Johns Hopkins University

The university was founded in 1876 with funds from entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins.
"What are we aiming at?" — the first president of the university, Daniel Gilman asked during his inauguration in 1876. According to him, the main goal of the new university is "The encouragement of research . . . and the advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance the sciences they pursue, and the society where they dwell"^[1].
Johns Hopkins University immediately defined its core mission as research. From the very first years, they have relied on postgraduate education and the support of research staff. One of the first Nobel Prize winners was the 28th US president, who received a doctorate in history and political science at Johns Hopkins University.
Johns Hopkins University publishing House is the oldest U.S. university publisher. It opened in 1878. Famous scientific associations were created inside the university, conferences were held, which later became regular.
In 1909, the гniversity launched a continuing education program, and in 1916 the first School of Public Health in the US was established.
During World War II, from 1942, the гniversity’s Applied Physics Laboratory served as the main state defense contractor.
At the beginning of 21 century, new laboratories and institutes appeared at the university, The School of Education and Carey Business School were created.

Being one of the world centers for biomedical research, Johns Hopkins University could not stay away from the pandemic. In mid-March 2020, Johns Hopkins University launched a large-scale program in search of possible actions and means against the coronavirus and redirected 6 million USD in funding for this cause. The program identified nine main areas of research: Community Research, Diagnostics, Health Care Worker Protection, Host Pathogenesis, Medical Supply Innovation, Modeling and Policy, Therapeutics, Viral Genetics and Viral Immunopathogenesis. In each area, there are leading scientists who organize multidisciplinary teams of experts in the field of medicine, engineering and healthcare. At the time of writing, the program involves 260 scientists and 25 projects. Links to some research and other resources that are publicly available can be found here.

In addition, Johns Hopkins University is working in a number of areas:

• The university’s resources allowed it to become one of the main sources of information on the spread of COVID-19. The site offers an interactive map of COVID-19 with the most detailed and up-to-date statistics for the world and the USA; analytical materials on the topic are published. The initiative is aimed at giving the authorities and the public an understanding of what is happening in the world and what actions could be taken;
• The Johns Hopkins Health Safety Center monitors the development and availability of serology tests for coronavirus, allowing to determine the virus in those who have already had the disease and now is a carrier with more accuracy, even in the absence of symptoms^[2]. However, most of these tests are only certified for research. In turn, the university is developing a national strategy for serology testing in the United States;
• The Bloomberg School of Public Health developed a free six-hour course on Coursera platform dedicated to the contacts tracing tools. In healthcare, this is understood as the process of identifying people who came into contact with the carrier of the infection, establishing their status and further monitoring their contacts. The course is an initial training for all who wish to undergo further training and work in this area;
• For those who just want to understand what coronavirus is, university experts have developed a public course called Understanding the COVID-19 Pandemic. With it, you can learn more about the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, analyze pandemic development trends around the world, discuss the problems that society as a whole has encountered, and possible solutions.

• Research opportunities. About 80% of students at Johns Hopkins University conduct independent research, often in collaboration with prominent scientists. The main area of studies is biomedicine. Thus, the Johns Hopkins Research Clinic is considered one of the best in the world. Such specializations such as neurosurgery and cardiac surgery originated here. In terms of spendings on medical and engineering research, Johns Hopkins University ranks first in the United States^[3].
• Campus infrastructure. Johns Hopkins University campuses are located in picturesque places, close to parks and green areas, some educational buildings are architectural monuments. Often they become a set for filming movies. For example, The Social Network was filmed at the Homewood Campus. The George Peabody Library, which opened its doors in 1878, is considered one of the most beautiful and elegant libraries in the world. It contains many rare books of the XVIII-early XX centuries.
• Flexible curriculum. Academic freedom at Johns Hopkins University is not an empty statement. There are literally no disciplines prescribed by a particular program. Students are encouraged to independently build an individual curriculum from a wide range of courses by finding ones that suit their goals the most. More than 60% of students have double specializations (two majors or a major and minor)^[4].
• International internships. Although many prestigious universities have international partnerships with educational institutions around the world, the majority of them do not encourage long-term internships during the school year, focusing on their own educational programs. In turn, almost every student at Johns Hopkins University has studied abroad. Young researchers get the opportunity to expand the capabilities of their research, starting from the bachelor’s level.

• Huge workloads. Johns Hopkins University is the first research university in the country, which imposes some responsibility on its students. It is not enough to simply study with minimal effort — future graduates need to demonstrate a strong desire for knowledge and scientific activity. Many students note that getting close to a high GPA is rather difficult here. The average performance of groups is about 3.0-3.4 out of 4.0.
• Underestimation of humanitarian areas. The predominant number of programs and scientific research at the university relate to medicine, natural and technical sciences. This leads to the situation where students have a bias against schools focusing on humanities programs, considering them second class. In reality, this is not confirmed by facts. For example, Inside the Ivory Tower rating of programs in the field of international affairs, placed the master's School of Advanced International Studies 3rd in the world.
• Baltimore. The location of the university, according to students, has several disadvantages. Firstly, the Johns Hopkins buildings are split between 4 campuses, which diminishes a sense of a single academic community. Secondly, besides historical monuments, there are not many interesting places in the city, not to mention various places of recreation and entertainment. At the same time, it is rather difficult for students to go somewhere in the neighborhood: buses rarely run. The only saving grace is the train to Washington, the price of which is 16 USD^[5] for a round-trip.