How to Write the Johns Hopkins Essay 2016-2017
Check out the Johns Hopkins University Application Essays for 2017-2018
Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins University prides itself as America’s first research university, and for good reason. Their research and medicine programs are amongst the best, and Hopkins pours the most money into their globally renowned research of any school in the country. In this vein, Hopkins emphasizes a focus on teaching and research, knowledge and discovery.
Attention is primarily given to the strong and competitive medicine and BME programs, but Hopkins also boasts strong political science and liberal arts programs, as well as a well-known engineering department.
Students at Hopkins are hardworking and driven, and although classes are very challenging, students can attest to a well-balanced experience. Opportunities are bountiful through the 9 academic divisions and various competitive D3 and D1 athletics, and students are known to take advantage of these opportunities while picking their own path.
The athletic teams (especially the lacrosse team) are dominant, and facilities from athletics to housing are state of the art. Additionally, on-campus security is unparalleled in terms of quality and safety.
With an enrollment of 12,000 and an acceptance rate of 11.5%, entry into Blue Jay territory is exceedingly competitive. To have the best fighting chance, it’s important to emphasize certain key points and follow the guidelines, laid out ahead, for its sole prompt.
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Johns Hopkins Application Essay Prompt
Johns Hopkins University was founded in 1876 on a spirit of exploration and discovery. As a result, students can pursue a multi-dimensional undergraduate experience both in and outside of the classroom. Given the opportunities at Hopkins, please discuss your current interests — academic or extracurricular pursuits, personal passions, summer experiences, etc. — and how you will build upon them here.
This supplement is a unique take on the “Why this school?” prompt. The prompt itself first informs the reader of some of Hopkins’s key values in exploration and discovery and how the university emphasizes a multi-dimensional undergraduate experience. In keeping with the idea of a multi-dimensional experience, it’s important to convey yourself as a multi-dimensional applicant, which means highlighting more than just your academics or your activities through your application.
You have the opportunity to touch on a little of everything that makes you who you are, and piece together your overall application to communicate who you are as a person. Even though Johns Hopkins is known for its medicine and biological sciences, the school takes a liberal arts approach when accepting students, so don’t stress if your current interests aren’t entirely oriented towards biology.
Feel free to address specific subjects, activities, and extracurricular activities you like, interests of yours that you may not have mentioned elsewhere in your application, and how you will pursue these interests specifically at Hopkins.
Do your research — find out which clubs exist at Hopkins that you’d like to join (like the Adoremus a cappella group), what kind of research is ongoing and what labs you would like to get involved with (such as the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Lab, led by Joel Bader), which classes you’re interested in taking (such as Elements of Macroeconomics through the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences), etc.
Avoid generic college statements, i.e., “The campus is nice and the academics are good.” This prompt is very much about showing what specific aspects of JHU you are interested in, what you are passionate about, and how you will further your passions at Hopkins.
Good luck with admissions, and Go Bluejays!
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