Senior Blog: Class of 2009

"As we go on, we remember all the times we had together..."

Posted by Tanmay G.

Today marks two weeks since the Class of 2009 walked across the stage at Commencement and received our diplomas, and it also marks one week until I head off for a summer research rotation in my soon-to-be home of Durham, NC. The finality of graduation still hasn't set in completely. Many of my last conversations and goodbyes ended with "see you around", followed by a quick realization that we would all be leaving Hopkins for good in a few short days. It still seems like I'm just heading home for a break, soon to head back to my home of the past four years.

My experience at Hopkins ended just as it began, with a week full of events and activities to meet (and say goodbye to) my class. Four years ago, every conversation was punctuated with questions like "Where are you from?", "Where do you live?", and "What's your major". Now, every conversation included talk of "What are you doing next year?" and "Where are you going to be living?". Four years ago, we were introduced to the MSE Library and given seminars on how to study. Now, we had a senior class party in that very same place where many students spent countless sleepless nights, complete with a bar and a cake in honor of Johns Hopkins's (the person's) birthday. Four years ago, I met my fellow freshmen biomedical engineering majors for the first time. Now, after four years of hard work and seemingly endless study sessions, we all felt bonded together as we gathered again, this time with our families, for a celebratory luncheon. Four years ago, we all competed fiercly for our dorms during Dorm Wars. Now, we did just the same, having a blast during Senior Field Day.  As we all gathered on the Upper Quad in September of 2005, standing in the shape of a "09" to take our class picture, we wondered who our friends would be and how we would get through our time at Hopkins. Now, having finished up those four years, and having had a great time along the way, we gathered to celebrate and to remember, to mingle and to reminisce.

Hopkins has changed quite a bit over the years. When we came in as a freshmen, there were two dining halls with un-edible food, only three quads, and very little housing for upperclassmen. My class has seen the renovation of campus dining, the construction of a entirely new quad and the opening of a (really nice) new student housing complex. For three years, Dr. Bill Brody served as our president, and though a new president, Mr. Ron Daniels presided over our graduation, Dr. Brody was back, this time to receive an honorary doctorate along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, our graduation speaker.

When we all entered college, we wondered whether we would like these new people and what we would do without our high school friends. Today, those new people are the friends we are having trouble leaving behind as we move on to graduate school, or into the read world. To all the incoming freshmen and anyone else considering coming to Hopkins, I can already answer the questions that are likely lingering in the back of your heads. Yes, you'll have a good time in Baltimore. No, the workload isn't going to kill you. Yes, you are going to make good friends here, and No, the people here aren't crazy or wierd (or all pre-med!)    

Hopkins has been great to me for the past four years, and though I had the hardest time deciding where to attend college four years ago, I haven't once regretted the decision I made. I'm certainly going to be back next year to visit my underclassmen friends, and the faculty and staff that have made my experience amazing. That said,  I am looking forward to what lies in my future. In a week, I'll head to Durham, and in August, I'll start medical school at Duke Univeristy. I've visited Durham three times in the past six months, and I'm excited about moving there and continuing down the path to my future. (Granted, I'm going to have to learn to love college basketball... and I'm still rooting for the Hop when it comes to lacrosse)

I've been volunteering with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions since my first weeks on campus, first as a Student Ambassador, then as a member of the Admissions Advisory Board and as an Admissions Representative. Meeting with prospective students and talking to y'all about the place I've called home for the last four years has been something I've enjoyed and something I'll miss. I hope that the people have read my blogs over the past four years or talked to me over via Facebook, our online chats or message boards have learned a little more about what Hopkins has to offer. Like I've said many times, Hopkins (or any school for that matter), isn't the right place for everybody, and in my opinion, my role as a student representative of Hopkins has not been to "recruit" you to Hopkins, but rather to give you all the information about Hopkins and let you figure out that this is the right place for you.

To the Hopkins Class of 2013, congratulations on your graduation from high school and welcome to Hopkins. While I won't be on campus in the fall, you'll be entering a great community where you'll learn a lot, but have a blast along the way. 

(P.S. The title of the post is from a song called Graduation by Vitamin C which came out around when I graduated from middle school... wow, I feel old now) 

Wrapping up four years at Hopkins

Posted by Tanmay G.

