Live Blogging on ED Notification Day (Class of 2015)

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Posted by Admissions_Daniel 

Good day Early Decision applicants. So here we are again. Six straight years. Starting in 2005, I began a tradition of live blogging on decision notification days and will continue today with the release of our Early Decision notifications for the Class of 2015. I will be “micro-blogging” through the day to provide you all with a first-hand look into what takes place in Mason Hall (home to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions) on the day we release decisions. You can also follow me on Twitter for regular 140 character updates — @AdmissionDaniel. For those looking for details on how the process will work today, please return to the blog entry I posted this past Monday. Check back throughout the day to follow the process and learn some inside details about this year’s Johns Hopkins Early Decision applicant pool and class.   

5:56 a.m. -- Four minutes before my alarm clock will go off and I am up already. Since college I have always woken up just before my alarm clock goes off. It is nice to have an internal alarm clock in my head since I can’t stand the noise my actual alarm makes. Time to start my day. First up, is bundling up so I can walk my dog Soze. (Well really that was the second thing I will do as updating the blog clearly is more important today.) 

6:06 a.m. - Dog walking FAIL. Soze doesn’t want to get up. This has been his way the last couple of weeks since the weather in Baltimore has become more frigid. He prefers to sleep in and then walk once the sun comes up. I am not complaining. I guess as he nears 10 years in age he is becoming much wiser. So instead of the walk Mike and Mike in the Morning is on in the background and I am going to do a bit of morning work before getting ready to head into the office. I just hope Greeny and Golic don’t talk more about Cliff Lee signing with the Philliesl; as a die-hard Mets fan that decision just saddens me greatly.   

A lazy, yet wise, Soze preferring to sleep in rather then walking in the cold.

6:51 a.m. - Done with e-mail responses. Done with Facebook posts. Tweet’ed. To Do list set for the day and I am happy to say that I just have seven items on the list. My morning is moving along quite smoothly. Soze is still not up, so I am going to shower, shave (ha ha … inside joke again), dress, and head in to work. Oh yeah, I need to find an item in my house I am willing to re-gift for our “White Elephant” gift exchange at our Holiday Party later today. Hmmmm, what should I bring? 

8:09 a.m. - Just got in the office. Pretty quiet here which is a good thing. Uneventful commute except for the fact that it is so cold outside that I think my mind finally understands the true meanings of the words frigid and bitter. Going to start my morning routine.   

Despite frigid temp., Mason Hall always looks amazing as the sun rises.

 8:21 a.m. - Pretty easy morning routine. E-mail accounts are clear. Voicemails returned. Social media sites monitored. Heck I even was able to solve my brain teaser of the day. That makes it 245 of 349. 70%. See if you can solve the puzzle. 

Brain teaser of the day. Can you solve it?

 9:10 a.m. - My day just got 100% more awesome for three reasons. (1) I created a great December 15 iTunes plalist -- a shuffle of all my Cure, The Killers, and Florence + the Machine songs. Strangely the mix works very well. (2) Reading the comments being posted put a huge smile on my face. Thanks for your kind words and I am glad you all appreciate the inside access I try to provide. AND (3) Admissions_Shannon just brought me holidays socks to wear. Check out how cool they are. 

Holiday socks. Thanks Admissions_Shannon.

 9:57 a.m. - Took my first foray to the third floor (our Operations center) to see how everything is moving along. We are in excellent shape for mailing by early afternoon at the latest. The admit packets are being sealed and stamped as I type this update and the next step is our last set of checks. No official word from Dean Latting yet that the class is sealed, but that should come shortly. Here are a couple of pictures of the “action” going on upstairs. 

Sealing and stamping admit packets.

Letters awaiting one last check.

10:35 a.m. - They are still working on things upstairs and we are still waiting for the final confirmation from Dean Latting. In the meantime, I put the finishing touches on our official Class of 2015 Facebook group and took one last look at our special Admitted Student Web site. All looks good. 

Check out the front page of the main Admissions site: http://apply.jhu.edu. So cool! The wait is almost over! And the story links directly to the blog. I love that. 

I am going to have some BIG AND EXCITING NEWS in my next update. No it has nothing to do with an early release of decisions or anything even related to Early Decision. Just something related to Hopkins Interactive and an internal tradition that will continue today. Just going to make sure that everything is ready. 

11:04. -- IT’S ALIVE!!! Go to http://www.hopkins-interactive.com. If you are a frequent visitor to our Hopkins Interactive site you will probably notice a major re-design. This is the BIG AND EXCITING NEWS I just mentioned. Hopkins Interactive and the Hopkins Insider blog launched in December 2005 just about the same time as the release of Early Decision notifications for the JHU Class of 2010. Ever since we have considered December 15 a big anniversary and we try to launch a new version of the site. Simply put, we have traveled light years from where we were five years ago. 

Hopkins Interactive version 6.0 is LIVE!

 I asked the mastermind behind our Hopkins Interactive design and implementation, JHU_Joe, to discuss the upgrade. Here is what he wrote:   

The new Hopkins Interactive preserved many of the features of the first redesign I completed for Hopkins Interactive, mainly the thumbnails for each post that gets published, as well as the “news-ticker” featuring some of our most recent posts. This time we show posts outside of the “news-ticker” using their thumbnail as a form of identification which allowed us to free up the bottom half of the page for something we’ve been wanting to do for a while: advocating our blogs. Most students will make it to Hopkins Interactive or Hopkins Insider without discovering the rest of our blogs. Now we show the most recent post from each of our major blogs, AND we’ve added a Related Posts feature on all of our current blogs that obtains related posts from ALL of our blogs. Finally, the design itself is (at least in my opinion) 10x better than what it was a few days ago. The colors combine in a way we didn’t see on the old site, and this design is the final step in bringing HI into the modern world of web design. Not only did we completely redo the design from scratch, but we re-coded the entire backend of the site (which took about 20 hours). Enjoy everyone! And be sure to follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/JHU_Joe! 

11:11 a.m. - The Early Decision Class of 2015 is set. Dean Latting just made the announcement. Time for one last check of all the decision letters and packets and then to the post office we go.  

11:44 a.m. - EARLY DECISION NOTIFICATIONS FOR THE CLASS OF 2015 ARE IN THE MAIL. Photographic proof below.  

Stacked and ready to ship out.

Waiting to be loaded.

Putting the new socks to work.

And off they go.

12:09 p.m. - Every year the most popular question we are asked after the release of Early Decision notification is what were the results. This year our communications specialist, the amazing Shelly Placek, worked with Dean Latting to create  the following official press release: 

Press Release
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Johns Hopkins University
December 15, 2010
—————————————————
Wednesday, December 15, 2010—The Office of Undergraduate Admissions officially admitted the first members of the Class of 2015 today, sending admit packets and e-mails to 518 accepted Early Decision applicants. These talented students were chosen from a record applicant pool of 1,330, a 15 percent increase in Early Decision applications from last year. 

A snapshot of the accepted Early Decision class: 

• Early Decision applications received: 1,330
• Early Decision students admitted: 518
• Early Decision acceptance rate: 39%
• Males/females: 54/46
• Preliminary areas of academic interest:
  • Whiting School of Engineering: 31%
  • Krieger School of Arts and Sciences: 69%
    • Humanities: 13%
    • Natural sciences: 32%
    • Social and behavioral sciences: 21%
    • Top five home states: New York, New Jersey, Maryland, California, Pennsylvania
    • 39 states represented, plus 48 international students from 20 different countries
    • Top five countries (other than US): South Korea, China, Canada, India, Turkey

“I’m excited about this class,” said Dean of Undergraduate Admissions John Latting of this year’s Early Decision admits. “You can measure them all you want in terms of their grades and test scores but, more importantly, I think they are just a great group of students in terms of what they will bring to our campus community. It’s a great beginning to the Class of 2015.” 

