<p>Ok, so I was filling out the supplemental questions for JHU on common app the other day and I had a couple of questions.</p>
<p>For Supplemental essay #2:</p>
<p>
[quote]
A typical student at Johns Hopkins spends less than 15 hours each week in a classroom, leaving lots of time for volunteer opportunities, clubs and organizations,
athletics, social events, and other on- and off-campus activities. Aside from the academic interests youve already expressed, in what activities do you plan to
engage as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Do they expect you to right it like an actual essay or just casually essay what you want to do:</p>
<p>For example, "I want to participate in Math Club" or "Numbers- entities that symbolize an amount, however, for me, numbers create a whole world that leads to all sorts of interesting phenomenons. My passion for math grew greatly during high school as I participated in all of the math competitions that I could, and so, I would definitely be part of the JHU math team"</p>
<p>You get the point, how much of an essay do they want this to be. Also, how many activities or clubs are appropriate for a 250 maximum word limit?</p>
<p>bump? no one knows?</p>
<p>The admissions office will not give you a definitive answer, they will tell you to write whatever you deem appropriate. And that’s my advice. Write the essay however you deem it appropriate. I can assure you that the adcoms will not reject you just because your essay isn’t in some specific form.</p>
<p>On an aside, I can give you some info on the math activities at Hopkins. First, there’s no “math team” because unlike high school, there aren’t competitions in which schools come together and compete. The only thing of the sort is the Putnam exam, which is an individual exam done on campus each December. Second, math club has rather incompetent leadership so don’t expect much out of it. My friend and I have been organizing a speaker series but actual meetings are rare if not non-existent. Your best bet, especially if you like competitions, is to join the Johns Hopkins Math Tournament (JHMT) staff. I’ve been doing this since I was a freshman and I am currently the director and problem czar, and my co-director will be running the show next year. If you want more info, let me know!</p>
<p>^the math team thing was just an example. but I would love to join anyway, if I were to get accepted.</p>
<p>@Yanks: Is there a competitive science team? This can include research fairs like the Siemens foundation competition, etc, or good ol’ UIL type competitions.</p>
<p>I think this is just one more part of what adcom people call the “holistic approach”. How you write, and what you write will speak volumes about who you are as a person. Consider the applicant that states they will join 5 (charity) organizations, but show no (Charity) time spent in high school. Think this might set off a concern about the truthfulness of the student or how well they know themselves? </p>
<p>-or-
How about the math major that says they intend to only sleep 26.3% of the time, will spend 3.5% of the time in class while devoting 6.4% of time in homework, 7.8% of time playing video games, 2.1% in the dining hall, 3.5% trying to get a girlfriend, etc, etc, until it reaches 100% It could be done analytically, or done comically, and done in such a way to show how YOU stand out, and who YOU are…</p>
<p>Or how about the person that starts by stating they have visited the campus 4 times and have not yet met the ‘typical hopkins student’, and go on to say how many great adventures you had by just meeting the a-typical ones. (maybe more appropriate for a writer than a BME, but, who knows…BME’s can be poets too!).</p>
<p>IMHO, the whole application process is about making the person on the paper somewhat more human, and how you answer that question will reflect this.
(PS: If you were a reader, would you be impressed if someone answered “I plan to join 3-4 clubs and maybe a service organization. My Girlfriend goes to xxxx, so I will probably spend a lot of weekends there”) (and yes, I bet if you asked, they would tell you they read answers like that a lot!).</p>
<p>^I see what you mean. I’ll just try to be myself then.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>@yanks- i would also like to know the answer to Anouchi’s question</p>
<p>@ Anouchi: I think there might be some things in the engineering departments, especially BME, CHemBE, and MechE. However, I’m not in any of those things so you’re better off asking someone in those departments (tanman, you there?).</p>
<p>Thanks :D, I’ve heard about the engineering fairs, and there’s actually a video on youtube about a MechE fair.</p>