As the last week of classes starts tomorrow morning, the realization that I won't be coming back to Hopkins next semester is just finally starting to set in. This weekend was Spring Fair, an annual campus festival with food vendors, arts & crafts stalls and carnival rides. It was actually the first time in the past four years that we went all 3 days (Friday-Sunday) with only minimal rain (a quick downpour on Saturday evening before the Roots' concert, but nothing during the day)!

I've been a member of HERO, the campus EMS unit, for the past 3.5 years, and when I was on the Board of Directors last fall, we decided we wanted to organize a free community CPR training session to give back to our campus community. We set out planning the event, hoping to train about 90 Hopkins students, faculty and staff in CPR and AED use.We realized how important it was for people on campus to know what to do in case of an emergency - even though we have a crew of three EMT's on call 24/7, it's vital that bystanders know how to call for help and provide initial care before we make it to a patient. We applied for a grant from the Alumni Association, which gives out over $75,000 in grant money to student groups each year, and also worked closely with the University's Occupational Health office and the Baltimore City Fire Department to setup and organize the class.  Over the past few weeks, a number of the instructors that teach our First Responder courseeach semester got certified as American Heart Association CPR instructors, and along with other HERO members, put together all the details to run the course.

This weekend, we taught three CPR/AED training sessions. On Thursday morning, three of us checked out a van from the Office of Student Life (vans are available to all students groups for a minimal per-mile fee) and drove down to the Medical Campus to pick up CPR training manikans and other training supplies from the Occupational Health office, and then headed to the Baltimore City Public Safety Training Center to pick up additional supplies from the City Fire Department. On Friday morning, as Spring Fair vendors were setting up their stalls on the freshmen quad, we setup our classroom in a large multipurpose room in one of the freshmen dorms. We taught a class on Friday afternoon, one on Saturday morning and another Saturday afternoon. We trained about 90 students in CPR and the use of Automated Extrenal Defibrillators - skills that could help save a life if someone on campus were to go into cardiac arrest.

All our instructors and TA's had a great time teaching our fellow students as well as a few faculty and staff members. The students seemed to enjoy the class as well, and if an unfortunate situtation were to ever come up where one of them had to use the skills we taught them, I hope they'll be ready to act.   

Where to now?

Posted by Tanmay G.

Right now, many of you all are in the same situtation that I am in, trying to decided where to spend the next four (or in my case, at least 7) years of our lives. I was in the same situtation as well four years ago, trying to decided what college I thought would be my best choice. I had the hardest time deciding, and didn't actually make a decision until the day the reply cards were due, but I'm very happy with the choice I made. I wanted to share a couple thoughts on how I made my decision then and what I'm considering now:

1. Ignore the stereotypes
Each college you will look at has certain stereotypes associated with it, and, as Wafa mentioned in her latest post, most of these come from people who have visited the campus or met anyone from the school. So don't cross schools off of your list because you've heard that they're "too boring", "too nerdy", "too Southern", "too hippy" or the like. Make these judgments for yourself, not based solely on the words of others

2. Don't give up if you're rejected from your "first choice" school  - it may be a blessing in disguise
To be perfectly honest, Hopkins was not my first choice school when I applied - it didn't even make my ranked list of schools that I had applied to. I applied to Hopkins on a whim because of the strength of the BME program, but knew absolutely nothing about the University in general. I had a clear first choice school that I didn't get into, and this rejection prompted me to reconsider all my other choices. I initially ignored my Hopkins acceptance, but once I decided to come visit campus, stay overnight and learn more about the University, I was convinced this is where I wanted to be. Having visited friends at my first choice school, I'm kind of glad I was forced to reconsider all my choices. While I may have been happier four years ago if I got into my first choice school, I think I fit a lot better into the culture and environment at Hopkins and I'm glad I ended up coming here. (I'm not just saying this to convince you to come to Hopkins. Hopkins is not the right school for everyone - and the same is true of every college out there. I just encourage everyone to consider all their options carefully before settling on a final choice)               