The Class of 2015 will be completed with students selected from the Regular Decision applicant pool. Applications are due January 1, 2011, with admissions decisions being released by April 1. Regular Decision students are given until May 1 to enroll; official numbers for the Class of 2015 will be available in May. 

12:15 p.m. - Time for some “radio silence.” Now that we are done the Admissions staff is going to celebrate and enjoy our Holiday Party. I’ll be back later (close to 6 p.m.) with an update. Enjoy your collective afternoons. My socks and I are going to have an amazing time duck-pin bowling with my colleagues.  

4:13 p.m. - Just returned home after an awesome Holiday Party with my colleagues. We all enjoyed our second annual Duck Pin Bowling tournament and it was a blast. It was nice to let loose after a few weeks of stressful work. My team did awesome and though we did not win in the end, my teammate and co-blogger Admissions_Shannon had the highest score of anybody. I also did much better in year two nearly doubling my score to an 81, from a pitiful 42 last year. I am going to walk Soze and then take some Extra Stength Tylenol as my voice and throat are killing me. Be back soon with some important updates on how things will work after 6:00 p.m.  

4:36 p.m. - I was going through my e-mail and came across a message from my colleague Sarah Godwin with an attached MOV.file. Sarah created a short little video re-cap of the mailing of ED notifications. I thought I would share it with you all. (By the way, this is a big deal because I personally can be seen in a couple of shots of this video. I usually refrain from every putting any photographic of video evidence of my existence on the blog, but Sarah is pretty proud of the video so I had to share it.) Enjoy. 

5:00 p.m. - As my colleagues on the IT Team prepare to release the e-mail notifications there are a few important things I want you all to listen to and heed.  

FIRST, we will start sending e-mails after 6:00 p.m. EST. Please note the bold, italic, underlined emphasis on the key words start  and after.  This means that not everyone will get an e-mail in their in-box immediately at 6:00 p.m. It will take a while for all the e-mails to go out and there is a good chance we don’t start sending exactly at 6:00 p.m. If you keep refreshing your e-mail in-box at 6:00, 6:01, 6:04, 6:10, 6:11, and there is no message -- DO NOT PANIC and do not assume anything. Be patient and allow the process to work properly. 

SECOND, for the next hour (if not two hours) step away from the computer. Stop reading this blog. Stop refreshing your e-mail. Stop checking College Confidential (in fact you should stop that altogether for the future). Relax. Take a nap. Go do something that will calm you and distract you. Take your mind off of the clock.  

THIRD, and most importantly, after you receive your e-mail decision my strong suggestion is that you log-off of your computer and go spend some time with your family. No matter what decision you receive, get off the computer after you receive your e-mail. This is a major milestone in your young life, and you should share your initial reactions and emotions with your family and those closest to you. These people have been there since the first moment of your life, and they will be there FOREVER. Your family is not some online community. Your family is not Facebook. Your family is not some annonymous screenname. Your family is not this blog. Please heed this advice. Receive your decision and sign off. Don’t update your Facebook status. Don’t post a comment on this blog. Don’t go post your emotions on some Web site. Share your thoughts and emotions in the REAL WORLD first. The virtual world will be there later for you to provide a social media spin on your news.  

I say it every year … let the news sink in first. React in the real world before entering the cyber world.

6:47 p.m. - All the e-mails have been sent. The process seems to have gone quite smooth this year (fingers remain crossed). Just two bounce-back e-mails so far and I was able to correct the e-mails and send them again. Will continue to monitor throughout the evening. Now that decisions have been received I wanted to share some quick thoughts to each group:

TO THE ADMITS: Congratulations! I hope you are all so excited and got some time tonight to jump around and celebrate. You will get your admit packets soon and there will be a ton of information you will go through. Also, remember to use the Admitted Student Web Site, Hopkins Interactive, and the Class of 2015 Facebook group. But also pace yourself — August is still 9 months away. I will have more to say to you all in the coming weeks. Time to put that bumper sticker on the car!!!

TO THE DEFERS: The main message is that this was not a “no.” Instead it was a delay of your decision for another three month. I strongly suggest that you all read the discussion thread that I have set-up for deferred applicants: Early Decision Defers – Read This. 

TO THE DENIES: Please know that I understand how difficult receiving such news can be. My colleagues and I do not take pleasure in not offering admission to students, especially those where Hopkins is their first choice. A couple of years ago I wrote a post to denied applicants, and I recommend you all read it: A Posted for the Denied Applicant. I do wish you all the best of luck.

 8:49 p.m. - As it approaches 13 straight hours of live-blogging I am going to call it a day. Thanks to everyone who commented and I hope this trek through the day was helpful. I will return on Friday with a new blog entry with reflections on notification day and what’s next. Cheers!

Update Time, Again

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Posted by Admissions_Daniel

I had not planned on posting a new blog entry until this Wednesday, but it seems that many of you missed the information I posted a few weeks back on how Early Decision notifications will be posted (It’s Update Time posted November 24, 2010). Just since Friday we’ve received 37 e-mails to the gotojhu@jhu.edu account asking when ED notifications would be released and/or how ED applicants will be notified. So I’ve stepped away from our final admissions committee deliberations to share the following with all 1,330 anxious Early Decision applicants:

Early Decision notifications will be released on Wednesday, December 15.

Here is the plan for how everything will go on Wednesday:

* Class is confirmed: In the morning the Admissions staff will arrive at work and wait for Dean Latting to confirm that the Early Decision class is complete. Dean Latting usually spends the previous evening going over a statistical breakdown of the class and confirming final decisions on the most debated cases.

Admit packets waiting to be stuffed.

* Decisions are checked: Once the class has been confirmed, the Operations staff, along with assistance from the rest of the Admissions staff, will do one final check of all of our decision letters. Our office is very diligent in checking the right decision letter is going to the right applicants, and have a detailed triple-check process we take seriously.

* Decisions are mailed: Upon the completion of these checks, all admit packets and decision letters (defer and deny) are loaded into mail bins and taken directly to either the main Hopkins Mail Services station located in Mt. Washington, or the downtown Baltimore City Postal Office depending on the time of day. All the mail will enter the postal system by late afternoon on Wednesday, December 15. Admit packets are sent priority mail so they arrive typically within three days. Our decision letters are mailed first-class and can take 4-7 days to arrive. Please note international addresses will always take longer for both types of mail, and due to the holiday season the U.S. Postal Service does not guarantee any of these delivery estimates.

Priority mail envelopes awaiting labels and postage.

* Decisions are e-mailed: Sometime after 6:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, December 15, we will begin sending Early Decision notification e-mails. No decisions will be e-mailed prior to this time, and there is no exact time set when e-mails will begin being sent. Please do not ask for an exact time or how long it will take all the e-mails to be sent, as we cannot provide that information.

