Goucher College & Johns Hopkins University

Stage 1 of the Tour de Mid-Atlantic is over and great weather and wonderful visits prevailed! A beautiful summer morning of about 60 degrees greeted us as we pedaled from Oldfields School to Goucher College -- I thought everyone was taking July 6th off since July 4th was on the weekend but you couldn't tell that by some of the early traffic! The eight of us from the following: Rowland Hall in Salt Lake City, Stoneleigh-Burham in western MA, Tenafly HS in NJ, Christ School in Arden, NC, St. Luke's School in Westport, CT, and Scarsdale HS in NY, and Oldfields in MD, all set out in various bike set-ups. Several of us had the traditional panniers, one pair was on a tandem (that had traveled much of Europe!), and a couple had "trailers" towing their belongs behind. We talked and laughed most of the ride today through local neighborhoods.

Goucher was excited about its new (long-awaited) students center and library about to open this fall with a big "green" focus in its construction. Not only are their science programs strong -- great pre-med tradition and psychology is considered a "science", thus requiring significant research, but their dance (best facilities for any college this size I have ever seen -- conservatory quality!) is great along with education and creative writing. Though not a college associate with any religion, the student body has a strong spiritual component ranging from Christian to Jewish to Muslim, and alternative; the non-denominational chapel is widely used. Also, Goucher is Test-optional and really places a strong emphasis on high school preparation and writing ability (as shown on the essays -- they require 500 words as opposed to the 250 regularly requested on the Commmon App).

Our ride to JHU was led by their Vice-President for Enrollment and he took us through some of the prettiest old neighborhoods of Baltimore City -- not the usual route for visiting Hopkins -- and this certainly dispelled any notion of the neighborhoods around the University being questionable. Nevertheless, it is true that Hopkins is in the city, so usual cautions are advised that one would employ in any city. As expected, Hopkins presented itself as a powerful "research" institution. Though class sizes might average 11-12, intro classes in the major courses (biology, chemistry, organic chem, psych, etc) are 250+. Students are driven by internal desire to succeed and that lends itself to the notion that it is a very competitive school; yet there is a good amount of collaborative and collegial learning and studying that occurs. More and more housing is being made available to students -- very important this year because they accepted a few more students expecting a lower yield, only to have more of them deposit -- counterintuitive in this economic climate! They emphasized that Hopkins is not just a "science" school but is quite strong in many areas of the liberal arts -- creative writing, economics, international relations, and art history. The student body is diverse and it is sometimes hard to find a unifying theme or aspect, except for lacrosse -- this is the mecca for the sport -- but there is no doubt that these students come with strong academic and extracurricular backgrounds. The admission office pointed out that they consider all factors of a student's academic and non-academic profile when making decisions.

Time to go rest up for tomorrow's ride to Annapolis and St. John's College, one of the nation's oldest and most unique colleges. Hopefully I'll have good computer access tomorrow and can post some thoughts to digest about the "Jonnies"!