Why So Few Johns Hopkins Signatures?

[Ilikecells1784]

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
 

[adiJ]

For me, I visited the area a few years back and thought it was a dealbreaker. An important aspect of doing a PhD is that you must remember you are staying there for 5+ years. 
If you are interested in the science being done there you should definitely apply. You can think about this after you had a formal visit for your interviews, but JHU is definitely a top school, no one's going to deny that.

[stygldbby]

Johns Hopkins is a fantastic school with fantastic research and has the reputation as such in many fields, including biomedical research. Baltimore, on the other hand, might not be for everyone... At your stage, I would recommend following the research and applying if it leads you in that direction. I would also recommend visiting before applying, if at all possible, because like @adiJ above, I personally would not want to live in that area and did not apply mostly for said reason. BUT on the other hand, I knew several people that loved their undergrad experiences at JHU and a good friend that started his PhD there last year and is similarly happy so. Plus, you'll ultimately get to see for yourself if you end up interviewing anyways:)

[Bioenchilada]

Why are you so concerned about ranking though?  It's important to an extent, but you seem to be obsessing over it. I don't really think US News is very reliable, especially considering how to haven't updated their "Biology" rankings in two years. JHU is #3 in terms of medical research, just like Penn. NRC and PhDs.org are definitely more informative, though they don't cover everything. For example, you can't use any ranking system to 100% accurately gauge a school's ranking in certain specialties, like cancer biology.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Bioenchilada

[CreamyDog69]

On 3/20/2016 at 7:21 PM, Bioenchilada said:

 It's important to an extent, but you seem to be obsessing over it. I don't really think US News is very reliable, especially considering how to haven't updated their "Biology" rankings in two years.

This, OP. Go where the science takes you and where you can stand living.

[biochemgirl67]

11 minutes ago, PlanB said:

College and graduate school rankings are so inaccurate that it almost is embarrassing for the news organizations that publish them. If I had to accurately rank the best biomedical and biological programs, I would go by which institutions are receiving the most  NIH funding/NSF Funding.

NIH Funding by Institution: 

https://report.nih.gov/award/index.cfm

NSF Funding by Institution:

http://dellweb.bfa.nsf.gov/Top50Inst2/default.asp

The leading schools for NIH funding are  Harvard/Mass General/BWH, U of Washington/Fred Hutchinson,  JHU, University of Michigan, and UCSF. Obviously, there would be some variation among the NIH branches.

For NSF total biology funding Biology funding the leading schools are Michigan State, U of Florida, UCLA, University of Arizona, University of Georgia, and University of Washington. 

For NSF Molecular and Cellular Biology the leading schools are Berkeley, UCLA, Wisconsin Madison, Michigan State, and  University of Washington

IMO, the only advantage to going to brand name schools is that as you cross disciplines the value of your education says the same(e.g Stanford any field is pretty reputable). 

I got accepted to the Biostats grad programs at JHU/Harvard and I am still deciding between the two programs.

So so true.  It's not worth the struggle of trying to decide your optimum rank in terms of the institution you apply to.  What I would recommend, in addition to looking at funding, is look at the work that is done there.

However, there are issues with trying to decide based on funding and the amount of work coming froma department or PI.  While you want them to be well funded and dynamic, you don't want to join a department where the Pi's were all famous and you get lost in the shuffle. (Looking back, this was my experience at Harvard.  Obviously not everyone is like that there but all my friends had the same issues... Their PI's were difficult to reach on a personal basis.). You want a supportive environment that fits your goals and still is well funded and well placed in the field.  That's why rankings of all kinds are of secondary use in this process.

So go ask your current mentor(s) which schools that they have liked when giving seminars that do a lot of the work you are interested in.  Decide where you want to live (does Baltimore bother you?  I've been and knew it did so i didn't apply) and then apply holistically.