It can take up to an hour for all of our decision e-mails to be sent so don’t expect a new message in your in-box right at 6:00 p.m. Have patience. E-mail notifications are released in random order so there is no way to deduce the order that decisions will be released. Decision e-mails are sent only to those who included an active e-mail address with their application. (If an applicant does not receive an e-mail it is because either there was no e-mail provided with the application, the e-mail address provided no longer works, or a data entry error. Unfortunately, we do not re-send e-mails, so in such situations the student must wait for the mail to arrive.) We do not have a system of posting our decisions online or through a portal.

* No phone calls: We will not accept phone calls on Wednesday requesting the release of a decision over the phone. In fact, the office will be closed after decisions have been mailed as the entire Admissions staff will be attending a holiday party. It is our preference to not release decisions over the phone. If an applicant has not received their decision by Friday then he or she may call the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. We will only release the decision to the applicant, a parent or guardian of the applicant, or the applicant’s high school guidance counselor. Decisions will be released only if the identity of the caller can be reasonably assured. Please do not call asking why a certain decision was rendered as admissions committee decisions are confidential and we are unable to discuss the factors behind our decisions.

A scene from last year.

As I have been writing about our decision releases for a number of years now, I can always anticipate some of the most frequently asked questions:

Why are e-mails sent after 6:00 p.m.?
The reason we wait to release decision notification e-mails until the evening is we feel that receiving your college admissions decision should be a personal experience that you share with your family. We do not believe students should be receiving this news in the middle of the school day. So we will wait until the majority of our applicants are out of school to send our e-mail notifications. (Yes we understand that this system does not work neatly for international applicants.)

What happens if I do not receive an e-mail decision on Wednesday?
If an applicant does not receive an e-mail there a few things he or she can do:
(1.)Check your SPAM folders.
(2.) Check ANY and all e-mail accounts you have ever used during the college search process. We send the e-mail to the account you listed on your application. However, our database system does track all e-mail accounts that have ever been matched to your record, so on occasion the notification e-mail may be sent to old e-mail address. (So check e-mail addresses that you may have used when registering for the SAT/ACT for example.) 
(3.) Have your parents check their e-mail accounts too. Not sure how that happens, but it has happened in the past. If none of those methods work, then unfortunately the student will need to wait to receive the decision in the mail, or can call on Friday.

Every year some e-mail notifications just don’t work. There are a number reasons for an applicant not receiving an e-mail notification including: no e-mail was provided on the student’s application, the e-mail provided on the application is no longer active, there was a SPAM filter blocking the message, or some error occurred that caused a bounce-back. WE ARE UNABLE TO RE-SEND E-MAILS. Once again, in such situations the applicant must wait. We understand how frustrating that can be, but unfortunately mistakes can happen when processing over thousands of applications.

I applied to the biomedical engineering (BME) program; how will I learn of my decision?
BME decision e-mails will come as a second e-mail to all admitted students who selected BME as their first-choice major. Those notifications will also be sent on Wednesday following the release of all other decisions. Further details about your BME decision will be included in your decision packet/letter.

I was deferred. What does that mean?
Stay tuned. I will post information for deferred applicants a couple of days after the release of decisions.

Regular Decision mail keeps stacking up.

I hope you all find his information helpful. Back to committee for me. Check back on Wednesday as I once again live blog ED Notification Day.

It’s Update Time

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Posted by Admissions_Daniel

Greetings once again, faithful blog readers and welcome to those of you new to the Hopkins Insider Admissions blog. It’s been close to a month since the last time I personally composed a new blog entry and I thought it was time to return with a number of updates. Not blogging as frequently as I used to has been pretty strange, but I’m glad that the Hopkins Insider has not faltered in my absence. I’ve really enjoyed reading all the recent guest author entries from my colleagues and learning so much about their fields of expertise. As well, Admissions_Shannon’s entries about her travels, her office responsibilities, and her love of all things Baltimore have been a welcome addition to the blog. I hope you all agree with my completely biased opinion. But enough patting ourselves on the back … on to the updates.

Clearly, the first update many of you want to read about is where things stand with Early Decision.  Other sources may have reported tentative totals for our 2011 ED applications, but the accurate number as confirmed by Dean of Undergraduate Admissions John Latting this morning is 1,330 applications. This is a 15% increase from our 1,155 total from last year and continues a nice trend over the last 10-plus years which the following chart displays:

The rise in ED applications to JHU.

We are all excited to see this continued increase in applicants stating that Johns Hopkins is their first choice school.  Over the last few weeks there have been discussions of what led to the increase. Many agree that it is a combination of factors, including the rise of students applying early in general, the increased discussion of our Early Decision plan this year, and evidence that Hopkins continues to be a “hot” school. Personally, I think the increase has everything to do with Dean Latting deciding to write a guest blog on the topic of Early Decision.

Fall is upon us at Homewood.

My second update is to answer the two questions that are most frequently asked this time of year from Early Decision applicants, their parents, and their counselors. Hope these answers help clear up any confusion:

When will Early Decision notifications be released?
The plan is to release ED notifications on Wednesday, December 15. When decisions are released they are mailed out (postal mail) during the day and then an email is sent after 6:00 p.m. EST. If our plans change, the first place you can find the updated details will be on this blog. To prepare yourselves, click on the Early Decision category tab on the left column and check out Decision Release entries for the last few years.  

Is my Early Decision application complete?
As you can imagine, it gets busy in the Admissions Office as we process application materials. Because of the volume of records being handled, it is not possible for us to confirm with each individual applicant whether their application files are complete or to identity which individual items have been received. We do email applicants an acknowledgment message after their application is received and processed.

Rest assured that application files are checked carefully for completeness. Starting next week our operations team will contact students whose ED applications remain incomplete. Those students will be given an opportunity to provide us with any missing items before we complete the evaluation of their applications. Often applicants ask if there is a way they can track their application online. Unfortunately, Hopkins does not have such a system. For that reason, our operations team is quite proactive in contacting applicants and guidance counselors to make sure all required application materials are received and processed correctly.

As always, if you have any questions, head on over to the Hopkins Forums. (By the way, check out the re-design—it’s pretty awesome.) There is an extensive 10-page discussion on Early Decision Questions that may be helpful.

The mail continues to pile up in Mason Hall.

Finally, for those of you who are eagerly awaiting the release of decisions on December 15, I encourage you to find a distraction for the next few weeks. One suggestion is to check out the updated student profiles we added to the main Admissions site: http://apply.jhu.edu/studentlife/meet.html. A second distraction could be all the amazing student blogs that have been posted over the last few weeks: http://www.hopkins-interactive.com/index.php. And third, I highly recommend catching up on some great television shows. Here are the shows I am currently watching each week: Glee, The Walking Dead, Modern Family, Community, 30 Rock, House, Chase, Hawaii Five-0, and definitely Boardwalk Empire.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and check back next week for some additional Guest Author blog entries, a few more tales from Admissions_Shannon, and some updates for Regular Decision applicants.

ED Deadline Approaches: Some FAQs Answered

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Those of you who have been a frequent visitor to the main Admissions Web site (http://apply.jhu.edu/) over the past couple of weeks will know that we’ve had a countdown reminder to the Early Decision deadline of November 1. When I woke up this morning and went to the main site I noticed that there are just four days until Early Decision applications are due and that the reminder bar is now red instead of the golden color it was previously. As well, if you have visited this blog since October 12, you’ve probably read Early Decision: the Pros and Cons, written by Dean of Undergraduate Admissions John Latting.

