John Birney, Jeremy Smith, Kieran Keefe and Diane Bockrath of Undergraduate Admissions send the decision letters on their way. PHOTO BY HPIS/WILL KIRK

It took a van and a supersized SUV to hold the mail that would bring the good news — or bad — to the 13,400 college seniors who had applied for regular admission to Johns Hopkins in fall 2006. The envelopes were loaded into the vehicles last Wednesday on the Homewood campus en route to the post office, from which they would soon find their way to all 50 states — plus D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico — and 60 foreign countries.

All told, applications were up 23 percent over last year's. Admission was offered to 3,232 students; those who enroll will join the 469 who were admitted early. The target class size is 1,160, with 760 enrolled in Arts and Sciences and 400 in Engineering.

"Given that we had so many more applicants to choose from, it made the decisions that much more difficult," said John Latting, director of undergraduate admissions. "The freshman class is going to be amazing, and we're really excited to see what they achieve here at Hopkins."

The highest number of acceptances went out to applicants from New York, sending Maryland to the second spot this year; California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania follow, just as they did in 2005. About 9 percent are African-American, 8 percent Hispanic and .6 percent Native American.

GO TO APRIL 3, 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE FRONT PAGE.