Big Dog wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 5:40 pm
MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 12:20 pm
Big Dog wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 11:24 am
HooDat wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 11:00 am
the desire to be a "non-Ivy Ivy" is a fools game. I think that instinct has and does threaten a lot of very good colleges.
What exactly does this mean? Hopkins is already ranked higher than several Ivies. Hopkins has academic programs ranked with Harvard.
In reality, Hopkins' biggest problem for is it location: it's the least attractive urban city of all the top 20 Unis. Least attractive to students and to trailing spouses (for faculty recruitment). For example, Columbia and NYU gets thousands of apps just bcos of the bright lights of Manhattan. Even GW, with a large contingent of PT/adjunct faculty, gets mega apps from the Poli Sci wannabes bcos of its connection to DC. Boston, Philly, Chicago, LA, & SF are all much more attractive as placse to live. From a social standpoint, you have to want to be in Bawlamer, or at least put up with it for period of time.
(Sure, New Haven is not an exactly an oasis, but its tiny so much easier for Y to get changes thru the City.)
Boy, you sure must be a Baltimore hater Big Dog.
Have you actually visited Hopkins and its environs in the spring, Roland Park, Guilford, Charles Village, Hamden?
I quite agree that, for city schools, Cambridge is a great environment, so is Stanford's campus (though not actually SF), Georgetown's, etc. But Penn's? Yale's? Brown's? For my $, I sure wouldn't prefer Columbia's.
But then I like Dartmouth's and Princeton's and UVA's smaller town feels. Each to his own.
Of course, we need to focus on men's lacrosse...
BTW, is Loyola challenged by its location in Baltimore?
Don't hate on Bawlamer at all, mdlax. Yes, been there in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. (alum with a great experience, but my kids refused to apply, and went Ivy instead). But you make my point as you ask about "spring". 8-10 weeks a year and its beautiful. Sorry, that doesn't cut it.
I've been active doing college counseling on the west coast, and no one, I mean no one, says, 'I'd like to go to college in Maryland...what colleges should I look at in Baltimore?' In contrast, plenty of top kids want to be in Manhattan, DC, Chicago, LA, SF, even Philly & Morningside Heights.....Perception is ~90% of reality.
btw: Loyola is a fine college at lax program, but not even close to the same academic league as Hopkins, which attracts the same kids as other tippy top Unis. (Loyola has a 75% admit rate, for example).
But this is a digression from lax to Ivy competitiveness.
Hey, I turned down my dad's alma mater in Charlottesville to go north to Hanover, my son chose to go north to Cambridge, so I wasn't debating that we all make choices based on our various opportunities and interests. Some kids like to chart their own course.
By contrast, my buddy who is a son of a Hopkins professor, is a Hopkins alum both undergrad and med school, one of the top eye doctors/researchers in the world, Cleveland Clinic, had all 3 of his enormously bright kids choose Hopkins, two of whom played D3 sports as well as all crushed it academically, grad schools, etc.
Each to their own.
I guest lecture at the Carey School and Whiting School of Engineering and recently joined the advisory board of the Center for Leadership Education which reports to the Whiting dean but serves the full school. I'm the sole non-alum on the board. CLE, if you're not familiar with it, is making a very real impact on the #"s of STEM students who successfully go into industry rather than academia, Hopkins' traditional forte. We just finished a Hopkins wide (undergrad and grad) student business plan competition with 72 teams competing. Really impressive. One of the winning teams was led by a football player, already have a patent issued. Another by a sophomore who already has 8 apps in the Apple store. ETC.
So, that's brought me on campus for more than the lax games. Not the campus I remembered. Beautiful now. Kids are bright, and at least in the programs I'm exposed to, they're articulate, creative, and working hard on people skills, including the international students.
I do understand the point that Baltimore isn't a top destination for many kids, but it's also important to remember that Hopkins has one of the most recognized and respected brands in the world. International students don't have any issue with Baltimore.
Nor was I suggesting that Loyola's academics are on par with the Ivies or Hopkins (though good and getting better and better).
The question here is about building a successful lax program, not which schools compete best for bright students from California etc. You'd made a point that Hopkins' location was an issue in building the lax program, attracting the desired student-athletes.
For the lacrosse minded kid, Hopkins and Baltimore remain very attractive. Selecting the right ones is the harder task. IMO, going all-in on ER hurt the Hopkins program much more than it helped.
