Johns Hopkins Admit Rate Drops 11% in 2 Years; Hits 24%

Parents Forum
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<p>*Decisions, Decisions *</p>

<p>For the fifth consecutive year, Johns Hopkins received a record number of applicants to be part of its incoming freshman class. Who got in? Last Wednesday, the envelopes with the answers were mailed out ? thanks in no small part to a tireless team of more than 30 student interns and staff who worked overtime the night before to get the envelopes stuffed and sorted.</p>

<p>All told, 14,842 high school seniors applied for regular admission to Johns Hopkins in fall 2007, an increase of 7 percent over last year's total and of 30 percent over the year before's.</p>

<p>Regular decision admission was offered to 3,145 students; those who enroll will join the 443 who were admitted early. The target class size is 1,205, with 800 enrolled in Arts and Sciences and 405 in Engineering.</p>

<p>The highest number of acceptances went out to, in order, applicants from New York, California, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The total of admits includes 325 who identified themselves as African-American, 302 Hispanic and 21 Native American.</p>

<p>Students residing in all 50 states, D.C., two U.S. territories (Guam and Puerto Rico) and 57 countries were offered admission this year. The total number of non-U.S. citizens admitted was 189.</p>

<p>Once again, Baltimore students are well-represented in the admitted class, with 31 students selected for the Baltimore Scholars Program.</p>

<p>The admittance rate was a strikingly low 24 percent. Just two years ago, the rate was 35 percent.</p>

<p>"By every quantitative measure, the incoming class is very strong," said John Latting, director of Undergraduate Admissions. "This is a pretty powerful group of kids in terms of their potential, and that is very exciting."</p>

<p>How did it feel to watch thousands of decision letters leave the campus on Wednesday morning on vans bound for the post office? Latting said that moment is always extremely gratifying.</p>

<p>"This is my Super Bowl," said Latting, who was making application decisions as late as Tuesday afternoon. "Now, I look forward to the pleasure of talking to the people who have been offered admission."</p>

<p><a href="http://www.jhu.edu/%7Egazette/2007/02apr07/02admiss.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/02apr07/02admiss.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>That's really a shame. I can't help thinking that with a little bit of prescreening on the part of guidance counselors and maybe even the admissions department they could have discouraged applications from the unqualified and the not terribly interested and cut the total number of applications in half. Then they could have admitted 40%, or even less, and enjoyed a higher yield, and ended up with the exact same freshman class.</p>

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<p>I know of several kids with startlingly good credentials who were waitlisted or rejected from Johns Hopkins this year. I think admission to this university truly has become more selective.</p>

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<p>Johns Hopkins enjoys a very strong applicant pool. They also, however, compete with the other top schools across the US. The predicuted yield is 34%. </p>

<p>I disagree that they could have ended up with the same freshman class because your statement is predicated upon the idea that the increase in applications comes from underqualified applicants which, based on the Stats Profiles, this is not the case. Based on the information seen on this site, Hopkins does compete with the best of them. They might not win every single student they admit, but they are competitive for sure. </p>

<p>** Top 5 students, 1520 SAT **
Amherst College - Accepted
Brown University - Rejected
Cornell University - Accepted
Dartmouth College - Accepted
Duke University - Accepted
Harvard University - Rejected
Johns Hopkins University -Waitlisted
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Rejected
Northwestern University - Accepted
Princeton University - Rejected
Stanford University - Rejected
University of Chicago - Accepted
University of Pennsylvania - Rejected
Washington University in St. Louis - Accepted
Yale University - Rejected</p>

<p>or</p>

<p>** Top 10%, 1550 SAT I **</p>

<p>Stanford University - Rejected
Duke University - Rejected
University of Pennsylvania - Accepted
Cornell University - Accepted
Johns Hopkins University - Waitlisted
Northwestern University - Accepted
Washington University in St. Louis - Accepted
Carnegie Mellon University - Accepted
Case Western Reserve University - Accepted
University of Oklahoma - Accepted</p>

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<p>Wow! I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten into JHU. My stats were: SATs 800 math/800 cr/760 writing and SATIIs 800 chem/800math
770 lit/ 700 latin
I was also a NMF
I was rejected at Dartmouth,Columbia,Brown,MIT waitlisted at Tufts and Harvard and accepted at JHU, BU, UMass, UNH and Trinity
I am really looking forward to going to JHU, it was my second choice, but in reality, the academics are a better fit for me. Sometimes things have a way or "working out" :)</p>

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<p>Congratulations!</p>

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<p>My kid got waitlisted. This makes him feel pretty good about it.</p>

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<p>"I know of several kids with startlingly good credentials who were waitlisted or rejected from Johns Hopkins this year. I think admission to this university truly has become more selective."</p>

<p>Sorry to hear it. JHU will soon join the class of schools that becomes LESS selective by rejecting more applicants, if it hasn't done so already.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Sorry to hear it. JHU will soon join the class of schools that becomes LESS selective by rejecting more applicants, if it hasn't done so already.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Huh? I don't understand your point. (But then, I'm probably not at the intellectual level of kids who get accepted into Johns Hopkins.)</p>

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<p>The point is the following:</p>

<p>1) There are more kids applying to colleges.
2) There are more people who think they should go to an elite, highly selective school like Hopkins.
3) Kids are applying to, on average, more schools.</p>

<p>Hopkins appears on major tv shows like House and Grey's Anatomy and Hopkins is clearly benefitting from such a strong national reputation. Kids are obviously happy there so qudos to them.</p>

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<p>One could also add the following:</p>

<p>4) Many of the top students living in Maryland are offered $12,000 ($3000-per-year) state-funded merit scholarships (the Maryland Distinguished Scholar program) that can only be used at Maryland colleges. The recipients of these awards know about them early enough in their senior year of high school to take them into account when choosing which colleges to apply to. Hopkins is the only elite college in Maryland (other than the Naval Academy, where Maryland Distinguished Scholar awards cannot be used because it's free). Thus, Maryland Distinguished Scholars have a special incentive to apply to Hopkins.</p>

<p>But I don't see how the three patterns you describe, or my #4, would make Hopkins LESS selective? I would think that these changes give Hopkins a greater variety of applicants to choose from, thus making the university MORE selective.</p>