JHU Class of 2023 ED RESULTS ONLY

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
1

No one has started one for JHU this year, so I thought I would be the one…

THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1530 (730 EBRW, 800 Math)
ACT (breakdown): 35 (36 Eng 36 Sci 32 Read 35 Math)
SAT II: 800 Math L2, 710 Bio M, 730 Phys
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98
Weighted GPA: 4.31
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): We don’t rank, but top 1%
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH, AP English Lang (4), AP Spanish Lang (4), AP Stats (5), AP Calc AB (Self Study BC 5), Self-study AP Chem (3), Self-study APWH (4), Self-study AP Phys C Mech (3)
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP US Gov, AP Envi Sci, Honors Differential Equations (Community College), Honors Linear Algebra (Com. Coll.), Wind Ensemble (Com. Coll.)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended Student, AP Scholar with Distinction, Student of the Year in Biology, A bunch of student-of-the-month stuff (not too big)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Freelance Tutoring (Elementary School to College Level Math, Up to Calc III, 4 years)
Student Senate (Academic and Administrative Lead, 2 years, 3 total)
Principal Trombone (Youth Orchestra, 6 years, Community College Band, 4 years)
Lion Dancing (For Local Kung Fu Studio, 4 years)

Job/Work Experience:
Acai Bowl Place (Shift Leader, 2 years, current)
Sports Concessions (School Lead, 1 year, current)
Internship at City Hall with Transportation Manager (1 year, current)

Volunteer/Community service:
Young Dreamer Network (Administration Lead, 3 years, 4 years total)

Summer Activities:
UC Davis COSMOS: Sustainable Transportation
Mentoring Young Trombonists at Summer Camps (2 summers)

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App
Extracurricular: 9/10

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: AP Stats Teacher (10/10)
Teacher Rec #2: AP Spanish Teacher (8/10)
Counselor Rec: Passionate and Caring (9/10)
Additional Rec: Acai Bowl Boss (8/10)
Interview: N/A

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Civil Engineering/Environmental Systems Engineering
State (if domestic applicant): California
School Type: Public Charter
Ethnicity: Filipino
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 70,000-100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Gen

Reflection

Strengths: Test Scores, Grades, XtraCurricular Focus
Weaknesses: Asian?
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Good Fit
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Nowhere yet

General Comments: Have fun writing your essays. Don’t think of them as a chore.

2

Decision: Accepted, rejected BME
Planned major: IDK yet see reflections

Objective

SAT: will not report
ACT: 36 (36 writing, 36 math, 35 reading, 36 science), 11 composite essay score
SAT II: Biology M (800), Chemistry (790), Math II (800)
Weighted GPA: 4.71/5 or so
Unweighted GPA: 4.025/4.3 (all As)

Most challenging schedule at the school

AP Tests:
Bio (5)
Chem (4)
Macroeconomics (5)
Microeconomics (5)
Psychology (5)
Physics C Mechanics (5)
English Lang and Comp (5)
APUSH (5)

*Note: I self-studied for every test except English Lang/Comp and APUSH, as my school didn’t offer the others.

EC:

  • 2017 - summer research on GFP, 2018 - research on fungal drug resistance and research on cancer genetics, but no papers
  • Principal Volunteer Coordinator at my local food pantry (2 years - about 300 hours)
  • TA for a senior-level biochemistry college class at Rutgers University
  • MUN, Secretary General
  • Bollywood dance for the past 5 years (Co-President of volunteer teen committee, raising over $6,000 for educating - poor children and women in India)
  • Co-Host, bimonthly trivia night for adults and teens at my local library for the past 3 years
  • Soccer - not recruitable but oh well
  • President of a couple clubs at my school

Honors/Awards:

  • USA Biology Olympiad semi-finalist x2 (top 10% of semifinalists, so top 60/10k, in 2018)
  • UToronto International Biology Scholar in 2018 (top 20 in the world)
  • Top 15 HOSA International Leadership Conference - Original Biomedical Innovations (basically we had to come up - with a new idea for a medical issue and make a model of our idea)
  • Some state level competitions in biology, chemistry, and physics, have won awards ranging from 1st to 3rd place
  • 3 gavels at Princeton Model UN Conference, lesser awards at other conferences
  • National AP Scholar/National Merit Semifinalist

Recommendations:

