Miranda Writes

I think I’ve answered the other half to this question – “What am I doing here?” – at various points throughout the course of blogging, so here’s a brief overview of how I ended up at Hopkins!

I started looking at colleges at the beginning of junior year. I’d taken the PSAT in tenth grade, and had accordingly received pounds and pounds of mail from schools all over the country (including an all-male Christian college – definitely hitting their target audience!). However, junior year was when the college search intensified.  At this point, all I knew was that I wanted to get off the West Coast, and that I wanted to go somewhere with more people than my high school, preferably not in the middle of nowhere.

Getting a taste of East Coast college life at a summer program at UVA (Summer 2005)

I did practically all of my initial searching by myself. I had a passed down version of Princeton Review’s 361 Best Colleges/Universities, an ever-growing pile of mail from schools, and my preconceived notions about schools. I didn’t get much college advice at school, apart from the constant reminder to everyone that we should “Go to college!” I remember meeting with the school’s college counselor at some point in tenth grade – she reminded us (we met as pairs of students) to remember to take our subject tests and to keep taking advanced classes. The guidance department at my school was geared towards keeping people in school and then onto technical school or towards California schools –there was little experience with most out of state schools.

Living in a big city does have its benefits, and one of those is that many colleges have what my mother deemed “College Roadshows,” where an admission officer from that school would make a presentation, either in a local high school, or somewhere slightly more exciting like a hotel. I’d gotten several in the mail, and my mother decided I should go to a few to get a sense of what different types of colleges had to offer. Hopkins was actually the first school I spent time learning about. In all honestly, I only went to the presentation because I was vaguely interested in the school, but also because I had a giftcard to the nearby Border’s I wanted to take advantage of.

My wonderful, supportive family!

I really liked what I heard at the presentation. Looking back, I’m not entirely sure what my pre-conceived notions about the school were – I think the only thing I knew was that they did have a medical school, but I did know that was separate from the undergraduate institution. I didn’t know anything about Baltimore except for what I’d seen in Hairspray, so I was coming into it with much more of an open mind. Two things really stuck with me from the presentation – the lack of a core curriculum, and how beautiful the school was.

Before this point, the core curriculum issue hadn’t been something I’d thought about at all. However, once it had been brought up, and I’d actually considered the possibility that I’d never have to take a required class EVER again, I loved the idea. No class requirements jumped to the top of my (still short) list of ideal characteristics in a school.

My mother and me at Admitted Students Day (Spring 2009)

That spring, my family spent spring break in Virginia with family, and we decided to take advantage of this to see the Mid-Atlantic schools on my list.  Now, East Coast springs can be beautiful with all the flowers, but Spring Break 08 for me was cold, gray, and rainy. To top it off, I personally didn’t have an amazing time at Hopkins – I was generally in a bad mood, and my younger brother was acting like a younger brother. Still, through all of that, Hopkins still seemed somewhere I could see myself, and even though things weren’t going perfectly that day, I was still able to see through that.

I visited other East Coast schools that summer, visiting three new states (Georgia, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts), and saw other schools where I could potentially see myself, and other schools I couldn’t. I wish I could say that I started my applications over the summer (and I’m sure my parents wished so too), but they honestly weren’t really started until the middle of October.

I applied Early Decision to Hopkins. Why? My rationale was based on the question “If I got into every single school I applied to, which school would I choose?” I ended up deciding between two schools, and Hopkins in the end won out.  After a stressful last two weeks of October, my application was in, and the rest is history.

Looking back, here’s some advice to all of you prospective students out there!

1.     Visit schools, if possible. Viewbooks and websites do a good job presenting schools, but actually visiting them can give you a really good sense of what being a student there would be like. It’s also helpful for making general decisions about sizes and locations of schools. Schools I loved on paper didn’t match up to my expectations in person, and others surpassed expectations.

2.     Get someone you trust to look at your essays. I personally didn’t want anyone in my immediate family to read my essays, but I had other people such as my aunt and uncle and my English teachers read them over.

3.     Ask teachers for recommendations in advance. They’re doing you a HUGE favor, and chances are, if they’re writing you a recommendation, they’re probably writing other ones too, and need some time! Also – definitely write them thank you notes!

4.     Don’t rely on stereotypes. I think I’m probably the only one out there who hadn’t really associated Hopkins undergrad with medicine, but rumor has it that many of you do! Seriously though, think outside the stereotype, and actually see what the strength(s) of the school are.

5.     DON’T ASK PEOPLE WHAT THEIR SCORES/GRADES ARE. Yes, that was supposed to be in capslock! The process is stressful enough without having to compare yourself to others – just focus on yourself. Besides, there’s no way for both people to win – someone will be upset about their scores. On the flip side, don’t tell people if they ask either! I haven’t asked since sometime in junior year, and I haven’t answered since the beginning of senior year and it’s made things MUCH less stressful for me (both as part of the application process and part of college life).

6.     Remember that it’ll all be over soon! College applications were a huge cloud over my head, but even though this was all about two years ago, it’s taking me way too long to remember details of this process! Pretty soon, other, way more exciting things will consume your life (such as the 65-80 pages of final papers I’m writing!).

(Most of) My wonderful Mock Trial Family!