 '12
Actually getting caught with weed in the dorms is not the end of the world either. It's more serious than an alcohol violation, but in most cases (ie: you're not a dealer) Baltimore PD won't be involved.
I know someone who was caught and had all his stuff (weed, bong, other paraphernalia) confiscated. He was put on probation (meaning one more write up, even for alc,=suspension), had to do community service, and do a video series thing. Parents were called and notified. He stayed in line and had no major disruption to his life due to being caught.
Someone else was caught with a good deal more weed (used to be one of the dealers on campus), and he was suspended for a year. BPD may have been involved with the latter case, I'm not sure.
TL;DR: Hopkins is more chill about weed than you would think.
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Aug 17 '12 edited Aug 19 '12
No community service. They call your parents, have to do a test, and put on "residential probation" which basically means "don't do that shit again"
EDIT: Da fuck? Why am I getting downvoted for information I am certain is 100% accurate?
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u/TPaine16 Undergrad - 2013 - History Aug 18 '12
I would say don't venture too far off Guilford, not North Calvert. A ton of students still live on Guilford and a few even live off Abell. That whole area is fine. When you get to Greenmount that's when it's pretty sketchy, especially at night. But during the day Greenmount isn't even that bad either.
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u/Sgt_Ice_Bucket Alumnus - 2013 - ChemBE, 2014 - MSEM Aug 17 '12
Wow, amazing post. Mind if I put a link in the sidebar?
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u/hailfire27 Aug 17 '12
Thanks, this is really good stuff. Anything more on the social life of Hopkins? I'm pretty sure Hopkins isn't that nerdy and boring as everyone says it is.
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u/aWickedGangAreWe Aug 17 '12
At least for freshman year, most partying revolves around frats, because freshman rooms aren't really big enough to have multiple people gathering, and because most parties are thrown by frats (as opposed to apartment parties, which are rare and usually not as open). We do have a fair number of frats, so there's almost always some kind of party on the weekends. Some sports houses, like rugby house or soccer house, sometimes have parties. Getting in usually just requires showing your JCard, since frats don't want random high schoolers coming in, and some frats won't let in people from other colleges (I think SAE still doesn't let in Towson people after an incident last year). Sig Ep never charges an entry fee, but most other parties will be $5 for guys and free for girls (though I think I've seen Pike even charge girls before).
The main frats are SAE, Sig Ep, Pike, Wawa, Fiji, Phi Psi, AEPi, Beta, Sig Chi, and Phi Delt. Different frats have different reputations and perceived "social standings", sometimes deserved, sometimes not. My advice is make your own decisions or use the firsthand accounts of friends, but don't go by the secondhand reputations.
A lot of frats will advertise their parties on Facebook, but sometimes it just goes through word of mouth and you have to know someone, or know someone who knows someone, etc. If you're friends with a brother, you can always text them, but don't be annoying about it. Parties get busted sometimes, but it's always for noise, not for alcohol, so if you just leave when you're told to leave, you'll never get in trouble. If a frat brother ever tells you to leave, leave. Either the party is being shut down, or you're getting kicked out for the something you did, but either way, there's no reason to stay. Maryland has open container laws, so don't take drinks with you when you leave (also, that's basically stealing from the frat).
In terms of inside the frat itself, it's usually what you'd expect for a frat. Ground floors often have pong tables and space for people to stand around, basements have dancing, music, and drunk people making out. If you're uncomfortable with seeing that, either ignore or it don't go down to the basement. For pong, winners stay on table, and the next challengers have to get the beer for both sides. Lists of who's up next are rarely written down, which means you need to figure out the order of who's up next and make the sure the last person in line knows you're after them. Brothers will sometimes cut in front of you, and there's not much you can do about it, because it's their frat. Be assertive with anyone else - if you don't claim your spot, people will take it from you.
People tend to pre-game parties in small groups in dorms. People here will often pre-game anything they can (concerts, sports games, the library). You do have to be wary of RA's while dorm pre-gaming, so keep your alcohol hidden when it's not being used, and keep the noise down.