Obviously, Early Decision is on the mind of many prospective applicants right now. During our Open House program last Saturday, the majority of questions my colleagues and I received were about the Early Decision process. (By the way, if you didn’t get to attend our last Open House we are holding another one this Saturday and there is still room for visitors; full details here: http://apply.jhu.edu/visit/openhouse.html.) Easily 50% of the emails we have been receiving over the last two weeks to our main Admissions e-mail account (gotojhu@jhu.edu) have been about Early Decision. So I thought the best blog topic for today would be to provide answers to these frequently asked questions.

Time is running out ... ED deadline is fast approaching.

The best place to start for answers to frequently asked questions about Johns Hopkins University’s Early Decision Plan would be here: http://apply.jhu.edu/apply/faq_early.html. I would then recommend heading over to the Hopkins Forums and reviewing our 10 page discussion thread on Early Decision Questions. But in addition to those resources, here are some additional answers to ED FAQs:

Is my Early Decision application complete? How can I track the status of my Early Decision application? Did you receive my tests scores / recommendations / etc.?
As you can imagine, it gets busy in the Admissions Office as we process application materials. Because of the volume of records being handled, it is not possible for us to confirm with each individual applicant whether application files are complete or to identity which individual items have been received. We do e-mail applicants an acknowledgment message after their application has been received and processed.  Rest assured that application files are checked carefully for completeness. At the end of the November we will contact students whose ED applications remain incomplete. Those students will be given an opportunity to provide us with any missing items before we complete the evaluation of their applications. Early Decision applicants may call the Admissions Office at (410) 516-8171 after November 30 to check if their application materials have been received, but once again we are not able to confirm the receipt of individual parts of your application.  Often applicants ask if there is a way they can track their application online. Unfortunately, our office does not have such a system. For that reason, our Operations team is quite proactive in contacting applicants and guidance counselors to make sure all required application materials are received and processed correctly.

I know Johns Hopkins offers a binding Early Decision plan, but do you also offer Early Action or rolling admissions?
No, we only offer Early Decision and Regular Decision processes.

If I apply to Johns Hopkins under the Early Decision agreement, can I also apply Early Action elsewhere?
This is not the easiest question to answer. It is important to note that when you choose to apply ED to Johns Hopkins you, your parents, and your secondary school counselor will be required to sign an agreement/contract stating that you will enroll at Johns Hopkins if admitted and withdraw all applications to other schools.

The Early Decision agreement is binding, so you may not apply to any other school under an early decision plan. You also may not apply to any school through a Single-Choice Early Action (SCEA) plan because you will be breaking the contract of that SCEA school which states you cannot participate in a SCEA plan if applying ED elsewhere.

Applying to a non-binding Early Action school is allowed. However, when you apply early to a school you are stating to that school that it is your first choice, no matter if it is an ED, EA, or SCEA school. By applying through any type of early program, you are conveying a commitment to an individual school; applying early to multiple schools may make it seem like you have conflicting intentions.

 Finally, please be aware that if a student does not abide by the ED contract then they forfeit their admission to Johns Hopkins and will not be able to enroll at a later date. We strongly urge students not to apply Early Decision if there is any possibility of later breaking the ED contract.

What my desk will look like in just a few weeks. Reading online!

How do I go about submitting the Early Decision Agreement?
As stated above, all Early Decision applicants are required to submit the Early Decision agreement along with their signature, a parent/guardian signature, and the signature of their guidance counselor. Whether using the Universal College Application or Common Application, you may find the Early Decision agreement form as part of online application system or as a downloadable PDF. Just log-in to your account to access this form. If your school is submitting your application materials online, then you and your parent/guardian can sign the form online and pass it to your guidance counselor. They can submit their signature online and submit the form with the other required school materials such as the secondary school report and high school transcript.

We know that not all high schools are submitting materials online. In such situations, the student should print out the Early Decision agreement as a downloadable PDF and sign the form. After having your parent/guardian sign the form, turn the form into your guidance counselor. They should sign the form and mail it with all of your other school materials. If your application materials have already been submitted and mailed, then your guidance counselor can fax the form to our office at 410-516-6025.

Can I take October exams (SAT, ACT, SAT subject exams, TOEFL) and have those exams considered with my ED application?
As stated on our standardized test requirements web site (http://apply.jhu.edu/apply/testreqs.html), Johns Hopkins requires that ED candidates complete their required tests no later than the end October of their senior year. Test scores need to be requested from the testing agencies prior to our stated application deadlines but may arrive after the deadline. Though October exam results may arrive past the deadline they will still be considered if requested in advance of the deadline. There is no need to rush score reports as they do not arrive any earlier.

Will November exam scores be considered?
We cannot guarantee that November scores will arrive before the Admissions Committee evaluation. Past experience does suggest that exams taken in November usually arrive in time. Therefore, Early Decision applicants may only submit November testing if they are taking the SAT, ACT, or TOEFL a multiple time, or if they are taking the recommended but not required SAT subject exams. If the scores arrive before the evaluation then they will be considered with the application. We cannot guarantee that scores sent after our application deadline will be processed in time to be reviewed with the application and we do not delay the review of an application to wait for scores sent after the application deadline. Do note there is no need to rush scores from the testing agencies, as our office will not process them any quicker.

A unique way of delivering his ED application to JHU: I guess Conan is hedging his bets re: his new TBS show.

So these are the many questions we have been fielding lately, and I hope you find these answers helpful. To those of you who have chosen to apply Early Decision, good choice and good luck. Make sure to have all of your materials submitted online and/or postmarked by this Monday, November 1.

Early Decision: the Pros and Cons

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Editor’s Note: Today’s guest author is Dean of Undergraduate Admissions John Latting. Dean Latting expressed interest in writing an entry for those prospective applicants debating whether to apply through our early decision program. So read on to hear Dean Latting’s advice on the advantages and disadvantages to applying early decision to Johns Hopkins University.

As we near the deadline to apply “early” here at Johns Hopkins, we thought it might be helpful to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the process, at  least from where we see things.

Our early application program, as an “early decision” plan, does require that students commit to attending Johns Hopkins if admitted. That’s the big thing to keep in mind. There is also a November 1 application deadline, and a December 15 notification date.

Dean Latting in the midst of applications.

So what are the advantages? First, there’s the timeline itself: You’ll hear from us in December, before the general January 1 deadlines. This allows you to make adjustments to where, and to how many, colleges you’ll apply by that time. Students who are admitted early decision don’t have to apply anywhere else. They’re done, and they can focus on other things beside college admission for the rest of their senior year.

For students not admitted, they, too have feedback in December. They can then proceed with the applications they were considering for regular decision elsewhere, knowing that a place in a college freshman class still has to be found.

A second advantage has to do with chances of gaining admission. I don’t want you to make too much of this point, but when we’re reading applications during the early process, we don’t feel nearly as constrained as we do during regular decision to bring the size of the freshman class down to our target (which lately has been 1,235 students). At the early stage there is more freedom to respond to students who make a great case. During regular decision there are times when, frankly, capacity in the class just doesn’t allow us to admit all the students we think are great. Admit rates in early and regular decision here have been about 40% and 20%, respectively. The difference reflects how we breathe a little easier in December than we do in March.

But here’s where I need to remind you of the terms of the whole process—not so much the “disadvantage,” but just the reality of early decision. Despite more favorable admit rates at Johns Hopkins (and often at other universities, too) the process remains sensible only for students who have a clear first-choice school , students who have done the research to get to that point, and  students who would have no regrets about enrolling at their early decision school. If Johns Hopkins seems familiar to you, is something you believe you have prepared for (academically, in particular), meets your expectations for what a college should be, and is just where you really want to be next fall, then by all means apply early. You are the reason we have the option in the first place.