3. Visit the schools you've been accepted to if there's even a 0.01% chance you might want to go there
Continuing on my previous point, if you're even remotely considering attending a school, try to visit the campus and see how you feel there. I think the gut feeling you get when you step on a campus is a major factor in consdering where to go. If it's at all financially possible, try to visit as many schools as you can. While it may seem expensive to visit, I think it's worth making the investment now to ensure you're happy for the next four years. You may find that the school you thought was amazing and perfect for you just doesn't feel right when you visit and a school that you weren't sure you would like seems like the perfect place when you spend a night on campus. When you visit, don't just stick to the activities planned by the Admissions office. While these are always informative and useful, it's also useful to just wander around campus if you can. Sit in on a class and see how the students and teachers interact (you can get a course lists from the Admissions Office). Talk to students after class to see what they like and don't like about their school. Don't be afraid to talk to the current students - I know most would be happy to talk to you about their favorite and least favoriate parts of their experiences.

In conclusion, I guess all my three points are saying kind of the same thing - consider all your choices very carefully, visit as many as you can to get a feeling for campus, and then make your own judgements on where you think you will fit best.

Four years of housing at the Hop

Posted by Tanmay G.

As my senior year draws to a close, instead of doing a "standard" CRIBS blog post like everyone else, I wanted to look back on where I've lived for the past four years:

Freshman year: Building A
 As an incoming freshman, I got my first choice of housing - a double in Building A. I thought Building A was the perfect place to live because it combined the social environment of the traditional freshman dorms with the comfort of air conditioning and private bathrooms. I lived with a great floor of people my freshman year and I'm still friends with a lot of them. On my floor, we all used to keep our doors propped open and anyone could pop in at any time to say hi.  I lived in a suite with my double and another single, and we had our own private bathroom. The building also had a kitchen on the first floor, but I only ever used that to warm up food in the microwave (though I know other people did cook or bake down there)

Sophomore Year: McCoy Hall
My sophomore year was the first year that Charles Commons was open, but a group of friends and I decided to participate in "group housing" where you can choose to live together with larger groups of friends (up to 32 people) in McCoy. We signed up with a group of 8, which turned into a group of 7 when my roommate transferred from Hopkins and housing didn't fill the other half of my room (so I had a double to myself :) ). Living in McCoy was nice in that I was living with a group of friends and we had other groups of friends in other parts of the building, but the setup of the housing meant we never really got to know our neighbors. Each suite in McCoy has 4 people (2 doubles) with a bathroom and small kitchen area. Each floor has two large common areas with TV's and couches.

 

Junior Year: Bradford Apartments
While living on campus is mandatory for the first two years, starting junior year, you have the option to move off campus. While a lot of people do take advantage of this, my roommates and I decided to live in one of the on-campus apartment buildings, primarily because one of my roommates was planning on going abroad in the Spring (It's really hard to get a one semester only lease in a private apartment unless you have a friend who wants to live there the other semester). In Bradford, our three bedroom apartment had two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a large living room.

Senior Year: Off-campus apartments
Senior year, I decided to move off-campus and live in a single (one bedroom apartment) across the street from campus. This building is actually closer to campus-proper than my on-campus building from last year! My apartment has a living room with one wall as a kitchen, and a separate bedroom. I have my desk, a TV, a couch and a small dining table in the living room so it serves many purposes. Living off-campus comes with a lot more responsibilities - you have to deal with landlords, pay your own bills and in general, take better care of your own place. It's a completely different feeling to have a "home" and not just a dorm room.

 
(these pictures are from when I moved into my apartment, so the walls are still bare. I took more pictures but my camera isn't cooperating right now)

What can the Office of Student Activities do for you?

Posted by Tanmay G.

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a blog entry  about my experience at the Johns Hopkins University Model UN Conference. When I wrote my previous entry, I was serving as a member of the Secretariat, essentially the junior leadership of the organization. This year, I had the honor of serving as the co-Secretary General of the 2009 conference. Working together with my friend Catherine, the two of us lead this year’s entire conference. Leading a student organization with over a hundred members was a completely different experience than years past, and we worked very closely with the fantastic staff at the Office of Student Activities.