  • 8.5/10 history teacher; she very clearly respects that I’m one of the best history students in the class, and we had some discussions outside of class, and she specifically mentioned that her recommendations are always about the student’s potential for growth based on evidence in her class (which is something I know AOs are looking for) rather than her corroborating my ECs (which I was slightly worried about but I hoped some of my other recommenders listed those as part of their letter), but realistically she’s not going to call me her adopted son either
  • 9.5/10 Algebra 2/Statistics teacher; she absolutely loves me and she said she wants me to get into really good schools with her recommendation
  • 7/10 supplemental rec: Professor of the class I was a TA for at Rutgers (did his PhD at JHU), he said some really nice things but most of the recommendation was about him unfortunately

Essays:

  • Common App: 8-9/10, about a play I watched that changed my mind about a lot of things, multiple people have told me it’s really freaking good (including current JHU BME students)
  • JHU Supplement: 8/10 or so, about my time in the food pantry, I’m very straightforward about my instance of collaboration but I feel like I painted myself in a positive light and left some good anecdotes in the story that are pretty memorable

Demographics:

School: Public magnet
State: NJ
Race: Indian
Gender: Male
Income: Too much for financial aid (so much for Bloomberg smh)

Reflections: Wow, what a ride it’s been. The last four years of high school have honestly not been the best parts of my life, but one thing that held constant was that I always did what I wanted to do. I really pushed myself in the things that made me happy, and I did pretty well overall, if I do say so myself. My biggest recommendation (and I know this is really cliche) is to PURSUE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. Try new things - if you like them, you’ve got another niche to differentiate yourself in the hyper-competitive world of college admissions, and if you don’t like them, you haven’t wasted that much time, hopefully. Honestly, all of this is based on luck - I only found out about a lot of my ECs and awards because my friends told me about them, and I went all-out for them. If I hadn’t found out about my future ECs from them, I wouldn’t have been writing this right now.

Another big recommendation - START YOUR ESSAYS EARLY. I wrote my Common App essay in March (after I watched the play) and my supplemental essay in like June. As I’m writing this, I only have 3 essays for RD to go. Most of my friends haven’t started. Guess who’s more stressed.

Now, for intended major. To be honest, I still haven’t decided I will attend. (One of the quirks in JHU’s admissions process is that if you apply BME as your first-choice major, but you don’t get into BME, the ED contract is no longer binding.) It costs $72,610 a year to attend. That’s a lot. I need to really judge the difference between a JHU education and another T20 or a Rutgers education (I’m an NJ resident with the scores for a pretty hefty merit scholarship). Wish me luck.

3

Decision: Accepted
Intended Major: International Studies

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1560 (760 EBRW, 800 Math)
ACT (breakdown): None
SAT II: 800 WorldHist, 770 Spanish Reading, 720 Math2
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): School doesn’t give. Personal calculation ~ 3.7
Weighted GPA: 4.42
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): No ranking but guessing top 5%-10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), AP Lang (5), AP Calc BC (5), APWH (5), APES (5), AP Psych (5), AP Micro (4), AP Macro (5), AP CompSci (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP Stats, AP European Hist, Humanities Capstone (1st semester), Advanced Health (1st semester), Software Engineering, Honors Latin 3/4, Themes in Lit and Art (2nd semester), Senior Wellness (2nd semester)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended, AP Scholar, Best Position Paper WVMUN, National Latin Exam Gold (2 years), National Latin Exam Silver (1 year), Youth Service Award (local thing)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Model UN (board)
Scholastic Bowl (captain)
Latin Club/Certamen Team (captain)
did a lot of minor clubs for one or two years. FPS (1), creative writing (2), freshman/sophomore board, lit mag (1), DECA (1), Book Club (vice prez, 2), Poetry (1)

I think my winning extracurricular was self-studying Spanish since the end of middle school. In the additional info section I clearly laid out the resources I used to study, when I studied, why I studied, and how the resources I chose had helped my Spanish skills. My SAT II probably proved my argument.

Job/Work Experience:
Local business for one month over the summer

Volunteer/Community service:
Community tutoring (Board 1 year, 3 years total, a lot of hours)

Summer Activities:
Volunteering in Chinese hospital summer before senior year (2 weeks)
Volunteering in disabilities school in China, same summer (2 weeks)
job^ see above
summer school (driving and gov.)

