Does Johns Hopkins practice frontloading of need-based grants? In other words, do they give more grant money to freshman and reduce the amount of grant money awarded as that student becomes a sophomore, junior, and senior?
No, thankfully that is not a trend I have ever heard of at JHU.
The only reason that should occur is if your financial situation changes such that you no longer meet the thresholds that earned you the FA in the first place, at which point it is no longer “need” based. Thankfully this is a factor that U.S. News takes into account for ranking (% of need-based aid met) and for almost all top-ranked schools they are meeting basically 100% of all need-based aid requested (JHU was reported to fully meet 99.4% of requested need-based aid in the most recent ranking: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/jhu-2077). From what I’ve read this does occur at about 60% of schools investigated, though by varying margins. Here are some schools to be aware of that appear to be abusing this process: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2015/06/16/10-colleges-where-upperclassmen-get-less-financial-help