The Office of Student Activities  is housed in the Mattin Center, which essentially serves as a hub for all student groups and arts programs. The building contains meeting and office space for student groups, as well as dance studios, music practice rooms, a few classrooms, and the Digital Media Center (which is an absolutely amazing resource if you want to do anything involving digital video, audio processing, photography etc). The four full time staff in the Office of Student Activities are there with the sole purpose of supporting the hundreds of student groups on campus. They go out of their way to make sure the activities you plan are a success. Planning the Model UN Conference involves quite a bit of administrative work – since we hold our event at the Baltimore Convention Center and all our staff stays for free in the Marriott Hotel, we have to deal with many contracts, legal documents, insurance requirements, and financial issues. As undergraduates, we don’t really have much background in contract law and accounting, and the staff in Student Activities is there to bridge the gap between us and the University’s administrative offices.

Not only does the Office of Student Activities help support student groups, but they also organize other events for students on campus. If you’re been reading these blogs (especially those from the beginning of the academic year), you may of heard of what’s commonly called the SAC fair, or the Student Activities fair. The Office of Student Activities puts together a massive event where nearly all student groups from around the campus gather to meet and recruit new members – this year we had so many groups that we nearly filled up the main gym in the Rec center.  Around finals period last semester, the Office also organized a study break type event. They had tons of pizza, free massages and an oxygen bar for students to drop by between classes. I had never tried an oxygen bar before and was kinda skeptical, but it was a pretty cool experience. (Basically, they bubble oxygen through different scents and you breathe it in…. give you a high O2 concentration and a cool scent)

This year’s Model UN Conference was a lot of fun, but it was a hectic and crazy time. I went from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening sleeping a total of 3 hours (mostly my fault though.. I really wanted to stay awake through our Midnight Crisis event!) Our planning for the conference started last April and we’re now wrapping up the final loose ends. Co-leading the conference was a great experience, but there’s no way we could have pulled it off without the help of the staff from the Office of Student Activities.

So you want to be a doctor? (Part 3)

Posted by Tanmay G.

This is part three of a series of posts about applying to medical school. While part one covered applying to college and part two covered the college experience, this part will cover applying to medical school. Since this phase of the process is very far down the line for current high school students, I will keep this post relatively brief

MD vs MSTP and Other Dual Degree Programs
When you begin to consider where you want to apply for medical school, you also need to consider what programs you want to apply for. Your options include the normal MD (Doctor of Medicine) program, the Medical Scientist Training Program (a combined MD/PhD program)  and a number of other combined programs including MD/MPH, MD/JD and MD/MBA. I’m applying to Medical Scientist Training Programs so I’ll explain those a bit. MST Programs are fully funded (by the government – tuition covered and with a stipend) MD/PhD programs designed to train physician-scientists.  In an MST Program, you would go through two years of medical school before leaving to pursue your PhD and then return to the last two years of medical school (the clinical years) after you have defended your PhD. The programs are intended for people who want to perform translational research but also be involved in patient care. If you have any questions about these programs, feel free to ask below.

The Application Process
Since this part of the process is 3 years away for those currently in high school, I'll keep it brief. 

1. Take the MCAT – the MCAT is required to apply to pretty much every medical school. It covers all the material from your basic set of pre-med courses. Since the test is taken on a computer, you can take it anytime – a lot of people take it during their junior year.
2. JHU Committee Application – a whole bunch of essays! Once your complete your application and request letters of recommendation from professors and mentors, you’ll meet with a member of the JHU Pre-Medical Committee, who will interview you and write a cover letter for your application packet. This part of the process occurs in March-May of your junior year.
3. AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) Primary application – this is a really long online application where you enter every course you’ve taken and describe every activity you’re involved in. You also submit your Personal Statement, which is basically your central essay that describes your reasons for wanting to go to Med School. This application is available online around June after you junior year.
4. Secondary Applications – Each college you choose will review your AMCAS application and send a secondary application to some or all of their applicants. There is a huge range in terms of what these applications needed – some only ask for additional biographical information while others require an additional 6 or more essays. These applications are typically send out between August-October of your senior year.
5. Interviews – The Admissions Committees at each school meet and discuss your application, and they invite a number of people to come interview at their school. When you interview, you typically meet with faculty and current students who talk to you about your interests and motivations for pursuing medicine. If you’re applying to MST Programs, your interviews focus almost entirely on your research experience and interests. Interviews typically occur between September and March of your senior year.

I hope this three-part series has provided a good overview of what it takes to apply to medical school. My take-home message is to enjoy the entire process. Pick a college where you’re going to have fun, take classes and get involved in activities that you enjoy and don’t let your eventual goals of applying to medical school hold you back along the way.