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 8-9/10 (personal rating), 10/10 (teacher&parents), wrote about character growth from rough childhood)
Supplement: 8/10 (personal rating), 9-10/10 (parents&friends), what I learned from sticking in a group while in a foreign country)

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: APES Teacher and Scholastic Bowl Coach(10/10) Knows we very well. Once talked with her for three hours aft school on politics and enviro. stuff. Lovely woman. Will miss her dearly TT^TT
Teacher Rec #2: Latin Teacher (10/10) Had me all four years. Has shown us previous rec letters, and my god they are amazing. Went on two foreign excursions with him so he knows me in and out of school
Counselor Rec: ??? I have no clue. This counselor has seen me break down in freshman and sophomore year. We have a survey that we write our counselors for recs and I think I was really, and I mean really, emotional in it.
Additional Rec:
Interview:

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
State (if domestic applicant): Illinois
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Chinese
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: YES DADDY BLOOMBERG, made my parents cry with joy
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Gen (by Hopkin’s definition)

Reflection

Strengths: Essays, extracurriculars, Spanish, volunteering, recs, test scores, non-PreMed in a school dominated by PreMed students
Weaknesses: Personally don’t feel that extracurriculars were that impressive since I’m not president of anything. My transcript lol it sucks (got Bs in unweighted class ffs). Chinese American without straight As.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Really poured my whole self into the application. Showed a lot of character in my essays. My recs probably did the same. Showed that I take initiative pursuing personal goals and isn’t afraid to branch out and try new activities while maintaining my passions.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: only applied to two other, UIUC accepted but not for CS/Engineering so not noteworthy, UMichigan probably yes? my essays were better but who knows.

General Comments: For Asians, don’t worry too much about ethnicity? I still think it is important in the application process but don’t think you won’t get in because your stats are subpar for your race. They care much more about who you are and what makes you different from other applicants. Getting high scores and good grades are still very important, but advocating for your passions and proving that you have a life outside of school AND your parents’ expectations goes a long way.

And write those essays! I knew they were important but didn’t realize exactly how important until after the decision release. Write them, rewrite them, edit, edit again, and get those things checked by people until you feel like you can win a Pulitzer Prize.

4

Decision: Accepted to BME

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1500 (720 EBRW, 780 Math)
ACT (breakdown): 35 (36 Eng 34 Sci 36 Read 34 Math)
SAT II: 800 Math L2, 750 Bio M, 750 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 5.0 out of 6
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 2%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Bio (5), Chem (4), AP Calc AB (5), Euro (5), World Hist (5), APUSH (3), Psych (5), Human Geo (4), Environmental (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics 1, AP Macroeconomics, AP Govt/Politics, AP Art History, AP Music Theory, AP Calculus BC, AP Microeconomics, 2 other electives and 2 classes at community college
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semifinalist, National AP Scholar, AP Scholar with Distinction

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): NHS (VP), Science Honor Society (Pres), Math Honor Society, orchestras
Job/Work Experience: paid research internship

Volunteer/Community service: volunteered at hospital and local churches

Summer Activities:

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 8.5/10 very personal and outlined a change in my outlook on learning and education
Supplement: 9/10 wrote about collaborating with somebody in a lab who spoke very little English

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: AP Calc AB/BC and my Algebra 2 Teacher (9/10) I had this teacher for most of my math classes in high school and they saw how I developed as a student
Teacher Rec #2: AP Enviro and my Bio Hon Teacher (7/10) More of a friend than a teacher, really liked me
Counselor Rec: (8/10) Saw a lot during my senior year and spent a lot of time together
Additional Rec: Research PI (8/10)
Interview: N/A

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering / Mol.Cell Bio if rejected from BME
State (if domestic applicant): Florida
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 100,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): “First Gen” Parents highly educated but attended undergraduate in foreign country

Reflection

Strengths: Extracurriculars, Essays, showed a lot of breadth in my impact on my public school and community, focused on lab/research experience, personal essays really written about my perspective on learning
Weaknesses: Test Scores
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: good fit, maybe a ms. holistic ? lol I didn’t particularly have the most amazing test scores but as a person I had a lot of experience that I drew on
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: withdrawing all my other applications, BME ED baby

General Comments: Don’t focus on writing about a really academic experience in your CommonApp essay. Save those for the supplements. I had a hard time deciding what I was going to write about in my personal statement but I drew from the heart, not the head. I don’t think admissions wants to hear about your academic honors; they want to know more about you as a person and what has shaped you. Save the academics and fancy stuff for your supplement. I believe that without my essays I would not have been accepted into BME! And don’t worry about not having engineering/physics background if you’re applying to BME; I personally have no engineering experience and I took my first physics class my senior year.

