News Release

The Johns Hopkins University is committed to doing all it can to assist people in the three-state region devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We are mobilizing faculty and staff to provide direct medical assistance to affected areas. Members of our university community are launching fund-raising efforts. Additionally, Johns Hopkins is preparing to provide educational opportunities for students of Gulf Coast institutions that will not be able to reopen this semester.

Undergraduate students whose home institutions will close for the fall semester may apply to the university's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences or Whiting School of Engineering for admission as visiting students.

On a space-available basis, the two schools will accept a limited number of visiting students for the fall semester. We will give priority to students from the Baltimore area. Visiting students must meet Johns Hopkins admissions standards.

Johns Hopkins will consider for admission those students whose home colleges and universities have declared themselves closed for the fall semester because of Hurricane Katrina. In anticipation of such a declaration, students may file applications now. The Johns Hopkins fall semester begins on Thursday, Sept. 8, and we anticipate that Gulf Coast institutions will have declared their intentions by then. A visiting student application and additional information will be available online later today here. The usual deadline and application fee are waived for this emergency program.

Potential applicants should note that:

Some fall semester courses at Johns Hopkins have already reached maximum enrollment.

Details about tuition are still being worked out, but, in any event, visiting students at Johns Hopkins will not be put into a situation in which they find themselves paying tuition to both Johns Hopkins and their home institution.

The Johns Hopkins Student Financial Services office will keep track of Education Department requirements and waivers and help accepted visiting students file the proper paperwork for federal financial aid. The office will also work with accepted students on other alternatives for financing their Johns Hopkins tuition.

There currently is no university-owned housing available for the fall semester.

Admission as a visiting student does not constitute a transfer to Johns Hopkins. Visiting students will be expected to return to their home colleges and universities when those institutions reopen.

For more information, students may call the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at (410) 516-8171. NOTE: Over Labor Day weekend, please call (410) 516-4882.