So you want to be a doctor? (Part 2)

Posted by Tanmay G.

This is part two of a series of posts on applying to medical school Part 1 focused on applying to and selecting a college and this part will focus on the college experience.

 

Picking classes

For those of you who do choose to come to Hopkins, over the summer, you’ll be faced with the task of picking your classes for the fall. As a pre-medical student,  you’re required to take a certain list of courses including a year each of Chemistry, Biology, Organic Chemistry and Physics (each with lab), as well as some math , English and humanities courses. Regardless of where you go to school, there will likely be an office that can help you figure out what courses at the school will fit the pre-med requirements. At Hopkins, the Pre-Professional Advising makes this easy, holding information sessions for freshmen and sophomores to make sure they are on track to be able to apply to medical school later on. Since the “pre-med requirements” are only a handful of classes, you can choose to major in any field and still fill the requirements. One issue to consider is using your AP/IB credit. While many colleges (including Hopkins) provide credit for high scores on science AP exams, some medical schools will not accept those.  While this is still way down the line for those of you trying to decide where to go to college, just keep in mind that you may need to retake some of the science courses you have AP credit for, or take a more advanced level course in that field. My biggest advice when it comes to picking classes is to have some fun. Don’t take a full courseload of major-related classes – take at least one class each semester that’s just fun or in a field you want to learn a little more about. Take classes you enjoy, even if they have nothing to do with medicine. I took French my freshman year (after having taken a couple years in middle school/high school) just because I thought it would be fun and interesting, and it’s actually come up in a couple of my med school interviews when they asked about my favorite non-science classes.

 

Activities

When you get to college, you’ll be overwhelmed with the number of extracurricular opportunities. Each September, Hopkins has Student Activities Commission (SAC) fair where all the hundreds of student groups set up tables to recruit interested students. When you’re looking at what activities you want to get involved in, forget that you’re applying to medical school! Don’t pick activities that you think will look good on a resume, pick activities that you’ll actually enjoy. If it’s something you enjoy, you’ll actually get involved, take a leadership position and make the organization even better than it already is, and that’s what will actually impress whichever school or employer is reading your resume.  Hopkins has a number of medically related activities- I’m a member and Crew Chief on our campus EMS unit (http://hopkins.typepad.com/guest/2007/03/heroes.html) – but if that doesn’t interest you, you don’t have to join to get into medical school. The bottom line is that you should enjoy college, not consider it simply a means to get into medical school

 

Research

Many students at Hopkins (something like 80%) get involved in research as undergrads. Research doesn’t necessarily mean lab work with beakers and flasks – it can take many different flavors. Some people opt for the typical “wet-lab” research, while others get involved in clinical research at the medical school, computational research in engineering, or even research in the humanities or social sciences. What’s the point of getting involved in research? Many physicians, especially those who work at academic institutions, run their own labs, and many medical schools require students to do a couple months of research. As an undergrad, you can get a flavor for what research really is and see if it’s something you may want to do in the future. You can also get an idea of what different disciplines actually entail. I’m a Cell and Tissue Engineering track student in the Biomedical Engineering department, but I really had no idea what that track meant until I get involved in some tissue engineering research through a summer program.

 

So now that you’ve decided you want to get involved in some type of research, how do you get involved? You can pursue research during the school year or full-time during the summer. There are a number of summer research programs that provide a stipend and housing and a great overall experience, so you can search for those in the field that you’re interested in. If you want to work with Hopkins faculty during the year or over the summer, all you have to do is send a few emails and ask around. First, take a look at faculty websites and find some faculty members whose research looks interesting. Don’t just go for the biggest name or most popular lab – look for something you actually think would be cool to work on. Once you have a couple names, email them explaining your interest in working in their lab. Most people start off in labs as volunteers (unless you find an advertisement for a paid position or get really luck) and then move on to getting academic credit or pay after they have some experience

 

 Summers

What you do in the summers is pretty important when you apply to medical school. Med schools what to see that you’ve made some sort of productive use of your time. This doesn’t mean, however, that you have to get involved in research or start shadowing a doctor right after you graduate high school. If that’s what you really want to do, go for it, but I think it’s okay to take this summer to relax before you hit college. People get involved in all sorts of activities during the summers – some do research here or abroad, some travel to foreign countries to work in rural clinics, others get a job to help pay for their education.  There’s no one thing that med schools are looking for, but based on my experience in interviews, it seems like they want to know that you’ve done something that you were excited about and gained something from.

