2025 College Rankings

Johns Hopkins University was the first research university in the United States, and much of its prestige rests on that distinction. In recent years, however, it has devalued its founding commitments in favor of a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Indeed, Hopkins is devoted to DEI. Though none of its faculty job postings requires a DEI statement, the school maintains a large diversity bureaucracy, with more than four employees per 1,000 undergraduates. Hopkins is a frequent recipient of the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award, a distinction that is no point of pride. This year, the federal government threatened to cut grants to Hopkins amid concerns about the school’s emphasis on diversity over quality research.

Hopkins isn’t much better when it comes to other forms of activism. The school filed a brief in favor of affirmative action in the Students for Fair Admissions case at the Supreme Court, another signal that it values diversity over merit. Hopkins’s administration also handled the radical anti-Semitic protests that swept campuses across the country in the 2023–24 academic year poorly. Students pitched an encampment that lasted 13 days, ending only when the administration reached a settlement with the protesters—not a proud moment for the school’s leadership. The federal government announced this year that it is investigating the school for failing to address this issue adequately, but the university resolved the investigation.

Hopkins’s record on free speech is mixed. About 31 percent of students say that it is “extremely” or “very” clear that the administration protects speech on campus, while another 48 percent say that it is “somewhat clear.” But the school employs a bias-response system, designed to police the airing of opinions that some may consider offensive. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) gives the school a “yellow” speech code rating, meaning that its policies could easily be abused to suppress speech. Johns Hopkins has, however, endorsed the Chicago Principles, which promote the protection of free expression on campus.

Students are overwhelmingly liberal and not especially tolerant of those who are not. There are 3.5 liberal students at Hopkins for every conservative. Students tell FIRE that they are much more tolerant of left-wing campus speakers than they are of right-wing ones, a fact borne out in the disruptions and de-platformings attempted in the past few years. In one notable case, students disrupted a speech given by conservative pundit Mark Krikorian, shouting at him while he spoke and setting off stink bombs in the auditorium, effectively ending the event early. That said, the atmosphere among students themselves is not so hostile. Students at Hopkins feel the need to censor themselves much less frequently than at other schools: only 40 percent say that they do so at least once a month, according to FIRE.

The curriculum at Hopkins is in need of drastic reform. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives the school an F in its What Will They Learn? ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program. The school does not require that its students take courses in history or government to graduate. Hopkins has made a recent nod in the direction of viewpoint diversity in the classroom, launching a partnership with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a right-of-center think tank in Washington. The exchange allows a handful of AEI scholars to co-teach courses each year with Hopkins professors.

Hopkins provides economic value to its graduates. On average, it takes only about a year to pay the cost of the education, well below our overall average of 2.3 years. That said, graduates underperform expectations in median career earnings ten years after initial enrollment by nearly $8,000, based on data from SAT scores and Pell Grant recipients.