If there’s a disadvantage with applying early decision, it has to do with financial aid. No, you won’t get bigger grants from Johns Hopkins if you are admitted regular decision, rather than early decision. We use absolutely, precisely the same methods for calculating eligibility for financial aid no matter when you are admitted. And we admit students without regard to whether they apply for financial aid, and how much we think they might need. But what you can’t do is compare financial aid offers from more than one college or university. Each institution has its own way of determining how much a family can reasonably pay for college, and the outcome of that process is only revealed after you are offered admission. When you apply early decision, you just get that one offer of financial aid.

Mason Hall: Where your applications are processed.

Now, if you and your parents don’t like what you see there, or feel it isn’t reasonable, you can be released from any obligation to enroll (at least you can here at Johns Hopkins). Just let us know. It should be encouraging to hear that last year, out of 493 Early Decision admits here at Johns Hopkins, only six students felt that our financial aid offer wasn’t acceptable to them and their parents.

And this financial aid issue gets back to the point about the importance of whether you have a clear first-choice college or not. If you’re looking here, or somewhere else for early decision and wouldn’t be thrown off by a financial aid difference (which, by the way, you can estimate using a college’s net price calculator; here’s ours: http://www.jhu.edu/finaid/estimator.html), then, we say it again: It makes sense to apply early.

Good luck to all!

End Note: For additional perspectives on applying early decision to Johns Hopkins read these previous blog entries composed by Admissions_Daniel: October 2009 – Early Decision: Is It Right For You? and November 2006: To ED or Not to ED. As well, if you have questions feel free to post them on the Early Decision discussion thread on the Hopkins Forums.

A Post for the Deferred Applicant

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As promised in my live blogging of the release of Early Decision notifications, I thought it appropriate to post an entry dedicated to those of you whose Early Decision notification informed you that your application was deferred into our Regular Decision applicant pool. Before I even begin with this post, I have to strongly encourage those of you who are in this situation to review the discussion thread I have set-up on the Hopkins Forums:

In my experience, those who receive a defer notice from their Early Decision school are confused about how to react. The news is not good, but it is also not all bad. In many ways, the news is that your reactions are going to be delayed for another three or so months. Yes, we understand that more waiting is not what you want to hear at this time, but unfortunately defer decisions are part of the Early Decision process.

Disappointment is absolutely reasonable, but you do not need to lose all hope. Every year ED defers are admitted during RD, and defers are provided the same chance of admissions as the applicants who apply regular decision. It is very important to note that at Hopkins we do not just politely defer Early Decision applicants into our Regular Decision applicant pool to delay bad news. We deny applicants Early Decision, in fact we deny more than we defer. Those who are deferred by the Admissions Committee still have a legitimate chance for admission, otherwise we would not have deferred the decision.

However, your reactions need be tempered. Being deferred does mean there were weaknesses in your application that raised concerns with the Admissions Committee. Though we do and will admit ED defers during the Regular Decision round, statistically the majority of deferred applicants will not be offered admission. During the Regular Decision review process we will offer admission to less than 20% of all applicants. The competition will be difficult during Regular Decision, however as I stated above, all deferred applicants will be re-reviewed and given a fair shot for admission. There is no advantage nor disadvantage for deferred students … just a second chance.

What do you have to do as a deferred applicant?
Nothing. Deferred ED applications are automatically moved into the Regular Decision round of application reviews. There is nothing a deferred applicant must do. No new application needs to be completed.

There is though one thing you must do, and that is make sure you apply to other schools. Though obvious, your chance for admission to Hopkins is not guaranteed and you want to make sure you have options next year.

What should I do as a deferred applicant?
I have provided a lot of detail on the Deferred Student Discussion Thread on the Hopkins Forums, so I thought I would just share that advice here:

(2) Make sure you update the academic portion of your application. This would include mid-year grades (which will play a MAJOR role in your re-review), additional standardized test scores you may have taken, and maybe even an updated letter of recommendation from your guidance counselor.

(3) Consider updating the non-academic portion of your application. Though not required, an updated resume and an additional letter of recommendation (especially from a senior year teacher) can always help. Just make sure anything you add does contribute in a new way to your application. Do not be redundant.

(4) Write a letter to the Admissions Committee. Though not something all deferred applicants need to do or even should do, some of you may consider writing a personal letter to the Admissions Committee stressing your interest in Hopkins and why you feel you are an appropriate candidate for admissions. Consider this a cover letter to your overall application.

The most important thing you have to do is have a stellar senior year academically. By far, the most important part of the review of a deferred applicant during the regular decision round will be the academic progress and success throughout the senior year. Make sure that any updates to your application are submitted by February 1st and your mid-year report and transcript are submitted by your school by February 15th.

Also, please make sure you pay attention to the list of what not to do that is posted on the Deferred Student Discussion Thread.

I hope you have found this information helpful. If you have questions, do not hesitate to post them.

Best wishes!

Friday Favorites: ED Stats

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Typically the most popular topic following a decision release day is always what did the “stats” look like. So I thought for this Friday Favorite I would look back on a variety of statistical breakdowns from the release of Early Decision notifications from this past Tuesday.

First, I thought I would re-post the official admissions statistics for the Early Decision Class of 2014. I posted these during my Live Blogging post on Tuesday, but I decided to re-post since they may have gotten buried in the middle of that long entry.

• LARGEST ED APPLICANT POOL EVER = 1,155. Up 10% from last year.
• Over this past decade our Early Decision applicant pool has risen 138%.
• The acceptance rate has dropped to the second lowest rate for the last ten years. We admitted 43% of the applicants. 493 applicants will be the first students welcomed into the Class of 2014.
• The male/female ration is 54%/46% which is impressive and a rise for women in the class.
• We have 53 under-represented minority students in the admitted class which is our largest number ever.
• As far as academic interest, 32% interested in Engineering (+2% from last year); 12% are interested in Humanities (+1%); 34% interested in Natural Sciences (-4%); 19% interested in Social and Behavioral Sciences (-7%); and 3% Undecided (-2%).
• All of our academic markers are either a slight bit up, the same as last year, or the slightest tick down. The quality of our ED admits just based of academic factors continues to amaze us all.
• New York is the top state (76) for admits, New Jersey is second (71), and Maryland is third (50). Pennsylvania (47) and California (29) round out the top five. 36 states are represented in our admitted ED class.
• 41 international students from over 17 nations – both records for our ED class.

Second, I always like to share some statistics as it relates to the use of our social media tools during the relase of notifications. And by social media tools I mean this blog, our student blogs, our Facebook group, and other such tools associated with the Hopkins Interactive Web site.

• Hopkins Insider Blog stats:

– During the week leading up to the release of ED notifications, the blog averaged 925 hits a day. That is just up from the average 800 hits per day during a normal time frame.
– On the Monday before (12.14) the number of hits rose to 1525.
– On Decision release day (12.15), over a 24-hour period, there were 8899 hits.
– The last two days the hits per day is back to about the 800 average.

• Class of 2014 Facebook Group stats:

– Within 24 hours, we approved 186 newly admitted students into the Facebook group. That is 37% of the admitted 493 students.
– By this post, we have approved 63% (313 students) of the admitted students into the group.