 

 

That’s all for part two. Stay tuned for part three, which will cover the actual application process.

So you want to be a doctor? (Part 1)

Posted by Tanmay G.

(This is the first of two posts that discuss the pre-medical process at Hopkins.)

I’m currently in the process of interviewing at MD/PhD programs around the country and as promised, I wanted to provide a bit of a guide for those high school seniors who are considering going into medicine after finishing college. 

Why do you want to be a doctor?
This is a question you’ll get on most every medical school interview and it’s a good question to consider throughout the entire process, from picking your undergraduate institution, to picking a major, to filling out those applications. “I want to help people” is not really an answer that anyone is going to look upon favorable – there are a lot of other professions that help people. At some point before you decide to apply to medical school, you have to figure out what’s your driving motivation is and whether you really want to go down the 6+ year road of medical school, internship and residency.

Picking a college
Sometime in April, hopefully you’ll be faced with the challenge of having to pick where you want to spend the next four years of your life. Whether your aim is to go to medical school or law school or graduate school, you shouldn’t let your future goals control your current decision. College is a four year adventure that you’ll never have a chance to relive – don’t consider it as just the means to an end of getting into medical school. Pick a place where you think you’ll enjoy your four years.

All colleges have an immense number of opportunities for their students – clubs, internships and other programs – but if you’re not at a place you like, you probably won’t be able to fully take advantage of them. When you visit colleges, don’t ask about their med school acceptance rates, ask about what students do for fun. Don’t worry about the average MCAT scores, worry about where you want to live for four years. In the end, you should pick a college where you will be happy, someplace that allows you to be yourself, explore your interests and have a great time. Perhaps that place will be Hopkins, perhaps somewhere else.

Picking a major
Once you decide where you’ll be heading, you’ll be faced with the question of what you want to study. Some colleges will make you decide before you matriculate while others (like Hopkins) give you over a year before you have to declare a major. Either way, try to develop some vague idea of what you’re interested in to help you choose your initial courses. Keep in mind that almost every college student changes their major at one point or another, so by no means are you locking yourself in. 

A lot of people think that if you want to go to medical school, you have to be a Biology major – this couldn’t be further from the truth. You can major in absolutely anything and still apply to medical school, as long as you take a number of “pre-med” course requirements. Many pre-meds will choose a science major, but I know people who have studied Economics, Writing, History and Mechanical Engineering. I even know of one person who was a student at the Peabody Conservatory of Music before going to medical school. The point is that you should find whatever interests you and pursue it. It might be unusual to study English and go to medical school, but if that’s what really inspires you, go for it! (Just a note-  at Hopkins and most other top colleges, there isn’t any such thing as a “Pre-med” major. All you do if you’re interested in going to medical school is sign up for the mailing list from the Pre-Professional Advising Office and start attending their meetings your sophomore year)

That’s it for part one. Part two (to be posted within a week or so) will focus more on your time during college.

Three and a Half Years Later

Posted by Tanmay G.

It’s finally starting to dawn on me that graduation is rapidly approaching and in six months, Baltimore will (probably) no longer be my home. Over the last semester, I’ve worked with and taught a number of freshmen through my various extracurricular activities, and it still scares me when I realize they were all born in the 1990s.  I’ve spent the past few weeks traveling over the country for interviews for MD-PhD programs, and while I’m excited about what lies in my future, I’ve enjoyed my four years at Hopkins. 

To all the high school seniors out there anxiously waiting for admissions decisions, I’m in the same boat as you.  I probably won’t hear back from any of the programs I’ve applied to until at least mid-March.  In the meanwhile, I’m planning to enjoy my last semester here and I urge you all to do the same. Don’t worry about the admissions process, about constantly checking your application status, or about religiously reading College Confidential. Enjoy your senior year and the company of the people in your school. Sure, you’ll probably keep in touch with your closest friends, but the atmosphere will never be the same.  As you all graduate and move on, whether it be to Hopkins or some other great college, I offer a few words of advice.

