<p>has a lot of community service but little or no leadership; no sports
volunteered in a hospital (foolishly thinks JHU admission officers love to hear this); boring essay; mediocre recs... (asian or white)</p>
<p>class president and other leadership positions; musical talent (sent in piano tape & is considering taking classes at Peabody); star in HS play; very creative/interesting essay; terrific recs... (any race)</p>
<p>likely major: Mechanical or Electrical Engineering</p>
<p>captain of soccer and baseball teams in HS and expresses a desire to play Div III sports at Hopkins; in HS chorus and would like to join an a capella singing group at JHU; very funny essay, great recs.. (any race)</p>
<p>Also, I think the biggest mistake people make is thinking that going to JHU will be a great route for pre-med. It absolutely isnt UNLESS you can be at the top of the class there. For the top students getting into JHU med is a relative lock, but there are scores who can't handle the pre-med pressure and cutthroat competition that exists there. For these students going to Northwestern or any other less pre-med focused school is a better option. Med school is HUGE on gpa.</p>
<p>Med schools require only 6 courses (including Organic Chem, Physics, Calculus, etc.) and that all you need to be qualified. Yes, GPA is important but JHU students are savvy... they major in something they like and can do well in. The lack of a core curriculum at JHU makes it easy for pre-meds to have a non-science major. Grading in the humanities at JHU isn't as hard as it is in the sciences b/c there is no curve. JHU is a great place for science, but it's also a great place for someone who just wants to focus on humanities or engineering too.</p>
<p>I still think that most "leadership" positions are just fluff. Honestly, who cares if you are President of the Key Club, Chess Club, Interact Club, and almost the captain of a sports team? True leadership is doing something unique in the community and setting an example.</p>
<p>If your peers elect you class president, or if you're Editor of your HS paper, JHU would see this favorably. If your Sec. of some stupid sounding club it's still better than nothing!</p>
<p>Actually its eight. (Two classes of Chem, Bio, Orgo, Physics). The issue though is that the grades you get in those courses are critical, and JHU has a history of weeding out the non-top students. I totally agree that JHU is great overall in many areas, and a great overall school. Its just that I think people who go there because they think it has a "great pre-med" are doing themselves a disservice. None of the three kids from my high school who went there for pre-med ended up going to med school, and largely this was due to the competition. I guess my point is that pre-med should not be a factor in choosing Hopkins.</p>
<p>I agree that there are many other schools, including all the Ivies, that would be at least as good if you only care about being a doctor some day. However, some people may be passionate about science but not want to go to med school. JHU is really great for undergraduate research and may be an ideal place for someone who wants to focus on Genetics, Neuroscience, Biophysics or Earth & Planetary Sciences, for example.</p>
<p>One thing not mentioned in the "capsules" above is financial need. Johns Hopkins is NOT need blind and, given the choice between two candidates with similar stats, openly admits that they will take the one who needs less financial aid. Just something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>Your kinda wrong. JHU never compares 2 or more applicants who all apply for aid and admit the one who needs the least. All the admission officers know is whether the applicant applied for aid or not (they don't determine need; the FA office does after they're admitted). 95% of the admissions decisions made do not take whether or not the student applied for aid into consideration. It's like that at other schools too- like Brown and Dartmouth...</p>
<p>Brown and Dartmouth are need blind. Johns Hopkins is not. There's a difference. JHU admissions officers DO see if a student applied for financial aid or not. If two students have the exact same qualifications, they're going to go for the one without financial aid. Here's an article about admissions:</p>
<p>*About three-quarters of the way through the admissions process, White sends over to Financial Services the names of applicants being considered for admission. Frishberg et al then set out to allocate the available aid, awarding more grant money and fewer loans to the more desirable "high profile" students, in a process called "preferential packaging." (Freshmen who receive a Hopkins grant collect an average of $15,010.) The next step: tallying up the total cost of financial aid that the prospective class would require.</p>
<p>Inevitably, the total need exceeds the amount of available aid. There are two options, explains Frishberg: reduce or eliminate the financial aid awards of some students, or withdraw certain students from the pool of applicants. "It's not a pretty game," she says.*</p>