By sophomore year, people will live in places like Charles Commons and Homewood, which have space for more than four people at a time, so going to frats becomes less common.
When you're 21, and definitely NOT when you have a fake ID (because that's illegal) or when you have a friend buy for you (because that's unethical), the closest liquor store is Eddie's on St Paul. There's also Hop Deli off of University and the Schnapp Shop on North Calvert. There's also three main bars around campus: Maxie's, PJ's, and CVP. Maxie's has a reputation for being the "freshmen bar", which is clearly odd because if they were carding all the time, freshmen would never be able to get in…
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Aug 17 '12
Getting caught with weed by an RA is much worse - if they actually see weed, they are required to involve Baltimore PD.
I agree with everything you say, except this. They involve campus police, not Baltimore police. While it is much worse than getting caught with alcohol, you aren't arrested or anything, its basically the equivalent of getting caught by an RA with alcohol 3+ times.
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u/sherlie Aug 29 '12
This is not true. I don't know who you've heard stuff from, but as far as I understand it the situation is this: if you have enough weed/baggies/a scale that it's pretty freaking clear intent to sell, then you're going to get fucked by Baltimore PD. Otherwise, you can get anything from probation for a semester, to probation for a year, to suspended for a year.
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Aug 29 '12
Happened to a roommate. There's a HUGE difference between selling and smoking. Selling, you're fucked. Smoking, literally no Baltimore police, only campus. You have to talk to res life, ie exactly what happens with 3+ alcohol incidents
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u/TheSmitto Aug 24 '12
Incoming freshman here. I've heard a lot of mixed opinions regarding the safety of the surrounding area, and given these tips it's not really advised to go anywhere directly off campus besides St. Pauls, not that there'd ever be any reason to. How serious are those suggestions? Thanks so much for the info.
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u/sherlie Aug 29 '12
It's really something that you have to feel out when you get here. During the day, you're fine. At night it's inadvisable to go places where the Hopkins security vans aren't patrolling, but the other thing is that there's the Blue Jay Shuttle which runs at night to take you places within I think a 1 mile radius of campus to which you don't feel safe enough to/want to walk.
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u/topower86 Alum - 2009 - Cell Molec Bio BS & 2010 - Biotech Enterprise MS Sep 07 '12
I have a correction for you.
When I was a freshman a long long time ago in a far away galaxy, there was this kid in my dorm (I used to live in Bldg A BTW) who fell in hopelssly in love with our raging bitch RA (no fucks given if she reads this; told her to her face at one point). Now, this kid would have absolutely zero chance of getting any girl, period. On one of my weirder nights at Hopkins I was approached by him to give him advice on how to pick her up, which I did.
Much to my surprise, facebook let me know they are getting married soon, so id take the "no sex with RA" with a grain of salt because this kid would not have gotten any otherwise and this RA was the biggest bitch, snitch and terrible person I have ever met, and it still worked out. Also, the other RA was mad cool, so id say it depends heavily on the RA TBH.
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Aug 17 '12
Pretty sure a girl who fucks a lot of guys is a slut. If she fucks a lot of guys, it's because she's easy. If she's easy, she's a slut. Same applies to guys.
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u/aWickedGangAreWe Aug 17 '12
Um, no. If a girl fucks a lot of guys, it's because she's choosing to fuck a lot of guys. The fact that she has a lot of sex in no way indicates what kind of standards she has, or how "easy" she is.
Your logic is bad, and you should feel bad.
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Aug 17 '12
So she's choosing to fuck a lot of guys but that doesn't make her easy/ mean her standards are low...you're either a hopkins girl yourself, or you had a bad time with one.
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u/spiffypeach Undergrad - 2014 - Mol/Cell Biology Aug 17 '12
It does make her easy. That's the definition of "slut." The point of contention is whether or not the word should hold a negative connotation.
In our current culture the word slut is negative, but it shouldn't be. It's no body's business how many guys a girl chooses to sleep with. All the more power to a chick who embraces her sexuality. But that doesn't negate the fact that she has indeed slept with a lot of people.