Finally, the next big STAT question is going to be what is the total applicant pool for the Johns Hopkins Class of 2014. We won’t know for more than a month, but I thought I would continue a blog tradition and have the readers vote on what they think the total will be. Look to the right and you will find the poll. To help, last year’s applicant pool was 16,123 … will this year be up or down??? Vote now.

Live Blogging on ED Notification Day (Class of 2014)

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Good day Early Decision applicants. The tradition of live blogging on decision notification days continues today with the release of our Early Decision notifications for the Class of 2014. As I have done the previous few years, I will be “micro-blogging” throughout the day to provide you all with a view into what transpires in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions on the day we release decisions. If you want full details on how the release of ED notifications will work today, please return my previous blog entry. You can also read previous ED Notification Day entries for 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005. So check back throughout the day and follow the process of the release of our Early Decision notifications.

December 15, 2009

12:55 a.m. EST
As I was finally preparing to go to bed this late Monday evening, I realized it was no longer Monday evening but rather it was the start of Tuesday, December 15, 2009. I couldn’t resist staying up just a little bit longer to post this first entry of my live blogging journal for ED Notification release 2009. I can barely keep my eyes open right now after a long day and evening of work, so I am going to hit the pillows until my alarm clock rudely awakens me at 4:58 a.m. I’ll sign off with an appropriate famous quote … “Good night, and Good Luck.”

5:03 a.m.
I almost threw my alarm clock across the room. Four hours of sleep is not enough for me. I know it is way too early in the morning when Soze won’t even wake up to go for his morning walk. Enough complaining from me … too much to do today so the day must begin.

6:01 a.m.
Just spent the last hour responding to e-mails received in our primary Admissions e-mail accounts. Lots of questions from regular decision applicants. Going to use the next half-hour to pay bills (today is pay day … woo hoo) and watch my morning staple – Mike and Mike in the Morning.Golic and Greenberg are going to talk to me about how the Cardinals stunk last night and led to a loss for one of my fantasy football teams, and the baseball hot stove and how the Mets DID NOTHING. Yuck!

6:03 a.m.
Just noticed that the College Confidential servers appear to be down and one can’t access their Discussion Forms. Have my prayers been answered???

6:51 a.m.
Finished typing out my “To Do” List for today and it is a bit scary — it’s a page and a half long. Need to get started on crossing off items, but the sleeping dog just woke so I need to bundle up and go out and walk Soze. Then shower, shave (ha ha ha – inside joke), and my 15 minute commute to work.

7:45 a.m.
As I headed out, Soze wanted me to take a picture of him and let you all know he is thinking of you and is hoping you all handle today’s news well. He would have smiled but it was cold and rainy for his morning walk, plus he wanted me to leave so he could start his daily partying.

8:10 a.m.
Uneventful commute to work. Overcast weather but not as bone-chilling cold as it has been the last few days. Powered up the computer, and signed into Pandora — today’s play list will be a mix of Erasure, Depeche Mode, New Order, and the Smiths. Yes, I am a child of 80s alternative radio.

8:45 a.m.
Just headed up to the third floor to see how the stuffing and sealing of letters was going. Pretty much everything is finished. Now we just wait for Dean Latting to officially seal the class and then to the post office we will head with just over 1100 pieces of mail.

Next is a box of binder clips. Not binder clips that we have purchased. Nope these binder clips are sent by applicants. Thanks for the office supplies … but just remember we read online so we will never see your binder clips, your sleek folders, your perfumed resume paper, etc.

10:11 a.m.
Just spent the last 45 minutes reviewing the updates to our Admitted Student Web Site and also all the new updates to Hopkins Interactive. The Hopkins Interactive site is now fully updated with profiles for our newest members (8 freshmen and sophomore Keith), links to all our new blogs and Twitter accounts, and a variety of other updates. Always with the release of decisions we make sure our web sites have the most updated content possible.

10:16 a.m.
A special “shout-out” (yes I did just write shout-out, and yes I know I am lame) to those posting comments to this entry. Thanks for the positive remarks and I am pleased to hear that you are enjoying the micro-blogging. No big updates yet. Just waiting for Dean Latting to seal the class. Be back soon.

11:01 a.m.
Took a twenty minute break and played around on Sporcle.com. So addicting. My favorite game is Countries of the World. My highest score is 186 of 195 countries. I always seem to forget Malawi and I struggle with the small island nations in the pacific near Australia. I do get Vanuatu and Palau — those were sites for Survivor seasons.

11:30 a.m.
Now things are moving along. Dean Latting has still not given the final O.K. yet, but all the packets have been sealed and moved into mail bins. One final set of checks and we should be ready to send them on their way.

11:58 a.m.
THE EARLY DECISION CLASS OF 2014 IS SEALED. “And with two minutes to spare,” joked Dean Latting. The bins have moved to my colleague John Birney’s SUV and will be heading out onto the road and to the post office in the next few minutes.

12:04 p.m.
The finishing touches have been been done to our Admitted Student Web site, our new Class of 2014 Facebook group, and the Class of 2014 Discussion Sub-Forum on the Hopkins Forums. Everything is edited and ready for later this evening once e-mail notifications have been sent. Whew, those were major items crossed off my “to do” list.

12:20 p.m.
Just sent an e-mail to all the Hopkins Interactive student volunteers (also known as the Student Admissions Advisory Board). I wished them luck with their continuing finals (it is day three of finals for the fall semester) and also reminded them of the release of ED notifications. They will be the students that the new members of the Class of 2014 will interact with over the coming months.

12:36 p.m.
This will be my last update for the next few hours. I expect to be back around 5:00 p.m. Now that decisions have been mailed, the whole Admissions staff is heading out for a Holiday Celebration Party. We are all going Duck Pin Bowling — a Baltimore tradition. It should be fun and it is well-earned as the whole staff put in tons of energy these pasts few weeks. As I depart for the afternoon I leave you all with two pieces of advice:

FIRST, go do something fun. Step away from the computer. Relax. Chat with your friends. Watch a movie. Read a book. Play a game. Spend time with your family. Take a nap. 7:00 p.m. is going to come very slowly if you stay on the computer refreshing my blog every 20 seconds. In fact, take time and don’t come back until after 7:30 p.m. Don’t stress right now, as there is nothing you can do now.

SECOND, I wish you all the best as you receive your e-mail decisions later tonight. My strong suggestion is that after you read your decision, log-off of your computer and go spend some time with your family. No matter what the decision is!!!

This is a major moment in your young life, and family is who you should share your initial thoughts and emotions with. Your family has been there since the first moment of your life, and they will be there FOREVER. Your family is not some online community. Afterwards you can log-on and share with others.

Let the news sink in first. React in the real world before entering the cyber world. OK, that is just my two cents … but I do hope you all heed it.

4:45 p.m.
Back from our Duck Pin Bowling Holiday celebration. Let me put it simply … I STINK. First game I scored a 58 and was the second worst bowler. My team came in second place which is great, especially since my score was the one they dropped. Second game I did better – a 78. I finally left when I got a strike, but it took me an additional 100 throws it seemed. I am going to stick to Wii Bowling, though my Mom and four year old niece beat me in that too.

4:51 p.m.
Thought I would share some pictures of what has gone on throughout the last few hours. First set of three pictures are of my colleagues Paul and John dropping off the decision notifications at the post office. The second set are some pics from the Johns Hopkins Admissions staff making fool of themselves, and having an amazing time doing so.

