Forgive the admissions counselors at Homewood if they
look a bit tired and hazy-eyed these
days. After all, they're working long hours to read the
largest number of undergraduate applications in
Johns Hopkins' history.
This year, about 15,950 students are vying for about
1,200 spots in the 2008 fall freshman
class in the Krieger
School of Arts and Sciences and Whiting School of
Engineering, said John Latting,
dean of undergraduate
admissions. That's up more than 7 percent from last
year's 14,848 applications
and nearly 79 percent from 8,929 six years ago.
This is the sixth straight year that applications have
increased, making admission to Johns
Hopkins more competitive than ever before, Latting said.
"The Admissions Office staff all work very hard to get
out the message about the wonderful
undergraduate experience here at Johns Hopkins--and that
experience is getting better all the time,"
Latting said. "It's great to see such an increase in
students who want to come here, but we shouldn't
be surprised."
Part of this trend includes a surge in early decision
applications, with 1,055 college-bound high
school seniors selecting Johns Hopkins as their
first-choice school. That's nearly a 6 percent increase
from last year's 997, and a 72 percent jump from the 613
students who filed early decision
applications with Johns Hopkins in 2003.
What's more, the 439 students who were admitted early
decision in December have the highest
mean composite SAT scores ever: 1,373. The group's median
SAT critical reading score was 670, and
its median SAT math score was 704. Of those students, 32
percent each were accepted into
engineering and natural science programs, 12 percent into
the humanities and 19 percent into social
and behavioral sciences. The rest are undecided Arts and
Sciences students.
Latting's staff will be processing, reading and
discussing applications over the next two months
in anticipation of sending acceptance letters around April
1.
"Although the amount of work facing all of us in
Admissions this time of year can seem daunting,
year in and year out the staff here show they're up to the
challenge," Latting said. "We all know that
many people depend on us in this process to do a great job:
the students who apply, of course, but also
the faculty and students of the university. As Jerry
Schnydman [executive assistant to president
Brody] once said to me, 'This is our Super Bowl.' He's
right on."
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