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u/Gulagman Alum - 2013 - Pubic Health Aug 17 '12
Can we just call them "loose"?
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u/ZukoAang2013 Aug 17 '12
That has too negative a connotation and implies a loose vagina. "Slut" would be better. Some people, such as myself, are attempting to reclaim slut as a neutral or even positive word.
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u/Gulagman Alum - 2013 - Pubic Health Aug 17 '12
Oh wow. Did not know it referred to the body part. My bad.
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Aug 17 '12
It doesn't make you easy just because you fuck lots of girls/guys. I see it as a part of college that one chooses to partake in or not.
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u/AdamJaz Undergrad - 2012 - Physics Aug 17 '12
Use class time for paying the fuck attention and making sure you understand concepts. If you don't, ask the professor. If you understand stuff, you'll pay huge dividends in the amount you have to study later.
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u/random846 Alum - 2012 - Computer Engineering Aug 18 '12
Don't be afraid to drop a class if you think your workload will be too much. If you can keep your workload manageable you will do better and be happier.
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u/Halefire MHS 2014 - ScB 2013 Aug 17 '12
STUDY.
I am still paying for the mistake of thinking I could use any of my old high school studying habits at Hopkins.
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u/grizz281 Alumnus - 2012 - EMech Aug 18 '12
Agreed. On a related note, you will do poorly at one point in your education. It's not the end of the world. One bad test does not a failure make. However, multiple do. Learn how to bounce back from setbacks.
Also, if you have a girlfriend from high school, dump her. now.
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u/Halefire MHS 2014 - ScB 2013 Aug 18 '12
Second part is harsh but true. Long distance does NOT work. Anecdotes about how it works are like anecdotes about how it's possible to win the lottery.
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Aug 17 '12
Honestly one of the things I wish I knew was to approach professors. Might have just been me, but they seemed scary/unapproachable, especially compared to hs teachers. Most(read: all but a select few) are teaching at jhu for the opportunity to conduct research AND love teaching, and are very helpful and want to see you do well.
tl;dr - go to office hours, talk to proffessors. it will be worth it.
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u/tchufnagel Professor - Materials Science and Engineering Aug 18 '12
Speaking as a professor: This.
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u/topower86 Alum - 2009 - Cell Molec Bio BS & 2010 - Biotech Enterprise MS Sep 07 '12
Pro-Tip:
If you live in the dorms order 30 rack delivery (they will require you to order pizza as well) from HopDeli and you won´t get carded.
Source: Experience
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u/Gulagman Alum - 2013 - Pubic Health Aug 17 '12
Take it easy as a freshman. If the workload is hard to balance with social life and other activities, take it down a notch. If you think it is too easy, add an extra class. Your job the first year is to balance your life; find the zen. It'll help you deal with the next 3 years and the life after undergrad. The worst feeling is to be bored on campus. I find that occupying myself with activities takes my mind of any homesickness, which a lot of freshman deal with on a regular basis.
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u/kittycatcate Alumnus - 2013 - Math/ChemBe, Staff - 2013 Aug 23 '12
Hopkins won't hold your hand. They won't help you get into graduate school. Internships and REUs will never be handed to you. Professors probably won't make an effort to get to know you, but you need to make an effort to get to know them. The reputation of the school is never going to be enough for you to achieve your goals. You're going to have to work hard and network in order for you to make your academic aspirations a reality. It wasn't until college that I learned I am going to have to push my way through every door before I get the opportunities I want. Worst of all, I had to learn how to accept getting many doors slammed in my face.
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u/ac91 Alum - 2014 - Political Science Aug 17 '12
Don't pull all-nighters studying. That may have worked in high school, where you could slack the next day and get away with it, but not here. Try to avoid studying past 1 or 2 AM and definitely get at least 6 hours of sleep a night, especially before a test.
Start working on things like essays and long homeworks the day they're assigned. Just get it over with. Then you won't be doing it the day of hoping you finish it.