What’s New: 2010-11 Application Changes
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Posted by: Admissions_Daniel | 
August 18 2010 | 
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Thankfully applications are now online.
At the start of every summer the Admissions staff has an in-depth discussion where we reflect back on the recently completed admissions cycle and begin to discuss the next cycle. This year’s discussion was held in early June, followed by subsequent meetings, and by the end of July, consensus was reached on what changes would go through and what changes the Admissions counseling staff will consider down the road.
I am a big advocate for these discussions because implementing some changes every year means that during the long days of winter, when my life is taken over by application reading, there is some “newness” to the process. Also, having these discussions soon after the admissions review process has been completed – allows all of us the chance to raise concerns about new or different information that could help in our committee deliberations. As I review the updates we have made to the application process for the 2010-11 admissions cycle, it is clear that there will be “newness” when reviewing applications and some of the information gaps will be filled.
For those of you just beginning your senior year in high school, you are also probably beginning to review application forms, deadlines, instructions, essay prompts, and all that other business. This blog entry will present to you the changes in the application process to Johns Hopkins University for freshman admission to the fall 2011 semester, and also go over a few reminders. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to post them on the Ask Admissions section of the Hopkins Forums.
Reminder About Application Forms and Deadlines:
Just like last year, freshman candidates to Johns Hopkins must apply by using the Universal College Application (UCA) or the Common Application (CA), along with the Johns Hopkins Supplement. No preference is given to one application format over the other but it is important to remember that you have to apply with the UCA & JHU supplement OR the CA & JHU supplement. All of these forms can be found online and we encourage students to submit their applications online. If you must file a paper application, please review the information on our Application Web page.
Universal College Application
Common Application
As far as deadlines, I first refer you to our very helpful Deadlines and Requirements Web page. As has been the case for as long as I have worked at Hopkins we offer two decision plans. Our Early Decision plan is binding – and has a November 1 application deadline; Early Decision notifications will be released on or around December 15. Our other decision plan is Regular Decision, with a January 1 deadline and decision release at the end of March. We have no other decision plans – no early action, no rolling admissions, no single-choice early action, no early decision plan II, no third-choice early rolling action plan VII. Just ED and RD. Pretty simple.
A Change to Required Application Materials:
O.K. A challenge. Here is the list of required application materials for all freshman applicants. See if you can see what is different this year from last year.
- Common Application or Universal College Application
- Johns Hopkins Supplement
- $70 application fee or fee waiver
- CA or UCA Essay / Personal Statement and both short answer questions on the JHU Supplement
- Secondary School Report (includes HS transcript, school profile)
- Guidance Counselor letter of recommendation
- 2 teacher letters of recommendation
- SAT Reasoning exam OR ACT with Writing (SAT subject exams recommended)
So what is different? Give up? Look at the second to last item – teacher letters of recommendation. This year that category is plural. While in previous years we only required applicants to obtain one teacher evaluation – this year the Admissions committee wants to review three recommendations for each applicant – one from your counselor and two from your teachers. Recommendations are an important part of our holistic admissions review process, especially during committee discussions, so requiring a second teacher recommendation this year was an obvious change. If you have questions about letters of recommendation feel free to ask them on the Recommendations thread of the Hopkins Forums.
Our New Essay / Short Answer Policy:
Eagle-eyed blog readers would realize that there are several answers to what is different in the requirements list. Not only did we make an adjustment to the letters of recommendation requirements but we made a change to the essay and short answer requirements too. Our new instructions are listed in the Johns Hopkins Supplement – Question #8. This year, applicants are required to respond to the essay/personal statement part of the Common Application / Universal College Application and then also reply to both of the short answer questions listed on the Johns Hopkins Supplement. I recently posted a more complete explanation of this policy on the Hopkins Forums which also includes the prompts for each essay / short answer question. Check out that post on the Hopkins Forums here.
Pretty simple: COLLEGE
A New Policy Related to Biomedical Engineering for ED Applicants:
This next change only relates to applicants who are interested in the Biomedical Engineering major at Johns Hopkins and are choosing to apply Early Decision. If you do not fit both of these categories then skip to the next section. For those of you who are ED applicants and who will select Biomedical Engineering as your first choice major on the Johns Hopkins Supplement, please read and re-read the following so you understand our new Early Decision policy clearly.
As always, applicants to Johns Hopkins who want to be considered for admission to our only limited enrollment major, Biomedical Engineering, must select BME as their first-choice major on the Johns Hopkins Supplement. Applicants will be reviewed for admission to the University first and then subsequently for selection to the BME major. Applicants may be admitted to the University and the BME major, or admitted to the University but not the major. This policy is in effect for both ED applicants and RD applicants.
The new policy impacts the cases of Early Decision applicants who selected BME as their first choice major and were admitted to the University but not the BME major. In such cases, the applicant is released from the Early Decision contract to enroll at Johns Hopkins and may apply to other colleges. However, these students must make a decision about enrollment at Johns Hopkins and return their Candidate Reply form by January 15. Here is how we explain the policy on our Web site:
Early Decision applicants who applied to but were not admitted to the BME major are released from the Early Decision contract to enroll at Johns Hopkins and may apply to other colleges but must make a decision about enrollment at Johns Hopkins University and return their Candidate Reply Form to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions by January 15.
If you were not accepted to the BME program but still want to attend Johns Hopkins, you can choose to enroll by submitting the Candidate Reply Form and enrollment deposit. You do not need to select a new major at this time, but you should inform us of your academic interests when completing the Candidate Reply Form. All other majors and programs at Johns Hopkins are available to you and you may change your intended major over the summer if you choose.
If you choose not to enroll, check the appropriate box on your Candidate Reply Form and return it to us. Your application will be withdrawn from Johns Hopkins University.
More simplified … ED students admitted to the University but not to the BME program are required to do one of the following actions by the response date of January 15:
1) Select to enroll at JHU under the ED contract and select any other intended major other than BME.
OR
2) Break the ED contract and withdraw from the applicant pool. One cannot delay their enrollment to consider offers from other institutions and one’s admission will not be held past January 15.
This new policy is more direct and encourages students who apply Early Decision to Johns Hopkins to do so because Johns Hopkins is their first choice as a University, not because of a single major.
A New Word Added to our Standardized Test Requirements Page:
For the coming admissions cycle we have not changed our standardized test requirements; however, we have added an important word to our instructions. We still require all applicants to submit either the SAT Reasoning exam or ACT with writing. No change there. We also still recommend but not require applicants to submit three SAT II subject exams. The change here is that we have added the word “strongly” in front of recommended when speaking about subject exams. We have added this emphasis because we want applicants to strongly consider submitting SAT subject exams. We do not require them because we do not want the submission of subject exams to prevent a student from applying to Hopkins, but it is our preference that students take subject exams, submit them with their application, and take three exams.
To elaborate, there is no stated advantage or disadvantage to submitting SAT II subject exams. It is the choice of each individual student whether he or she wants to submit subject exam scores and how many exams they want to submit. However, we want applicants to consider our recommendations seriously; therefore, submitting such scores will make a difference in the application review. There is no way to predict whether submitting scores will impact the review of the application positively or negatively, as they will be part of the comprehensive review of an applicant’s file.
The Quest for the YES Begins
So a few new things for you applicants to the Johns Hopkins Class of 2015 to mull over. I hope this entry helped and I wish you all the best as you start the application process. Check back throughout the fall as Shannon, myself, and our colleagues post additional blog entries about the application process, components of the application, and even provide some advice along the way.
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