Please! I need an honest opinion.

<p>Hey Guys, especially for those that have alrady received acceptance letters from JHU, can you give me your opinion on if I may or may not be a good "qualified" candidate for Hopkins, my dream school since 9th grade. I know they have tough admissions, but should I give up hope and look for a less prominent school. Here are some of my stats (Some are predicted)</p>

<p>Race: Asian (Indian) but US citizen
Location: TX
School: Average public school
Rank: 9/468
SAT's: 2230 (660 CR though :-()
GPA: 99.2 W
EC/Misc:
2 Year (very hard to get) hospital internship (junior, senior yr)
President of HOSA (12th)
Vice President of MAO(math club) (11)
President of MAO (12)
Secretary of multicultural club (11)
National Honor Society 9,11-12
Chess Club 10-12
Took Practically every science class offered at school (by the end of senior year)
Not many service hours (about 30) in 11th
Won a few math contests
Perfect attendance for 5 yrs
APs: 4Chem, 5Hist, can't predict others yet
edit: National Merit Commended (212)</p>

<p>Strengths/Weaknessed: Excellent Recs; average essays</p>

<p>What's your pitch? You need a pitch that u are perfect for JHU. I don't see that in your resume.</p>

<p>I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean like a hook?</p>

<p>Sort of a hook, but more of a "Why JHU is perfect for me over all others".</p>

<p>Oh.. Since I'm majoring in the health sciences (premed), would it not be enough to have membership (and being a president) of HOSA (health occupations students of america of 2 chapters) and the 2 yr hospital intership. Moreover, is the pitch something additional I'll need to have in ECs, or to set up and organize my resume with current stats to show my passion for this career. ...so confused :-()</p>

<p>You have a better shot if you disguise your premed intentions. However, you still have a good shot.</p>

<p>If u could work with someone on the faculty at JHU as an intern, that type of thing.</p>

<p>If Hopkins is your dream school I'd imagine that you would be applying ED. If so, I think your chances are great at being admitted. Your stats/resume looks very very good. Your outstanding academic background and internship at a hospital is your hook in my eyes, you don't need to intern with a JHU Prof, let your achievements speak for themselves. </p>

<p>I honestly think you will be quite competitive if you apply ED or RD.</p>

<p>Agreed has good shot, but something specific to JHU would be great asset. VERY tough school to get into.</p>

<p>def apply, but you do look very much like the average hopkins applicant and that means you have about a 26.7% chance of getting accepted if you applied this year :)</p>

<p>Thanks for your input guys. Much appreciated. Although Hopkins IS my dream school, my parents are reluctant about me applying early, b/c of the binding contract. (This is also b/c my safety college, UTDallas, will easily grant me a full ride +expenses, allowing me to save up for med school)</p>

<p>I had another question :-), 2 of my friends that just got into MIT, said that if you are going to a college for undergrad premed, such as Hopkins, then don't bother going to that school for Med school, b/c they dont prefer people from the same school for Grad and thus acceptance is rare. Is this true to any extent?</p>

<p>It doesn't improve your chances per se, though if u cozy up to med school faculty u improve your chances.</p>

<p>Just to clear up a few things:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Bill<em>h</em>pike's statement, "You have a better shot if you disguise your premed intentions" is not true. The Admissions committee can see through fake selections of intended majors and that can hurt you in the review process. Be honest with your application, you have the same shot as any other applicant in the review process.</p></li>
<li><p>For what bm95050 wrote about 2 friends at MIT's opinion on med school acceptances, that does not apply to Hopkins. In fact, every year the largest number of undergraduates from any one school in the enrolling JHU Med School class is made of JHU undergraduates.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Take all of this advice with a grain of salt. You don't exactly need a "hook" per se. A solid, well rounded list of ec's along with good grades and decent SAT scores is what they are looking for. Spend time on your essays and really make yourself sound interesting and smart in them. Absolutely do not disguise your application simply because you wish to become a physician. There is much more to you than your path of study in college and the adcom wants to see you. I was honestly surprised I got into Hopkins with my super subpar stats but I came to realize that it's because I just had a varied, well rounded background and my essays were witty and made me sound pretty intelligent. The fact that I put philosophy as my major probably didnt hurt, :p</p>

<p>Edit: Take AdmissionsDaniels's advice more seriously.</p>

<p>He does work in admissions afterall :P</p>

<p>Thanks very much guys for all your help, especially AdmissionsDaniel. :-)</p>

<p>"The Admissions committee can see through fake selections of intended majors"</p>

<p>If only this were true. There is a huge amount of posturing and positioning among applicants to top schools. It works, and everyone knows it works.</p>

<p>mensa160 - When I wrote that statement I was only commenting about how things are done at Hopkins. We take a unique approach to application review in which we review the complete application and are well trained to "read between the lines."</p>

<p>Yes, there is a lot of "packaging" these days, but through our holistic approach to reviewing applications we can cut through all the "posturing and positioning" to get to the heart of the application and what each student will offer to Hopkins.</p>

<p>One thing to note to everyone else reading this thread -- when learning about college admissions go to the source. I have been working in the field for nine years I think I know what I am talking about.</p>

<p>I would recomend that any potential applicant read through the "official RD results thread" to get a good look at how Johns Hopkins makes it's decisions. There are some trends that are pretty obvious. Of course, as Admissions Daniel said, we aren't adcoms. There are alot of variables we don't know. However, there are a lot of patterns that apply at almost all selective colleges.</p>

<p>I think you have a good chance. By the looks of it you probably want to do pre-med. If you want to do BME, do some research over the summer. It'll show that your interested in JHU, since they have sooo much research going on. Don't worry too much about SAT and PSAT. I got 2260 (m800, w800, cr 600) and Natl Merit Commended and I got into BME. Your e.c's look somewhat like mine; just that I was president of Key Club instead of HOSA. All in all, you'll do fine.</p>