<p>A little more than 5% of the applicants are affected, Ritchieboy.</p>
<p>I am certain Brown is NOT 100% need blind. </p>
<p>warblerdrule86: I don't know what you are quoting from. I do know that Paul T. White was the Dean of Admissions at JHU many years ago. He no longer works for JHU Undergraduate Admissions. The current head of admissions at the college is John Latting (Ph.D.), who previously worked at Caltech admissions. I do know that JHU gives much better financial aid packages than it did in the past. US News actually ranks universities that are expensive but worth the price and it ranks JHU among the top dozen in the whole country based on percentage of students receiving aid and the amount of the average aid package. In recent years, alumni like billionaire Michael Bloomberg have given millions to JHU to go for financial aid. Did you know that JHU is one of the Top 5 universities in terms of fund raising? (total money raised- not % of alumni that give) </p>
<p>Did you know that Brown admitted over 30% of their transfer applicants last year and virtually all of the admitted transfers did NOT apply for/need aid? JHU admitted only 13% of its transfer applicant pool and most of them also didn't qualify for aid... Unlike Brown, JHU gives a lot of merit based scholarships.</p>
<p>Ummm...Ritchie, Brown is 100% need blind. It was one of the first things new President Ruth Simmons enacted when she was brought in a couple years ago.</p>
<p>Also Brown had a 24% transfer accept rate last year, yet this has varied significantly over the years. Some years brown has been as low as 11% for transfers.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins does give many scholarships, but they're not too generous. The largest, excluding engineering students, is only $21500 a year for 20 students. Considering JHU's huge endowment, this is not too impressive. The University of Chicago (smaller endowment), for example, provides full tuition to 30 students. Brown IS need-blind. This happened fairly recently, though, so your confusion is understandable. The 30 need-blind institutions (that meet full need) are (that I know of; there may be more):
Amherst College<br>
Middlebury College
Boston College<br>
Northwestern University<br>
Brown University<br>
Pomona College
Claremont McKenna College<br>
Princeton University
Columbia University<br>
Rice University
Cornell University<br>
Swarthmore College
Dartmouth College<br>
University of Chicago
Davidson College<br>
University of Notre Dame
Duke University<br>
University of Pennsylvania
Emory University<br>
Vanderbilt University
Georgetown University<br>
Wake Forest University
Grinnell College<br>
Wellesley College<br>
Harvard University<br>
Wesleyan University
Haverford College<br>
Williams College
MS. Institute of Technology
Yale University</p>
<p>Please don't make offensive and ignorant remarks on CC. It's not very nice.</p>
<p>An undergraduate girl was very recently murdered near campus, in her apartment building. So, a number of new students may shy away from JHU and who knows, they may be drawing on their waitlist.</p>
<p>That's true. That's the second death this year, too (I think). Considering almost all JHU juniors/seniors live off campus, safety is a very valid concern. I thought the campus was very safe and sort of insulated when I visited. Immediately off campus, though, it wasn't nearly as safe. I'm not sure how many people are going to shy away from JHU this year, though. Baltimore has had a bad reputation for crime for a while. :(</p>
<p>Believe what you want, but Johns Hopkins is NOT need blind. Here's a direct quote from their financial aid website: In most cases, students' admissibility to Johns Hopkins is determined prior to their aid application evaluation.</p>
<p>The key is "in most cases." What they are saying between the lines is that need IS considered in some cases. Need more proof - here's an article on their own web site written for their own publication describing how financial need plays into the admissions process:
<a href="http://www.jhu.edu/%7Ejhumag/0998web/tuit02.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0998web/tuit02.html</a> Yes, they have a new admissions VP, but the process is still the same.</p>
<p>Most importantly, JHU does NOT guarantee to meet full need. They are notorious for accepting students and offering financial aid packages that do not cover full estimated need. </p>
<p>This is not to bash JHU at all - it's a terrific school and well worth considering. But I have seen too many cases of kids who have their heart set on JHU who don't get their full need met there and have to look elsewhere. While they may have "improved" their financial aid, I can think of several cases right off the top of my head where this happened to people LAST YEAR. It's just something to be realistic about - forewarned is fore-armed. You may get a better financial aid package elsewhere.</p>