Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was founded in 1876 as the country's first research institution. And from inventing rubber gloves for use during surgery to developing the first successful treatment to desensitize people against bee stings, Hopkins scholars have been at the forefront of research ever since.

With 5600 students, Hopkins is that medium-sized institution that so many students want. The mostly contiguous campus, filled with brick buildings and green grass, is actually in the heart of Baltimore, so it's an urban location but a traditional campus feel. I will note, however, that the Peabody Institute is on a separate campus which is a 10-minute shuttle ride away. We were told that if you have to wait longer than 15 minutes for the Blue Jay shuttle, you get a Lyft for free. Peabody offers many majors in music and dance, Including bachelor's degrees in Hip-hop, Computer music, Historical Performance, Recording Arts and Sciences, and Jazz. Non-majors are permitted to take private lessons as well, after a screening audition.

Academically, Johns Hopkins has long been known to be very rigorous, very selective, and very competitive. In the admitted class of 2024, the average unweighted GPA was 3.95, average SAT's were 1530-1570, and 99% of students were in the top 10% of their high school class. They are requiring standardized test scores moving forward, and we were told that while the science section of the ACT is not required, you might want to submit it if you plan to study science. They shared with us how they read applications, and I came away with 2 things that seemed to be important to them: First and foremost, they want to know how you have developed your intellectual interests. They also want to hear about family responsibilities and jobs, especially as they may impact a student's ability to develop their extracurriculars.

Moral and Political Economy is a new major; Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies as well as Systems Engineering are new majors and minors, and 2 additional new minors are Energy and Civic Life.

There's a lot of construction going on on campus: The library Is getting a makeover and they're building a student center which will open next year. It's amazing to think that they never had a student center before, but I give them a lot of credit for putting the effort and money into trying to build a strong sense of community and social engagement. With 20% of the student population being Caucasian, this campus is very diverse and I would think that students from many different backgrounds would feel comfortable here. Lastly I want to Share that their website has an excellent college planning guide for students, including a link to "Essays that Worked." I really appreciate the transparency and fantastic information for students who are not working with counselors.