There are more than 20 colleges and universities in the Baltimore area alone. And according to various students surveyed, the interaction between Hopkins students and our closest neighbors -- i.e. Loyola College in Maryland, Towson University and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) -- isn't terribly extensive. Yet, as is always the case with these surveys, it depends on whom you talk to.
"I used the bathroom [at Loyola] once when I went running by there," said sophomore Emily Caporello. Caporello, whose experience at Loyola is limited to this single pit stop, as well as a concert she performed there with her a cappella group, Octopodes, said she has had very little interaction with Loyola students.
Freshman class vice president Hallie Jackson, echoed the same feelings. Yet she gave further insight into attempts Student Council has made recently to increase social interaction with schools like Loyola, Towson and Goucher College.
Stu Co's effort, according to Jackson, was organized around a joint "club night" with the other colleges. Apparently only Goucher responded with interest, while the others were not keen on the proposal. Thus, Jackson's impression as a freshman was that socializing with Loyola et al. "is definitely a frat thing."
Two fraternity brothers said they have attempted to invite people from other schools to their parties.
"I do hang out with some girls from Towson," said junior WaWa brother Ben Stopper, "but they are girls that I hung out with in high school." Stopper added that the case might be different among other WaWa brothers, as well as other fraternities, but he wasn't aware of any extensive interaction.
Other frat guys I spoke with said they'd had some mixers with Loyola and Towson sororities, and they did make it a point to "flier" for their parties at these other schools. Apparently in an effort to attract more good-looking women, this has been a practice of theirs for some time.
Not everyone was as quick to dismiss inter-college interaction, however. Senior Jesse Dennis said he has spent quite a bit of time hanging out with students at MICA, after he met a girl last summer who was a student there. Through his friendship with her, he was able to meet a lot of other MICA kids and spend some of his time hanging out at MICA's downtown campus.
MICA, located at 1300 Mount Royal Ave., has just over 1300 students, most of them undergraduates. Among the 231 award-winning faculty members, there are artists, designers, poets and historians. MICA's academic programs range from environmental design and painting, to sculpture and photography. The college also has exchange programs with over 20 other art colleges, and four other Baltimore universities -- including Johns Hopkins.
Loyola, while not as artsy as MICA and quite a bit bigger (with over 6000 students), has an equally extensive undergraduate as well as graduate program. Their graduate schools include the Sellinger School of Business and Management, which is one of Baltimore's leading business schools. Loyola was the first school in the Baltimore/Washington area to offer an executive MBA program back in 1973.
"We used to flier there," said junior AEPi member Sam Permutt, of Loyola College. After his fraternity stopped having parties, however, Permutt stopped seeing a lot of girls north of Homewood.
Somewhat farther away, but definitely a worthy partner for "interaction," is the U.S. Naval Academy. Sophomore Marian Smith said she'd heard of some Hopkins girls who dated Navy guys, as well as students who drove up to the University of Delaware for a good time. Other people I questioned about this Univ. of Delaware enigma said while it was common, more people were inclined to hang out at the University of Maryland.
Not surprisingly, a response I was given frequently was, "I don't know, I don't do that much," or to quote sophomore Justin Kaplan, "I'm a nerd -- I don't go out."
Most students were quick to associate Towson, Loyola, MICA and The College of Notre Dame of Maryland (a.k.a. CONDOM) with the phrase "other Baltimore colleges." None were aware that Baltimore is also home to such places as the Binah Institute of Advanced Judaic Studies for Women, Baltimore International College and Coppin State University.
For more information on these and many other neighboring institutions of higher learning, check out http://baltimore.collegesonline.net. You can also look on http://www.jhu.edu, if you're interested in finding out what joint programs Hopkins offers with other schools.
