Hi everyone! I’m Kaitlyn and I’m a freshman majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I'm also on the Pre-Med track. I went to The John Cooper School (Go Dragons!), a small private school in The Woodlands, TX (which is about 45 minutes north of Houston). I took AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP Computer Science A, AP English, AP American History, and AP European History in high school and a few college courses so if you have questions about AP credits or college credits transferring I can help you out! I’m also on the Varsity Tennis Team so if you’re a prospective varsity student-athlete, feel free to ask me any questions you might have!
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Why Hopkins?

I chose Johns Hopkins because it surpassed my checklist! Not only is it a research oriented university with breadth and depth across the academic departments, but it’s also on the East Coast with easy access to Washington D.C. and New York. I was also a recruited tennis player for Hopkins, so I was very excited that I’d be able to experience college as a student-athlete.
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My Classes

Fall 2011:

Introductory Chemistry I
Introductory Chemistry Lab I
General Physics I (for physical science majors)
General Physics Lab I
Calculus II (for engineers)
Intermediate Spanish I
Chemical Engineering Today

Here’s the list of classes I plan on taking next semester:

Spring 2012:

Introductory Chemistry II
Introductory Chemistry Lab II
General Physics II (for physical science majors)
General Physics Lab II
Calculus III (for engineers)
Expository Writing: Better than Human

AP Credits:

AP Calculus BC
Which gave me credit for:
Calculus I   

AP Chemistry
Which gave me credit for:
Introductory Chemistry I
Introductory Chemistry II
Introductory Chemistry Lab I
Introductory Chemistry Lab II

**I chose not to take any credit for AP Chemistry because I felt that my high school lab was not equivalent to a college lab course.

International Relations (at Stanford University Summer College)
Which gave me:
3.3 credits (Social and Behavior Studies designation)

Greek and Latin Roots of English (at Stanford University Summer College)
Which gave me:
2 credits (Humanities designation)
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My Extracurricular List:

The Varsity Tennis Team
The varsity women’s tennis team is definitely my most time consuming and rewarding extracurricular activity. In the fall, we practice 2-3 hours daily, 6 days a week, and our season ends October 9th. In the spring, it picks up a little bit as the spring is our regular season, and we practice more and have away matches during the weekends. I love being a part of the tennis team because I feel like I have a family here at Hopkins- it’s a great support system and I see them all the time!

Salud
I’m part of the Family Health project in Salud, an organization dedicated to alleviating the linguistic or cultural barriers that many Hispanics encounter when seeking medical care in Baltimore. In family health, we help provide health insurance, family, and pharmacy assistance to patients. Eventually, after I take a few more Spanish courses, I’m hoping to join the Bilingual Volunteers project where students serve as interpreters between physicians and patients.
Spanish while volunteering! 

Student Admissions Advisory Board
SAAB is something that I knew I wanted to be a part of as soon as I was accepted to Hopkins. The SAAB board really helped me get a sense of Hopkins when I was a prospective student, so I wanted to try to do the same thing for you guys. I also think communicating with prospective students via blogs, forums, videos, twitter, and Facebook is so cool! SAAB is also great because I get to hang out with a lot of people with different majors and interests that I wouldn’t have met it if weren’t for SAAB.
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My Dorm Life:

I live in a single in AMR II, Griffin house, and I love it! I have my own space, but I’m still in the most social dorm!

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Follow me (please!):

Read my freshman year blog - http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/2015/author/kaitlyn/
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That’s all for now! If you have any questions about academics, sports, social life, transfer credits, the application process, or really anything please don’t hesitate to ask them!

Question:

Hi Kaitlyn!

My name is Eric, and I am an accepted freshmen at JHU from Taipei, Taiwan! From your post in the Hopkins page, you wrote that you're majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. That is a major I'm interested in studying, so could you give me some information on the classes you're in and you've taken, and what they are like? And also, what is your favorite thing about JHU, and perhaps some of the things that you thought were different from before and after you arrived.

I'm very excited to head to JHU in Fall 2012!

Response:

Hi Eric! Congratulations on your early decision acceptance!!

As a freshman ChemBE, I am taking Chemical Engineering Today, Chemistry I and II, Physics I and II, Chemistry Lab, Physics Lab, Calculus II, and Differential Equations and Applications. As for required distribution credits, I am taking Intermediate Spanish I and Expository Writing. I've attached a sample ChemBE course load below.

http://www.jhu.edu/chembe/undergraduate-programs/docs/Example-ChemBE-schedule.pdf

My experiences with my courses have been positive so far. My chemistry class had about 300 students, which is average in terms of a general science requirement (such as Physics, Biology, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, etc.). Generally all of the science courses move at a pretty quick pace, so that you're expected to keep up with the reading and weekly problem sets. Also, science courses generally have 2-3 midterms and a final exam. The professors are absolutely brilliant, and you usually have a "section" once a week in which a Teaching Assistant will go over the material covered in lecture. As for my math class, it had around 200 or so students, which is average for the lower level math courses. (Calculus I, II, and III). In Calculus II, we had a quiz every week in section, which I found helpful in terms of determining how well I knew the material. We also had a problem set due every section which could take an hour to ten hours to complete, depending on the week. My Chemical Engineering Class was my favorite class, and you can read more about it in my response to Carla above.

My favorite thing about JHU? It's hard to pick just one thing. I love the campus, the professors, the resources, and most of all, the students. When you come to Hopkins, you are putting yourself in an environment full of motivated people. It's inspiring to be around students that are really passionate about what they are studying.

As for things that were different in terms of my preconceptions, I guess I didn't expect to have as much fun as I am having. JHU is really conducive to building friendships and networking in terms of its size (there are approximately 1200 freshmen this year). It's really easy to meet people here because you almost always run into them again, whether that be in the library, in your dorm, in one of your lectures, or at the Freshmen Cafeteria (The Fresh Food Cafe). I didn't expect to feel this at home, this fast.

I hope that I've answered your questions, but if not, feel free to ask away or browse the forums for some more information.

Congrats again!
Kaitlyn

 

Hi Eric,

I do not think that you need to have taken AP Chem prior to coming to Hopkins in order to major in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I believe my background in chemistry allowed me to be somewhat more prepared in Introductory Chemistry I than some of classmates, but Hopkins approaches chemistry in a different way than high school. I had not taken AP Physics prior to taking General Physics I, and I believe I did just fine. Obviously I had to focus on studying for physics more so than chemistry, but I never felt overwhelmed by the new material.

In your case, I would advise for you to take your Calc credits. If you got a 5 on AP Calc BC, it's clear that you know the material. A lot of my friends that are majoring in ChemBE took their calc credits so they started out in Calculus III, and they're able to have more flexibility with their schedule. That's just my 2 cents though. You can always enroll in Calculus III initially and if it proves to advanced, you can drop down to Calculus II before the drop/add deadline. Or vice versa, in which you could enroll in Calculus II and switch to Calculus III if the class proved too remedial. If you drop before this deadline, the switch won't appear on your transcript.

Hope that helps!
Kaitlyn