Meet JHU_Tabitha - Oxford, England, Cognitive Science / Philosophy Majors

Hi everyone, I’m Tabitha, and I’m a junior from Oxford, England. I’m double majoring in cognitive science and philosophy, and minoring in bioethics. I am also the dreaded pre-med! I really like the way that Lauren laid out her post, so I think I’ll do the same thing.

So first for the classes I’ve taken. It’s a strange mix considering I came in as a psychology major, declared a neuroscience major, and have now finally decided on cognitive science, although I still want to do a few other majors! My blog on my addiction to looking at different classes will explain how strange I am!
http://hopkins.typepad.com/guest/2009/03/classaholic.html

Fall 2007
Biology Workshop I
Organic Chemistry I
Bioethics
Philosophy of Mind
Intro to Frontier Physics
Abnormal Psychology

Spring 2008
Organic Chemistry II
Cognition
Expository Writing
Cognitive Neuroscience
History of Modern Philosophy

Summer 2008
Organic Chemistry Lab

Fall 2008
Biochemistry
Cognitive Development
The Buddhist Experience
Nervous System I
Research
Philosophy of Religion

Intersession 2009
Recognition as a Philosophical Problem
Free Will and Determinism

Spring 2009
Social History of Languages
Statistics I
Language and Mind
Organism and Machine
Moral Philosophy
Philosophical Implications of Clinical Neuroscience
Careers in Psychology

Summer 2009
Positive Psychology

Fall 2009
Genetics
Philosophic Classics
Physics I
Physics Lab I
Brain Myths and Folk Psychology
Medical Tutorial

So with my strange mix of classes, you might be asking whether I have time for a social life, and extracurriculars, but yes I do! There are a few main groups that take most of my energy; although there are so many others that I’d love to have time to do.

Active Minds
This group is relatively new here at Hopkins (about 5 years) although it is a nationwide group. The point of active minds is raise awareness about mental illness, and reduce stigma towards people who have mental illnesses. One thing I love about the group is the activities we do. Every year at finals time we have had a “Screamfest” where everyone can just stand in the quad and scream to relieve tension. We also watch movies, and are thinking of doing volunteer work. I enjoy it.

Admissions Representative (AR)
I have just started working as an admissions rep because they only accept juniors and seniors. Essentially, the ARs are the people who do the on-campus interviews, and are often involves in the student panels during open houses.

Pet and Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
This group had it’s first year when I was a freshman, my suitemate dragged me along, and now she is president of the group! This group is basically about animals. They volunteer at local animal shelters, and are also involved in fostering and adopting out animals to students (only of campus students of course!) It’s a lot of fun, and if you miss your babies at home it’s nice to get to play with the poor babies who have no one.

Student Admissions Advisory Board (SAAB)
SAAB is what means that I am writing this post write now. We are essentially a group that helps high school students learn more about Hopkins, and what Hopkins is really like. We are here to answer your questions!

Witness Theater
So, I’ll be honest here, the only reason I got involved in theater is because my boyfriend is. He is involved in almost all of the theater things (there are a lot) so if you have any theater/comedy questions I am sure I will be able to answer them! Anyway, Witness theater is the only student written, run, and directed theater group on campus, and that’s part of why I like it. They tend to put up one act plays (not many people have a full length play they wrote lying around!) and we have one act show cases three times a year, and a full length play at intersession. I really like the student-run aspect of it because it means whatever you’re interested in you can do: lighting, tech, directing, wrting, anything.

Research
This semester I am also starting this thing called a medical tutorial http://web.jhu.edu/prepro/health/tutorials.html it’s essentially an internship that’s organized by the pre-professional advising office. They send you a list of everything that’s available and you just have to email people. Mine is going to be working on research on Tourette’s and Tic disorders, which means I get to actually work in a psychiatric unit, and I get to do research. I’m really looking forward to starting!

So, I’ve rambled a lot, is there anything else to say about me?
Well, I lived in Wolman as a freshman, and I loved it, I would recommend Wolman to everyone. Sophomore year I lived in a double in Charles Commons, and that was great too. Now I live off campus in a great 4 bedroom house with some friends (one of whom was my suitemate freshman year). I have been really lucky with housing; so far every place I have lived has been great. Read my cribs blog and my cribs video from last year to look closer at Wolman and Commons.
http://apply.jhu.edu/hi/athopkins/cribs.html

Now for the big question: Why Hopkins?
To be honest, I don’t really know. I wasn’t one of those people who applied early decision and have known forever that I wanted to be here. When I was applying to colleges I knew very little about the programs and options available to me. If I had I would probably have taken Hopkins more seriously because it has a ton of programs in areas that interested me (as can be shown by my many majors!) I must say, the thing that made Hopkins stick in my mind was when I came to visit. It was in the summer, and we were all dying from the heat, and out of all the colleges I went to Hopkins was the only one that gave out free bottles of water. That really impressed me.

