Hey...I was wondering, how many AP courses has the average admitted student participated in, and are most of the students straight A's in high school? Would strength of the respective high school factor into this significently? By the way, I did ED after absolutely falling in love with the atmosphere and program.

For us here at Hopkins, every student is considered independently and on an individual basis.  We think that the difficulty of your courses is the strongest indicator of success here at Hopkins and we like to see that students have challeneged themselves.  However, we recognize that opportunity is not equal in the US and we treat all applications accordingly based on the opportunities they have been given.  :D

Great students are admitted no matter what high schools they attend - it's just a matter of doing the best you can with what you have been given with respect to academic performance.  :blink:

Have a great day!  :D

Thank you for your message and we are pleased to hear of your interest in Johns Hopkins University. Many students contact our Office to ask about course selection throughout their high school years. Though we will provide prospective applicants with general recommendations on what courses will be considered competitive in our application review process, we can not offer specific advice about what courses an individual student should select. Every prospective student has an individual record from their specific high school, therefore it is not possible for us to suggest enrollment options. Such questions are better suited for discussions with your guidance counselor, parents, and or decisions you will need to make on your own. We are evaluators of the decisions you make in high school - and therefore the choices you make about your schedule say much about what kind of academic individual you are and will be.

In general, recommended preparation for all students includes four years of each of the following subjects: English, Mathematics, Foreign Language, Science with laboratory, a History and Social Science. It is recommended that students take 5 core academic courses each year throughout high school, focusing on academic core classes over elective classes. If you choose to discontinue the study of an academic core course, it is strongly recommended that you supplement that course with an additional course in one of the other core academic areas.

Please note that these are only recommendations and not requirements. Every individual student's own personal educational history will be taken into account when reviewing one's course selection. There are no official course requirements to apply to Johns Hopkins, so any student may apply and be reviewed for admission no matter what courses they have selected.

Best of luck.

That's correct.  Core courses according to Hopkins are English, Mathematics, Foreign Language, Science with laboratory, a History or a Social Science.  :D

I will add that if you are interested in one particular area of study, it's important to continue in courses offered at your high school in those areas instead of discontinuing them even if that is an option.  Hypothetically speaking , if I wanted to major in Jogging (which you can't at Hopkins but this is hypothetical, right?) then it's smart to take the most challenging courses offered in Jogging and finish that line of study at your school.  

Glad you like the forum - we like it too!

~Mark

I have a problem where my school does not offer AP's for freshman, sophmore, and juniors other than Euro.

My senior year I will be taking 5 AP courses, which are actually lucky for any senior since my school is typically for kids who are insanely "normal."

For example, you'd need incredible recommendations to even think about entering an AP course. Unlike other schools, where it's as simple as starting at AP courses their freshman year.

Will JHU take into consideration that despite how hard some people may have tried in the past, they were still unable to take a "difficult" courseload from their 9th-11th grade years?

Also, would it be taken into consideration that I seized oppurtunities to enter the honors level english and math courses, even though they weren't necessarily AP (at least not until my senior year)?

Or would those situations just be looked and laughed at as a pathetic excuse for some lazy kid who just couldn't handle higher level courses?

A lot of people have been saying the fact that I have no AP's until my senior year will hurt me. I could use a bit of reassurance here  :unsure: .

I've read in a Collegeboard handbook that to apply for Hopkins, I need minimum of four years in a foreign language study.  I've taken three years of Spanish at my community college and took an SAT II test for another language (not Spanish) and got a 790.  Would they both count towards the four years or would I need four years of one specific language?

Thank you!

Thank you.  That got me a little parnoid (again).

I realized (after reading through all the questions/answers) that not many REQUIREMENTS are there for applicants, only recommendations.  But it never hurts to check something out of a Collegeboard handbook, right?

Ah.  Now I got my entire world of sources twisted up because up until now, I thought Collegeboard was the most reliable source for college info.  Oh well.  :huh:

And I just noticed: Is your signature bar quote from her book "And the funny thing is?"  I think I read it in there.  Funny book.

Hi I'm Dat and I recently learned of Johns Hopkins and it sounds like a place I want to go. But since I learned of it so late (this is my senior year) I didn't know you liked seeing 4 years of foreign language and I only took 2. Will that have an adverse effect on my chances of getting in? I might not have 4 years of foreign language but I have about 8 science credit and 5 math.

Hey, my name is Bryan and I'm from the state of Washington. I'm still in my sophomore year but have started looking at colleges last year and Johns Hopkins have caught my interest.

JHU recommends taking 4 years of social studies/history, but my school does not offer any in freshmen year. We don't have a choice on the history classes (World, US) in sophomore and junior year (just the level: core, honors, AP) but in senior year we have a menu of classes to choose from. Should I be taking two then?

Also, what's the rough # of applicant/acceptance from Washington?

Lastly, this may seem obvious, but can I email our state rep for anymore questions I might have in the future?

Thanks

Hi Brian!
I am from Washington and it is awesome that you are interested in Hopkins!!
I would agree with Lauren that your admissions rep (Amy Brokl) will be familiar with your school and will understand your curriculum and what type of classes you should be taking--
I think that the best advice I received with regards to taking classes is to take classes that both interest and challenge you--So if you want to take 2 social science/history type classes your senior year, you should! But if you'd rather take another type of class that is more interesting and engaging for you, maybe you should take that. Either way, you have a little while to decide ;).

Good luck and enjoy Washington!! It's the best state EVER!!!

PS if you have any washington based questions feel free to ask me on my "ask a student" thread or on my blog!!

Also concerning foreign language:

I know it's only a recommendation as for the foreign language stuff, but I was wondering if I got a 790 on a SAT II foreign language with listening, the admissions will see it as three (or more?) years of foreign language, though I have not done any classes in the language for which I have taken the test.

I have a foreign language class that is marked as a C in my high school transcript and I was wondering if I can take that out and Hopkins will still see that I did study a foreign language.

I know these nit-picky questions get really pesty, but I'm in the middle of polishing up my trascript (I found out that most of the community college classes are actually bringing my GPA down.  A lot.) and I might as well make all the changes before sending an update notification to the Application Coordinators.

Thank you!

Hi, I'm a junior very interested in applying to JHU next year. I have a concern regarding my high school course selection. This year I'm taking 4 AP and one honors class (all are core class subjects) supplemented by Art II and another elective. I found Art I to be an enjoyable class after having to take it as a required class to graduate. However, I've been constantly told my classmates that colleges don't care for Art classes and they make me appear lazy. Granted, it isn't as challenging as my AP courses, but I took it as an fun class. With what I'm hearing, I'm very much regretting my decision enrolling in this course. Also, despite it being Art II Honors class, it is weighted as regular class, which shows that my school system too does not see this is a serious class (I did not know this until a few weeks ago).

How much is this decision going to hurt me when applying for college? Does JHU not care for Art classes? I'm very worried as I definitely could have handled another AP class in an area more oriented towards my intended major (I want to study medicine) such as Biology AP or Chemistry AP. I plan on taking those two classes in my senior year, but from what I've read recently senior year is not truly considered as applications and acceptance/denial are done before senior year grades end.

Obviously it is too late for me make any schedule amends, but I would like to know the honest answer to this question as it's aggravating me constantly since I've been incessantly wondering for the past two months the impact of the mistake I made.

Thank you!