schools: Jhu and Rice
intended major: molecular biology (pre-med!)
similarities: they are both very medicine
jhu pros:
very good for pre-med
very research heavy
very large ed boost + no legacy counted
researched at jhu for a summer internship so possibly getting a LOR from a prof at the grad school which may boost my chances a little?
cons:
academically rigorous fs
so many pre-med applicants
baltimore as a city 💀 used to live there i know the struggles
has a reputation for being "depressing"
noticed on jhu cds that 98-99% of incoming class was in the top 10% and due to extenuating circumstances in my jr year i had some academic decline putting me just outside the top decile after priorly being safely in it, which scares me significantly because im not sure if its an instant out to ao's, although my gpa and stuff is still relatively high ( 3.9 uw?).
note rank stats only come from people who submitted rank which is probably less than half of enrolled students tho. this alone has been discouraging me from jhu ed1 bcuz im not sure how indicative it is of my chances of being accepted
rice pros:
very good for pre-med
Texas med center is amazing for opportunities
in-state for rice
less cutthroat than Hopkins i believe.?
i heard that they end up commonly accepting more in-state applicants although there is no on paper in-state preference, although that may just be cuz texas is so competitive
nice campus
rice cons:
a little less research heavy compared to jhu i heard?
Houston also a meh city, probably > than Baltimore tho
my class rank also probably screws me over at rice, although not as much as jhu supposedly
literally everyone in texas probably applying to rice
rice ed rate significantly lower than jhu + i do think they count legacy not sure tho
cost isnt a factor either
tbh I love both schools equally, and I really want to get in ED and not have to worry past early decision, so its slowly becoming a matter of which school do I think i got the best chance at