This is why.....

"IMO workload is similar (in non-stem) but you can certainly make it as easy or tough as you want. However I think grading is harder (esp in science classes), though first semester grades are covered which helps the transition into college.

However social life definitely is worse compared to the peer schools of the lower ivies, gtown, northwestern, duke, some NESCAC schools.

Some factors for this are: Georgetown gets a different type of student..a play hard/work hard student that is more polished/socially outgoing and 'pre-professional' minded. Gtown has a lack of engineering school/stem gunners, d1 sports (hopkins only has lax as D1), different student body profile (demographically), location (hopkins suffers from its location socially yet it isn't rural enough like williams/dartmouth to foster the same on-campus social bond that comes from being in a remote place with no-one else except for your fellow class-mates). Hopkins is kind of caught inbetween....not cool urban area, but not some bucolic rural setting either.

BTW Carnegie Mellon faces the same social issues that JHU does IMO. Both are schools that attract lots of stem/science and bookish liberal arts students who were very good students/grade gunners but probably were not the 'leaders', 'cool-hooked', or effortless social/academic genius combos, or connected rich types that get snapped up by ivies/stanford.

Duke gets away with being a top stem/premed/bme/engineering school by balancing out with being a full fledged D1 school and more pre-professional than hopkins....hence why socially and physically more attractive.

Northwestern does it by doing what duke does as well as being close to double the size of hopkins so there are just more fun type students."