I don’t post much anymore, but i do like helping prospective students where i can. Hopkins is definitely getting harder to get into.
Hopkins:
Enrolled Freshman SAT middle 50 range for math and verbal: 1420 to 1530 (these are combined ranges, individual ranges for math and verbal might be less than 1420 in aggregate; upper range is consistent with last year’s enrolled class range of 1360 to 1530. Larger amount of enrolled asians (28%) this year compared to last year (21%) likely accounts for the increase in test scores on lower range.
Students in top 10% class rank: 92% (last year was 88%)
I’m a 2013 JHU Neuroscience graduate and seeing how quickly its admissions stats have increased over the past few years is shocking. It has been great for me as a graduate (makes me look more and more accomplished), but when I was accepted in 2009 the acceptance rate was over 26%! I wonder if I would have been accepted now. Another thing to consider is now that Hopkins is on the “first page” as a “Top 10” school you can bet the acceptance rate is going to drop another few percentage points next cycle as more people apply.
In general most internationally well known schools, especially focused on STEM,
have had their stats increasing. I have heard same from schools I would
have considered a safety school years ago, now very difficult to get in.
JHU is not only riding this wave of increased global applications, and excessive test prep,
but also making an effort to move away from holistic admissions.
I visited and while admissions says it’s holistic, others told me their president
is trying to boost rankings via SAT/ACT boost. The unofficial min scores have indeed
been raised. They will not take a person with better EC but lower test scores any longer.
Not the only school doing this.
^because I’m sure you have this level of insight right? You can still be holistic and focused on stats.
Based on your threads, you seem a little (and that’s putting it mildly) uninformed. Ron Daniels has been around since 2009, test scores have been very stagnant up until 2 years ago. and even then, the ACT range has barely moved (from a consistent 31 to 34 to now 32 to 34). It’s not as dramatic as say Vandy where ACT scores moved 2-3 points at both ends.
One thing I noticed about JHU and some of its peers this year is that their initial acceptance rate plummeted but lots of kids were put on the wait list and were later admitted. So, their admittance percentile that they announced back in April seemed really low, but clearly was artificial bc many were later admitted. As I said, JHU was not alone in this admission strategy. And Harvard took many more in SCEA, probably bc Stanford is breathing down their neck.
While I agree with #3 that just about every ranked school has seen its average admissions stats go up and admission rate drop, Hopkins’ cutting its acceptance rate in half in just six years is more than a growing interest in STEM, private elite schools, etc. I do find it curious that this consistent momentum in the rankings for JHU is coinciding with President Daniel’s announcement of his 10 by 20 Plan http://web.jhu.edu/administration/president/10x20 (JHU’s 10 visionary goals to be reached by 2020), which includes building an “undergraduate experience so it stands amongst the top 10 in the nation.” Nowhere does it state that they are defining this “top 10” metric by the annual US News ranking, but I can’t imagine how else he plans to measure this very arbitrary goal. That being said, the university was moving up in rankings before this plan was announced in 2013. I don’t hold it against these schools who care to some extent about these rankings (I would like to think every school cares about how they are perceived by the media, students, etc., let alone the amount of money and back-patting associated with an improved ranking). If they are falsifying data just to move up (e.g. Claremont McKenna) or using underhanded methods like #6 is suggesting to manipulate data then for shame, but I have yet to see any data or reasonable claims this is occurring at Hopkins.
@RenaissanceMom do you know how many students were accepted off the wait list this past year? In recent years I recall reports citing 30-50 students from the list were accepted, so maybe this is a smoking gun if you’re correct.
I, like others here, find it hard to imagine Hopkins moving away from the holistic approach given their demonstrated interest in diversity. I think it’s safe to say Hopkins would not have anywhere near the same level of diversity if a stats-centric approach was being unilaterally applied. Furthermore, painting President Daniels as some rank-obsessed Czar is definitely mischaracterizing the man. He has done a great job focusing resources and energy back into the undergraduate campus and taken significant action to better incorporate Hopkins into the Baltimore community. Anyone I’ve talked to who attended Hopkins 10-15 years ago described a very different campus with older amenities and less opportunity. If it’s true that a partial interest in improved rankings got us here then so be it, but I refuse to believe it the only, or most important, factor. I’ve had lunch with the man and, barring I’m under his Canadian spell of charm and sincerity, he is genuinely interested in improving the educational experience at Hopkins and the quality of life for the Baltimore community.
In years past, this has fluctuated from 20 people to none accepted - hardly a significant number. The waitlist for Hopkins is a response to projected yield more so than other schools that use it as a crux to enroll the class while minimizing the acceptance rate. Hopkins can already do so using early decision and does not have to reply on waitlists as a result.
Given Hopkins consistently overenrolled (see last year again where the project freshman class was supposed to be 1300 but ended up being over 1400 or even the year before), they are using the waitlist for more enrollment management. It’s been reported unofficially around 30 to 40 people were accepted off the waitlist this year, an absolutely insignificant amount and one that causes the acceptance rate to fluctuate by maybe 0.1 or 0.2 percent - again minimal.
I’m glad to know JHU is putting emphasis on SAT/ACT. That’s how it should be for all schools in the first place like Vandy. There is no one measurement other than standardized testing to determine “intelligence” in the entire U.S? People on here who say that people who get high scores shouldn’t be considered as much as ECsdontknoe what they are talking about. @NixonDenier
College Board has tried again and again to find a correlation between SAT scores and subsequent freshman undergraduate GPA, and they are unsuccessful again and again, despite frequent alterations in the test format.
In fact, hsGPA seems to be a better indicator on its own than the SATs, and even College Board continues to recommend both hsGPA and SAT scores need to both be considered for better prediction of undergrad success.
Basically, standardized tests are terrible at measuring intelligence (and we’re defining intelligence as succeeding in college) - but - standardized tests are the best we have.
If I am below those stats weighted GPA:4.08 and unweighted GPA: 3.7 and have a 32 ACT is their bme program out of reach? Should I still apply, btw my ec’s are pretty average as well.