5

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1550 (750 EBRW, 800 Math)
ACT (breakdown): didn’t take
SAT II: 760 Math L2, 750 Bio M
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 98.77 (my school does it out of 100% – equal to about 4.0/4.0)
Weighted GPA: 99.11
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): We don’t rank, but top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (4), AP English Lang (5), AP BC Calc (5), AP Biology (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP Statistics, AP French, AP Psychology, AP Chemistry, Advanced Calculus, Advanced Orchestra
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended Student, AP Scholar with Distinction, National Brain Bee Top 10 Finalist, State Computer Fair 1st Place, FBLA (a bunch of 1st places at regionals, not a big deal)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
FBLA
National Honor Society / National French Honor Society / Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society)
Medical Research programs at nearby hospital
Computer Fair Club (president & co-founder, 2 years)

Job/Work Experience:
Classroom Assistant (3 years)
Internship in Neuroscience (2 years, published papers, took neurobiology classes)

Volunteer/Community service:
A bunch of National Honor Society stuff…small things
3 summers at hospital as a patient transport volunteer
Library volunteer in town (1 year)

Summer Activities:
Internship in Neuroscience
Volunteering at medical center

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 9/10 … I took an unconventional approach to my essay… it wasn’t really a story and a lot of people who read it said it was good. I had it checked by two teachers who said it was one of the best they have read (one of the teachers is an AP grader so…)
Supplement: 9/10 … it was about an experience at JHU so I guess that made it personal to the college

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: AP Lang Teacher (10/10) – I read it afterwards, super personal and super nice
Teacher Rec #2: AP Biology Teacher (8/10) – only had him for a year but I was one of his favorites, think it was good
Counselor Rec: I’m one of his favorites, and quite frankly, one of the only names he can remember, knows all my awards and even gave me a scholarship (10/10)
Additional Rec: Teacher I classroom assisted with (10/10) – super nice and caring, like a second mom to me
Interview: N/A

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Molecular and Cellular BIOLOGY
State (if domestic applicant): PA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Middle-Eastern
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: above 150K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None really

Reflection

Strengths: Test Scores, Grades, Passion for JHU, Neuro focus
Weaknesses: Extracurriculars that weren’t about medecine
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted bc I think I showed them that if I come to JHU I promise to show potential, especially in neuroscience
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted @ University of Pittsburgh & Penn State University

General Comments: If you show a passion for JHU, they will definitely accept you. You don’t need to go overboard with extracurriculars, just show them your passion, or if you don’t have one, show them that you can find yours at JHU.

6

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): didn’t take
ACT (breakdown): 31 (34 M - 28 S - 29 E - 32 R)
SAT II: 750 Bio M
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: NA
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): We don’t rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): NA
Senior Year Course Load: 5 honor courses & 2 regular courses
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Winner at NASA Space Apps Cairo 2018 (special funding award winner) - National Finalist in Intel ISEF

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

School’s biology group (vice head)
Content creator on an online platform (co-founder)
TEDx Speaker
member & researcher at Junior academy - managed by NY academy of science
member on a college admission club… no significant experience tbh

Job/Work Experience:
Intern at the National Research Center, working on breast cancer research (the only high school intern there)

Volunteer/Community service:
Volunteer English tutor at school & US uni guidance sessions tutor at school

Summer Activities:
Attended EdUSA academy summer program at Hopkins

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 9/10 … It was kinda different in its style and it addressed a genuine personal growth experience. Crafting was good. Revised it with a lot of experienced people & college students and most of the feedbacks were very satisfying
Supplement: 9/10 … There is nothing tricky in JHU’s prompt. My essay has a distinguished realization and a simple but effective approach (according to the feedbacks :"D)

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: Honor biology course teacher (10/10) – My association with my teacher was very nice, and he put a lot of effort into it. I read it after the decision, and he covered diverse aspects on my personality besides academics
Teacher Rec #2: (8/10) Capstone project honor course teacher – It was focused on the geeky, research-loving aspect of mine (one of my app cornerstones), so I loved it. Wasn’t super personal as the biology one.
Counselor Rec: (10/10) My relation with my counselor is amazing. She witnessed me in a lot of contexts, and I am sure that her recommendation was the best one
Additional Rec: Recommendation from the summer program director (PhD holder from Johns Hopkins): I think it helped a lot
Another recommendation from my research supervisor at the National Research Center: it was mainly a technical one related to my lab & research experience

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: YES (And I got $37,500 tuition scholarship (hodson trust))
Intended Major: BIOLOGY or Neuroscience
State (if domestic applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Middle-Eastern
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: below 50K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflection

Strengths: Recommendation letters, honors, ECs, and ESSAYS.
Weaknesses: TEST SCORESSSSSS
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted bc of doing some different ECs as being a TEDx speaker (not super pervasive here in Egypt) - being a research intern at the National Research Center while in high school - the two additional recommendations I got - the whole application was JHU type :"D
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I applied for 3 schools EA but withdrew the applications after getting in
General Comments: don’t let a weakness point on your application (even it is significant as my test scores) change your mind on your dream college as long as you see yourself there. If you are still a junior or less, DO your best to improve your relationships with your teachers and supervisors. It will help eventually.

BLUE JAY ALL THE WAY

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