5:17 p.m.
Checked e-mail and Dean Latting shared some Early Decision statistics with the staff:

• LARGEST ED APPLICANT POOL EVER = 1,155. Up 10% from last year.
• Over this past decade our Early Decision applicant pool has risen 138%.
• The acceptance rate has dropped to the second lowest rate for the last ten years. We admitted 43% of the applicants. 493 applicants will be the first students welcomed into the Class of 2014.
• The male/female ration is 54%/46% which is impressive and a rise for women in the class.
• We have 53 under-represented minority students in the admitted class which is our largest number ever.
• As far as academic interest, 32% interested in Engineering (+2% from last year); 12% are interested in Humanities (+1%); 34% interested in Natural Sciences (-4%); 19% interested in Social and Behavioral Sciences (-7%); and 3% Undecided (-2%).
• All of our academic markers are either a slight bit up, the same as last year, or the slightest tick down. The quality of our ED admits just based of academic factors continues to amaze us all.
• New York is the top state (76) for admits, New Jersey is second (71), and Maryland is third (50). Pennsylvania (47) and California (29) round out the top five. 36 states are represented in our admitted ED class.
• 41 international students from over 17 nations – both records for our ED class.

Some of you will ask for additional data. Unfortunately, these are the only statistics we release publicly.

5:42 p.m.
Once again I wanted to say thanks to everyone posting comments. I really appreciate the positive remarks you are leaving and I am happy to read that you find this blog helpful. In the past someone people have written me “hate mail” about these decision release entries. Typical they say I am over-hyping the whole process. Such remarks do concern me, but in the end I feel that is the minority opinion. I think no matter what decision you all will receive in a few hours, in the end you appreciate receiving a better understanding of how the process works and knowing how much attention the Hopkins Admissions Committee pays to you and your application.

Oh and to Taylor K., the spelling of the countries is one of the hardest parts of the Name the Countries game. The former Soviet republics especially – Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, etc. – it makes me appreciate Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, and the Ukraine so much more.

6:00 p.m.
With one hour to go before we begin to release Early Decision notification e-mails I want to remind you all of a few things:

(1) We will start sending e-mails after 7:00 p.m. EST. Please note the bold, italic, underlined emphasis on the key words start and after. This means that not everyone will get an e-mail in their in-box immediately at 7:00 p.m. It can take about an hour for all the e-mails to go out. So if you refresh your e-mail in-box at 7:00 p.m. or 7:05 p.m. or 7:10 p.m. and there is no message – DO NOT PANIC and do not assume anything. Be patient and allow our e-mail servers to work properly.

(2) For those who applied for the Biomedical Engineering program (selected it as your first choice major) – if you receive an admit notification you will receive a second e-mail later this evening. That second message will be your BME decision notification. The decisions come in two separate e-mails. So if you receive an admit notification, don’t assume you are also admitted to BME. Be patient and you will receive that news a little later through e-mail.

(3) For those who do not receive an e-mail notification tonight, please refer to what I wrote in my previous blog about such situations:

What happens if I do not receive an e-mail decision on Tuesday?
If an applicant does not receive an e-mail there a couple of things he or she can do: 1. Check your SPAM folders. 2. Check ANY and all e-mail accounts you have ever used during the college search process. We send the e-mail to the account you listed on your application. However, our database system does track all e-mail accounts that have ever been matched to your record, so on occasion the notification e-mail may be sent to old e-mail address. (So check e-mail addressess that you may have used when registering for the SAT/ACT for example.) 3. Have your parents check their e-mail accounts too. Not sure how that happens, but it has happened in the past. If none of those methods work, then unfortunately the student will need to wait to receive the decision in the mail, or can call on Thursday.

Every year some e-mail notifications just don’t work. There are a number reasons for an applicant not receiving an e-mail notification including: no e-mail was provided on the student’s application, the e-mail provided on the application is no longer active, there was a SPAM filter blocking the message, or some error occurred that caused a bounce-back. WE ARE UNABLE TO RE-SEND E-MAILS. Once again, in such situations the applicant must wait. We understand how frustrating that can be, but unfortunately mistakes can happen when processing over thousands of applications.

7:33 p.m.
All decision notification e-mails have been sent. Only four messages bounced-back as undeliverable but thankfully I was able to correct the e-mail address and forward the decision e-mail to the correct address. Got a lot of work to do, but I’ll update again soon.

8:41 p.m.
Whew! So all decisions are out and I’ve already confirmed over 100 members into the Class of 2014 Facebook group. I will go back to doing that after walking Soze and eating a little bit of dinner. I do though want to address a few things before taking that break …

TO THE ADMITS: Congratulations! I hope you are all so excited and got some time tonight to jump around and celebrate. You will get your admit packets soon and there will be a ton of information you will go through. Also, remember to use the Admitted Student Web Site, Hopkins Interactive, and the Class of 2014 Facebook group. But also pace yourself — August 25th is still 9 months away. I will have more to say to you all in the coming weeks. Time to put that bumper sticker on the car!!!

TO THE DEFERS: I will be posting a blog entry for you all later in the week. I do though suggest that you all read the discussion thread that I have set-up for deferred applicants: Early Decision Defers – Read This.

TO THE DENIES: Please know that I understand how difficult receiving such news can be. My colleagues and I do not take pleasure in not offering admission to students, especially those where Hopkins is their first choice. Last spring I wrote a post to denied applicants, and I recommend you all read it: A Posted for the Denied Applicant. I do wish you all the best of luck.

10:33 p.m.
Well that’s it for me tonight. I have hit the proverbial wall and my eyes will not remain open anymore. As I head off to bed I have my phone in hand and I keep dialing the So You Think You Can Dance phone numbers for Kathryn, Russell, and Jakob.

Thanks to everyone who followed this journey over the last 20+ hours.

Update on the Release of Early Decision Notifications

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Knowing that all the Early Decision applicants are quite anxious right now, I thought I would step away from Committee work and provide an update on how the ED review process is proceeding. In addition, I have some updated information about how the release of Early Decision notifications will work this year.

So this past weekend I spent finishing up first reads on the ED applications from my region (ME, NH, RI, VT, and MA). It was a lovely weekend in Baltimore as we had our first snowfall of the winter season on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon all the snow was gone. I also got to relax a bit, which was necessary knowing that the coming week was going to be quite hectic. My dog Soze also got to rest a lot as these pictures detail — he is finally beginning to enjoy the new chair I bought for him when we moved to our new apartment at the end of the summer.

I arrived in the office on Monday morning ready for a busy week of Committee work. By late morning the counseling staff was in our conference room with Dean of Admissions John Latting discussing how the applicant pool looked overall and what our process would be for Committee. Updating the numbers I released in a previous blog post, our official ED applicant pool for 2009-10 is 1,155 applicants, up just about 10% from last year. Following the discussion, we split into our Committee teams and got to work. And over this past week, my colleagues and I have evaluated and re-evaluated, discussed and discussed more, debated and argued, and as the weekend approaches the final touches are being placed on the ED JHU Class of 2014. We will have a bit of work to do early next week, but as we had expected decisions will be released on Tuesday.

And here is how everything will work on Tuesday:
(Make sure to review this thoroughly as there have been some changes from previous years.)

* ED notifications will be released on Tuesday, December 15, 2009.

* Admit packets and decision letters (defer and deny) will be dropped off at the Baltimore Post Office by late morning and enter the postal system later that afternoon. Admit packets are sent priority mail so they typically arrive within three days.  Our decision letters are mailed first-class and can take 4-7 days to arrive. Please note international addresses will always take longer for both types of mail.

