Hi,
I'm interested to know why I see so few posts about Hopkins on the grad cafe? I want to apply there next year but it seems odd they have such a small presence here. Many signatures and posts for biomedical PhDs include the other big names (Stanford, Harvard, Yale, WUSTL, UW, Michigan Ann Arbor, UPenn, Rockefeller, MIT, UCSF etc.) but Hopkins seems sparsely represented. This is feeding my paranoia from the "rankings" available online: The "rankings" are also confusing, especially when trying to compare between NRC and US News which is to be expected. However, the differences are sometime staggering. Am I missing something relevant for my application decisions?
Where do you think true "rank" lies? US News says top 10 (even top 5) across the board but NRC says "mid-tier" mostly (seems wrong to me though). I've already spoken with many people and done research on these ranking schemes so I understand variability and subjectivity are inherent to the process. What worries me is that the NRC weighs the program more than US News, which focuses only on outputs/stats/publications etc. Could it be that Hopkins is Top 5 overall quality of research but mid-tier in terms of programs/student life etc? Thanks for your advice!
US News 2016
Immunology/Infectious Disease = #1
Cell Biology = #3
Molecular Biology = #3
NRC
Immunology = 25-68 of 78
Microbiology/Immunology = 22-62 of 78
Cell Biology = 10-57 of 122 *Their Cellular and Molecular Medicine program is 2-17 or 122 however*
Molecular Biology = 36-108 of 157 or 7-33 of 65 depending upon program
