Meet JHU_Peter - Wakefield, MA

THE HOPKINS FORUMS HAVE MOVED!

Our forums have moved to a new platform, click here to go to the new Hopkins Forums and be sure to update your bookmarks to http://www.hopkins-interactive.com/forums/.

All of the content of the old boards has been transferred over, and this site will remain as an archive, but we encourage you to use the new site for all forums matters. Note that all accounts have transferred over as well; all you need to do is reset your password using the email you registered with.

Welcome to the Hopkins Forums. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Meet JHU_Peter - Wakefield, MA; Mechanical Engineering Major
Topic Started: Sep 21 2009, 06:08:52 PM (3,292 Views)
JHU_Peter	Sep 21 2009, 06:08:52 PM Post #1
Posts: 143 Group: Hopkins Student Member #2,438 Joined: Sep 11 2008	Hey everyone! My name's Peter and I'm a Sophomore at Johns Hopkins University. I'm studying Mechanical Engineering here, and I want to pursue an Arts Certificate, which is the equivalent of an Art Minor. So far I love Hopkins, and although I may be from the Boston area, I am glad to be back in Baltimore. Why Hopkins? As for why I chose to come to Hopkins, I honestly forget. I know however that I love it here, and would have probably made it my top choice before. I love Baltimore, and the community that this city has, especially with the university. My Classes! Fall 2008 - Freshmen Year Intro to Materials Chemistry Freshmen Experiences in Mechanical Engineering Portuguese Elements 1 Calculus II Studio Drawing 1 Spring 2009 - Freshmen Year Physics II + Lab Freshmen Experiences in Mechanical Engineering 2 Portuguese Elements 2 Calculus 3 Fall 2009 - Sophomore Year Thermodynamics Statics and Mechanics of Materials Differential Equations Intro to Animation Spring 2010 - Sophomore Year Mechanics Based Design Dynamics Linear Algebra Electronics and Instrumentation Fall 2010 - Junior Year Intro to Fiction and Poetry Intro to Fluid Mechanics Materials Selection Computer Aided Design Robot Sensors and Actuators Extracurriculars As for some stuff that I do here, I'm a member of SAAB, which is mainly why I post on these forums and my blog. On top of that I'm also an officer of DSAGA, the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance. AND, I'm a member of the capoeira group on campus, and I love it. Where I lived Freshmen year I lived in the AMRs, which I really liked because they were very social and I met a lot of my friends there. Sophomore year I did group housing in McCoy with my friends, which was good because we saw each other even though we were all busy doing our own thing. Now I'm living with some friends off campus in a small Apartment complex called the Peabody Apartments. Links If you'd like to read my blog, you can find it here: A College Canvas
	Peter Costa Class of 2012 - Mechanical Engineering Visit my blog! "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward." - Kurt Vonnegut


JHU_Peter	Nov 9 2009, 02:31:40 PM Post #2
Posts: 143 Group: Hopkins Student Member #2,438 Joined: Sep 11 2008	Quote: So...how are you feeling about JHU now, 6+ months after your initial post? I had a question about the difference between Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. Until I attended the open house, I really wasn't clear about the distinction between these two majors. Upon hearing more about it, I am really interested in the EM degree because it seems like it will allow me more flexibility to take more physics-based courses than a traditional MechE degree would. Am I understanding that right? That being said, is an EM degree sort of just "out there," meaning that my future grad school prospects will look at that degree and wonder what it means. As someone who will more than likely pursue a post-graduate degree, in your opinion, does EM sound like a viable option for someone like me who wants to pursue engineering but has a serious passion for physics? 6 months after this post, I must say, I'm really loving Hopkins. Sure, there are the occasional rough patches mainly caused by stress and what-not, but I am really enjoying my time here. I really love it. I'm not sure how the different major works exactly. I know with the Engineering Mechanics degree it is easier to Double Major in the engineering school, but I'm not quite sure. I'm in the same classes with some Engineering Mechanics majors since it's so similar to MechE, but I don't know the complete logistics of it. I had never heard of EM before coming to the open house as well, so I honestly have no idea how that would go for grad school. I mean, Hopkins is one of the few credited colleges for EM (I think there were 6 or so when I went to my open house), so it can't be too obscure. If you're really concerned, you could always e-mail the professor who gave the info session (was it Lester Su? He gave the lecture at my open house, and he really got me excited for MechE). As for your passion for Physics, you would still be able to take classes, but maybe not double major. For all you know, you could really hate college physics, just take that into account as well.
	Peter Costa Class of 2012 - Mechanical Engineering Visit my blog! "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward." - Kurt Vonnegut


jrex00	Jun 24 2010, 05:08:52 PM Post #3
Posts: 2 Group: Members Member #4,314 Joined: Jun 24 2010	I will be attending Hopkins in the fall of 2010 as a mechanical engineering major and i was wondering what recommendations you had for a laptop.



JHU_Peter	Jun 26 2010, 02:28:09 AM Post #4
Posts: 143 Group: Hopkins Student Member #2,438 Joined: Sep 11 2008	jrex00 Jun 24 2010, 05:08 PM I will be attending Hopkins in the fall of 2010 as a mechanical engineering major and i was wondering what recommendations you had for a laptop. Really, anything will be fine. There's a good mix between Mac and PC, so just get whatever you want, but make sure there's a lot of RAM and Processing power in whatever you get. Some applications you might use on your laptop take a while to compute, and thus require more power. But most laptops you would get that are new should be fine, just get whatever you feel comfortable with. (side note, I have a mac, and love it, and it's been able to do everything I've needed it to do thus far in Mechanical Engineering. The main program you'll be using for a while is Matlab, and it runs fine on both mac and pc.)
	Peter Costa Class of 2012 - Mechanical Engineering Visit my blog! "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward." - Kurt Vonnegut


jrex00	Jun 29 2010, 05:08:50 PM Post #5
Posts: 2 Group: Members Member #4,314 Joined: Jun 24 2010	I am going to get a Macbook pro, but is it necessary to get the 2.66 GHz processor or will the 2.40 GHZ processor be fine for the programs I will be using?



JHU_Peter	Jun 30 2010, 09:39:16 PM Post #6
Posts: 143 Group: Hopkins Student Member #2,438 Joined: Sep 11 2008	jrex00 Jun 29 2010, 05:08 PM I am going to get a Macbook pro, but is it necessary to get the 2.66 GHz processor or will the 2.40 GHZ processor be fine for the programs I will be using? It's really up to you. My macbook is 2.4 Ghz, and it runs fine. I honestly doubt you'll really notice the difference, but if you wanna get the faster one, then go ahead.
	Peter Costa Class of 2012 - Mechanical Engineering Visit my blog! "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward." - Kurt Vonnegut

Our users say it best: "A great way to make a forums for free and it is very reliable as well. Thank you Zetaboards." Learn More · Register for Free
« Previous Topic · Meet the Class of 2012 · Next Topic »