Enough of my rambling, hopefully I’ve said something you’ve found interesting, and if I haven’t I’m impressed you made it through this entire thing even though nothing interested you!

If you have any questions feel free to ask me here.

Tabitha

-------------------------------------------------------------

I know exactly what you mean about the common app, i had the same fears myself.
However, i was told when i was applying, and have been told since i've been here, that admissions works very hard to judge students on how well they did given the opportunities they were given, and as we don't have all the same opportunities in the UK school system that is taken into account when admissions reads your application.

I have to say, seeing that you are taking 6 A levels, when the average is 3, shows a lot of effort.
Personally i do not think you need to but it is possible to take AP exams if you're in the UK, i think you can take them at the American School in London, the information should be on the college board website, in the same area where you sign up for SATs.


Okay, the differences between the two systems.
Interestingly enough i have stayed home for intersession, and have been visiting friends at their UK universities, it's been very interesting!
In terms of course work load, i think it seems pretty similar, apart from people in the UK doing medicine (which is what i would have done had i been in the UK). My friend in london doing medicine seems to have a lot more work to do that we do. But my friend doing biology seems to have a pretty similar amount.
I do think that in the USA (at least here at Hopkins) we have a lot more research opportunities, and also job opportunities. It seems to me that here at Hopkins we have a lot of information of jobs, and ways to get them, but from what i've seen of my friends the universities don't seem to have much information, and they're having a hard time getting jobs.
That was something else i found interesting, i can't compare with every UK university, but a lot of my friends have some long commutes to classes already (some days up to an hour on a bus) and for me my longest walk is to Hodson, which takes less than 10minutes.

Hi Tabitha!

I was reading your post about what classes you take, your major, the clubs and research you do....and i realized if I had to do exactly everything that you did, things would be perfect! Seems like you covered a lot of bases.

I wanted to ask you about different majors. I'm hoping to do Pre-med and currently want to major in Psych. However, I'm also interested in Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Philosophy. How would my experience be different with each of these courses while I do Pre-med?

The thought never occurred to me that I could double-major while doing Pre-med, just because I figured adding pre-med would call for a rigorous course load. How do you manage to balance two majors, pre-med, extracurriciulars, and research all at once?

P.S. Thank you for making yourself available to talk to on Hopkins Interactive

Hi there,

One thing about being pre-med is that you have to take a lot of science courses, as i'm sure you know. The reason i originally chose neuroscience over psychology as a major was because neuroscience requires you to take some of those same pre-med classes, and allowed me to feel that i was getting double to use out of those classes. That is the main way in which i think being pre-med affects the first three majors you mentioned. There are a couple other posts on this forum about the differences between those majors, so you might want to look at those.
http://z14.invisionfree.com/Hopkins_Forums...?showtopic=1777
Also, looking at the major requirements for the different majors might help you decide which is most interesting to you.
http://www.jhu.edu/advising/checklists.html

Philosophy courses are also very interesting to take while your pre-med because some of them look at the philosophy of science and of the mind, as well as different bioethical questions, which allows you to look at a lot of medicine from a different perspective.

It is definitely possible to be pre-med and double major, especially if you are majoring in areas that really interest you. For me it means that any extra "fun" courses i want to take will often count towards my major requirements, making it a lot easier to fulfill all the requirements. It is definitely possible to balance the academic work with the extracurriculars, but it does take a lot of effort, and a lot of forethought about how you are going to tackle work, and not leaving things to the last minute.

Adding research to the mix has made things a little more difficult, especially because of the time lost (not much really, only 10/15mins each way) traveling to the med campus. But you just have to learn your limits, and also realize that all the people you work for are people too, and often if you are struggling to keep up with something it's perfectly fine to talk to the professor and explain that you are having a problem.

It really is possible to double major, and do all the other stuff and sleep (i need to get at least 8 hours a night!). Especially when you're interested in everything you're doing, it means that you may actually enjoy doing the work!

I hope this helped answer your questions a bit. Let me know if you have any more.

Tabitha

Hi Tabitha!

I see you are involved with one of JHU's theater programs. I was wondering if you could expand about the opportunities for a JHU student who is not majoring in Theater. Is there a lot of chances to audition for performances for students who are not studying theater? About how many theater groups are there, and how many performances a year do you think?

Thanks so much.

Hi there,

I'm glad that you are interested in theater.

In this thread this thread i wrote about all the different theater opportunities on campus that anyone can get involved in.
There are lots of people involved who are definitely not theater minors.

I would say that in total the usual theater groups put on 9 different theater things a semester (counting a collection of one acts as 1 play). There are definitely a lot of things to get involved in, and as well as acting you can direct or do tech work as well.

I hope this helps, let me now if you have any more questions,
Tabitha