* Starting at 7:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, December 15, we will begin sending Early Decision notification e-mails.It can take up to an hour for all of our decision e-mails to be sent so don’t expect a new message in your in-box right at 7:00 p.m. Have patience. E-mail notifications are released in random order so there is no way to deduce the order that decisions will be released. Decision e-mails are sent only to those who included an active e-mail address with their application. (If an applicant does not receive an e-mail it is because either there was no e-mail provided with the application, the e-mail address provided no longer works, or a data entry error. Unfortunately, we do not re-send e-mails, so in such situations the student must wait for the mail to arrive.) We do not have a system of posting our decisions online or through a portal.

* We prefer not to release decisions over the phone. If applicants have not received their admissions decision by Thursday, December 17 then they may call the Office of Undergraduate Admissions (410-516-8171). We will only release the decision to the applicant, a parent or guardian of the applicant, or the applicant’s high school guidance counselor. Decisions will be released only if the identity of the caller can be reasonably assured. Please do not call asking why a certain decision was rendered as Admissions Committee decisions are confidential and we are unable to discuss the factors behind our decisions.

* For applicants who applied to the biomedical engineering (BME) program, we have made a change this year. In previous years, since decisions about acceptance into the BME are departmental decisions we would not release such information through e-mail or over the phone, and applicants would have to wait for their admit packet to arrive. This year we will be sending BME decisions via e-mail. BME decision e-mails will come as a second e-mailto all admitted students who selected BME as their first-choice major. Those notifications will also be sent on Tuesday following the release of all other decisions. Further details about your BME decision will be included in the admit packet.

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As I have been writing about our decision releases for a number of years now, I can always anticipate some of the most frequently asked questions:

Why are e-mails sent at 7:00 p.m. EST? Haven’t they been sent at 6:00 p.m. in previous years?
The reason we wait to release decision notification e-mails until the evening is we feel that receiving your college admissions decision should be a personal experience that you share with yourself and your family. We do not believe students should be receiving this news in the middle of the school day. So we will wait until the majority of our applicants are out of school (4:00 p.m. PST / 7:00 p.m. EST) to send our e-mail notifications. (Yes we understand that this system does not work neatly for international applicants.) We are waiting an additional hour this year to allow the staff who are involved in the release of e-mail decisions to make it home and prepare for the release process.

What happens if I do not receive an e-mail decision on Tuesday?
If an applicant does not receive an e-mail there a couple of things he or she can do: 1. Check your SPAM folders. 2. Check ANY and all e-mail accounts you have ever used during the college search process. We send the e-mail to the account you listed on your application. However, our database system does track all e-mail accounts that have ever been matched to your record, so on occasion the notification e-mail may be sent to old e-mail address. (So check e-mail addressess that you may have used when registering for the SAT/ACT for example.) 3. Have your parents check their e-mail accounts too. Not sure how that happens, but it has happened in the past. If none of those methods work, then unfortunately the student will need to wait to receive the decision in the mail, or can call on Thursday.

Every year some e-mail notifications just don’t work. There are a number reasons for an applicant not receiving an e-mail notification including: no e-mail was provided on the student’s application, the e-mail provided on the application is no longer active, there was a SPAM filter blocking the message, or some error occurred that caused a bounce-back. WE ARE UNABLE TO RE-SEND E-MAILS. Once again, in such situations the applicant must wait. We understand how frustrating that can be, but unfortunately mistakes can happen when processing over thousands of applications.

I was deferred. What does that mean?
Stay tuned. I will post information for deferred applicants a couple of days after the release of decisions.

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I hope you all find this information helpful. Back to Committee for me. Check back on Tuesday for my annual ED Notification Day blogging. I’ll leave you with two things that make me happy – my niece and nephew & Glee:

On the Docket

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Today's blog title refers to the multiple topics of this entry. First, I will be providing an update about the Early Decision process. The title is appropriate since on my docket starting tomorrow and continuing for the next few weeks is evaluating ED applications. The second topic is to share with you and preview a series of blog entries that will be posted in the coming days. Once again an appropriate title as I will be sharing what is on the docket for the Hopkins Insider blog between now and the end of the month. So let's get to that docket.

It is just over two weeks since the November 1 Early Decision deadline has passed, and starting tomorrow I should be logging-in to begin the evaluation process. Most of my colleagues began this process last week following our Early Decision Reading Retreat where the Dean of Admissions and Admissions Committee discussed our approach to evaluating this year's class. I write "should" because I am a known procrastinator when it comes to the first read of the new evaluation season. I suspect by Friday I will have dived in fully and over the Thanksgiving holiday break I will catch-up (as usual). I am excited to start reading as this is year two of our paper-less evaluation system and that means many of the kinks should have been ironed out.

So without further adieu, I present you answers to some of the most frequently asked Early Decision related questions that we are currently receiving:

What is the size of the Early Decision applicant pool this year?

Nowadays everyone is so interested in the numbers, so this is a frequent question from prospective students, parents, guidance counselors, the media, my Mom … Though the official number will not be finalized for a few more days it appears we have received our largest Early Decision applicant in history. As of this morning the count was 1139 applications. As our Operations team processes out duplicates, checks for any errors, confirms early decision agreements, and cleans up other data over the next few days that number may change slightly. All in all, it appears we have had a 8-9% increase in ED applications. Dean Latting will release official numbers probably next week and the final number will end up in a JHU Gazette article in the coming days.

When will Early Decision notifications be released?

Same process as in years past. As of right now the plan is to release ED notifications on December 15. When decisions are released they are mailed out (postal mail) during the day and then an email is sent after 6:00 p.m. ET. If our plans change, the first place you can find the updated details will be on this blog. To prepare yourselves, click on the Early Decision category tab on the left column and check out Decision Release entries for the last few years.  

Is my Early Decision application complete?

As you can imagine, it gets busy in the Admissions Office as we process application materials. Because of the volume of records being handled, it is not possible for us to confirm with each individual applicant whether their application files are complete or to identity which individual items have been received. We do email applicants an acknowledgment message after their application is received and processed.

Rest assured that application files are checked carefully for completeness. At the end of the month we will contact students whose ED applications remain incomplete. Those students will be given an opportunity to provide us with any missing items before we complete the evaluation of their applications. Early Decision applicants may call the Admissions Office at (410) 516-8171 after November 30 to check if their application materials have been received, but once again we can not confirm individual parts of your application.

Often applicants ask if there is a way they can track their application online. Unfortunately, Hopkins does not have such a system. For that reason, our Operations team is quite proactive in contacting applicants and guidance counselors to make sure all required application materials are received and processed correctly.

So those are the big three questions. For answers to other questions about Early Decision and to even ask your own question, be sure to check out the discussion thread on the Hopkins Forums.

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As I have mentioned in a few previous posts, I have asked a few of my Admissions colleagues to help me in compiling a series of blog entries that focus on specific parts of the application process. Starting later this week and continuing for the rest of the month, I will be posting these guest entries. Here is what's on the docket:

Thursday, November 19 – Applying to Hopkins as an International Student
by Rachel Cowan Jacobs

Monday, November 23 - The Application Essay
by Amy Brokl

Wednesday, November 25 – Advice on Letters of Recommendation
by Rena Barch

Monday, November 30 – The Do's and Don'ts of Presenting Your Resume
by Shannon Miller

Wednesday, December 2- Applying to Hopkins as a BME Applicant
by Sarah Godwin

STAY TUNED!