First, don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. Some of you will have likely breezed through high school with minimal effort, but you’re going to have to put in some hard work in college. Don’t back down when you realize that your classes aren’t going to all be easy. Find what you’re interested in, whether it’s Biomedical Engineering or English, and tackle it! There will always be bumps along the road, but that’s what your community of fellow students is there for. Don’t be too proud to ask for help from a professor or a friend. Everyone here was among the smartest people in their high school, and a lot of people suffer a bit of a shock when they realize they can’t do everything by themselves.

Second, take some time to explore your options. Many of you will enter college with some idea of what you want to study. Some of you will have very specific goals of becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon, a international maritime lawyer or something else. But even when you think you know what you want to do, take the opportunity to explore other fields – maybe you’ll find something else you enjoy. I personally took an economics class my freshman year just because it seemed interesting and I ended up double majoring in economics. I know someone who was dead set on going to medical school until she took a course on constitutional law and suddenly decided she wanted to become a lawyer. Another one of my friends started off taking Spanish courses just for fun, and it ended up morphing into an international research and service project. You don’t want to limit your options just because you were so engrossed in one particular field.

Third, get involved. We have hundreds of clubs and if there’s not a club for what you want to do, you can make your own (yes, I know every college out there says that, but I’ve actually seen it done more than once here at Hopkins). Personally, I’ve served as an EMT and taught EMS courses with the Hopkins Emergency Response Unit, organized academic and social events for BME students through the Biomedical Engineering Society, interviewed prospective students through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and even organized a Model United Nations conference through JHUMUNC. One of the best things about Hopkins is the diversity of the academic offerings, and this is definitely represented in the range of student groups. What’s even cooler is that there are a lot of people who get involved in extracurriculars outside of their academic field. We have Computer Science majors on the debate team and History majors on the EMS unit, so if there’s anything at all that you think you might like to do, give it a shot.

With that, I wish you all the best of luck in the admissions process. Relax and enjoy your last weeks of high school, because, to quote Vitamin C.
“[W]hen we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day”

Relaxing in Houston

Posted by Tanmay G.

After my last post, I finished up all my finals and headed back home to Houston, Texas to spend the holidays with my parents, grandfather and my sister (who also goes to Hopkins). I've spent a lot of time at home relaxing, and hanging out with friends from high school and with my family.

Coming back to Houston is a big change from Baltimore. When I left Baltimore, it was in the mid 30s and when I got home, it was in the 70s. Last year, my family even went to the beach on Christmas Eve! This year wasn't that warm, but we did go check out some of the holiday lighting and decorations around town. In the middle of downtown, the city has setup a outdoor ice skating ring (yes, in Houston!). It's only open a couple hours a day, so we missed it when we went down there, but the rest of the area was still amazingly decorated.

One of the hardest things for me about coming to Hopkins was leaving a lot of good friends back at home. A good majority of my friends ended up going to the University of Texas, and when I had to pick what college I would attend, that was one of the strong factors drawing me to UT. I had gone to school with some of the same people since kindergarden and it felt odd not seeming them everyday when I came to Hopkins, but in the end I'm quite happy with the decision I made. Even though I went off to college in a city where I knew no one, I've still kept in contact with my closest high school friends (thanks, mostly, to Facebook and AIM). Every time I've come home, I've gotten to hang out with my friends and even went to visit them at their schools a couple times. I'm sure many of you high school seniors will face a dilemma of staying close to home or heading further away from college, and what I've realized is that regardless of how far you go, you'll still keep in touch with the people you want to keep in touch with.

Last night was New Year's and my neighbors hosted a New Year's Party. They bought a bunch of fireworks and put me and another one my neighbors in charge of setting them all of. Everyone had a blast and even the little kids had a great time playing with the sparklers and poppers.Now that 2009 has rolled around, it's finally hit me that I'll be graduate in less than 6 months. It seems hard to believe that I've been at Hopkins for 3.5 years, especially when I'm at home hanging out with my friends from high school. I've spent the last two Intersessions's in Baltimore (intersessions is an optional 3-week period of classes - they offer lots of cool academic and non-academic classes in areas you normally wouldn't have the chance to experience) but this year, I'm going to be traveling all over for MD/PhD program interviews.

So until later, Happy 2009! Congrats to everyone who's been accepted to Hopkins ED, and good luck to everyone who's applied RD!