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Feature

Johns Hopkins University: An Insight…

Mahdin Mahboob

In 1888, just 12 years after Johns Hopkins University was founded, Mark Twain, the famous American novelist jokingly commented about JHU in a letter to a friend in the following way: “…I believed they were perfectly competent to run a college as far as the higher branches of education are concerned…. (but) the public is sensitive to little things, and they wouldn't have full confidence in a college that didn't know how to spell the name 'John'.

Johns Hopkins University (or JHU in short), located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States is one of the best universities of the country and is particularly regarded for its schools of medicine and international studies. Since its inception in 1876, JHU has also extended full-time campuses in Washington DC, Italy and China as well. A pioneer in many fields, JHU is notable as the first university in the United States to put an emphasis on research and the first American university to teach through seminars, instead of solely through lectures. The university was the first in America to offer an undergraduate major (as opposed to a purely liberal arts curriculum) and the first American university to grant doctoral degrees. The Johns Hopkins Hospital was ranked as the top hospital in the United States for the sixteenth year in a row by the U.S. News annual ranking of American hospitals.

Among the many strong departments and programs at Johns Hopkins are Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Art History, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Biophysics, Computer Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Economics, English, German, French, Film and Media Studies, Geography and Environmental Engineering, History, Humanities , International Relations, Near Eastern studies, Public Policy, Political Science, Advanced International Studies and Sociology.

The School of medicine along with the programs of public health and nursing is one of the more popular branches of JHU.

A good institution is marked by its alumni. Sixteen Noble Laureates, Governors, Ambassadors (both of US and other countries), CEOs and Presidents of different esteemed commercial organizations are what the JHU alumni consists of. But one name that surely stands apart is the twenty-eighth President of the United States, the Noble Peace Prize winning Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924).

Only 27% of the 13,869 applications for the Fall, 2006 Freshman class was accepted (with an average SAT score of 1440). So be prepared to face stiff competition if you are planning for JHU. Students from all the 50 states of the US and more than 50 countries are part of the student body to make it most definitely of a very diverse culture.

For those of you who are wondering whether I've forgotten to mention the reason of the nomenclature, here it goes:
Johns Hopkins University is named after Johns Hopkins, who left 7 million USD in 1873 (equivalent to 89 million USD in today's times) for the foundation of the University and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Mr. Hopkins derived this rather strange first name of his from his great-grandmother Margaret Johns.

This is how Niaz Khan, a fourth year Bangladeshi student doing double major in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering justified his decision of selecting JHU :
“One of the main reasons I chose Hopkins was the financial aid that I was offered. Hopkins is one of the few top schools in the US that offers Scholarships exclusively for International Students - that and the willingness to let undergraduates do research. Grants are available for students to do research in various fields from Biomedical Engineering to Ancient Egyptian History, from Astronomy to Political Science thereby vast opportunities remain untapped. Hopkins offers students the chance to explore their fields under the guidance of experienced professors who are more than ready to help us along the

way. The essence of Hopkins is expressed in its motto "Veritas vos Liberabit" meaning "The truth shall set you free" as it sends it students out to discover new knowledge by daring them to question the very fundamentals everyone else is taught to accept. ”

(The writer is a student of ECE major in BRAC University)