essays that got into johns hopkins

Essays That Worked

The essays are a place to show us who you are and who you’ll be in our community.

It’s a chance to add depth to something that is important to you and tell the admissions committee more about your background or goals. Below you’ll find selected examples of essays that “worked,” as nominated by our admissions committee. In each of these essays, students were able to share stories from their everyday lives to reveal something about their character, values, and life that aligned with the culture and values at Hopkins.

Read essays that worked from Transfer applicants .

Hear from the class of 2027.

These selections represent just a few examples of essays we found impressive and helpful during the past admissions cycle. We hope these essays inspire you as you prepare to compose your own personal statements. The most important thing to remember is to be original as you share your own story, thoughts, and ideas with us.

Ordering the Disorderly

Ellie’s essay skillfully uses the topic of entropy as an extended metaphor. Through it, we see reflections about who they are and who they aspire to be.

Pack Light, But Be Prepared

In Pablo’s essay, the act of packing for a pilgrimage becomes a metaphor for the way humans accumulate experiences in their life’s journey and what we can learn from them. As we join Pablo through the diverse phases of their life, we gain insights into their character and values.

Tikkun Olam

Julieta illustrates how the concept of Tikkun Olam, “a desire to help repair the world,” has shaped their passions and drives them to pursue experiences at Hopkins.

Kashvi’s essay encapsulates a heartfelt journey of self-discovery and the invaluable teachings of Rock, their 10-year-old dog. Through the lens of their companionship, Kashvi walked us through valuable lessons on responsibility, friendship, patience, and unconditional love.

Classical Reflections in Herstory

Maddie’s essay details their intellectual journey using their love of Greek classics. They incorporate details that reveal the roots of their academic interests: storytelling, literary devices, and translation. As their essay progresses, so do Maddie’s intellectual curiosities.

My Spotify Playlist

Alyssa’s essay reflects on special memories through the creative lens of Spotify playlists. They use three examples to highlight their experiences with their tennis team, finding a virtual community during the pandemic, and co-founding a nonprofit to help younger students learn about STEM.

More essays that worked

We share essays from previously admitted students—along with feedback from our admissions committee—so you can understand what made them effective and how to start crafting your own.

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6 Outstanding Johns Hopkins Essays That Worked for 2023

To get into Johns Hopkins University in 2023, you'll need to make sure your essays that help you stand out.

You may know that John Hopkins releases essay examples every so often.

And in this article, I've gathered 6 additional incredible Johns Hopkins essays from admitted students.

Whether you're a student or parent of an applicant, get inspired and real insight into JHU admissions.

What is John Hopkins University's Acceptance Rate?

Getting into Johns Hopkins is difficult. Last year, over 37,150 students applied to Johns Hopkins and 2,407 were admitted.

That means Johns Hopkins had an overall acceptance rate of 6.5%, or in other words about 1 in 15 students get admitted each year

Johns Hopkins Acceptance Scattergram

Luckily, if you want to maximize your chances of getting into Johns Hopkins, your essays make sure you have your best chance of acceptance.

For top schools like Johns Hopkins, your essays matter more.

What are the Johns Hopkins Supplemental Prompts for 2022-23?

This year, Johns Hopkins requires applicants to write one essay of 300-400 words in response to its writing supplement question.

Here are the Johns Hopkins writing supplement prompts for this year:

• Founded in the spirit of exploration and discovery, Johns Hopkins University encourages students to share their perspectives, develop their interests, and pursue new experiences.

Use this space to share something you’d like the admissions committee to know about you (your interests, your background, your identity, or your community), and how it has shaped what you want to get out of your college experience at Hopkins. (300-400 words)

6 Additional Johns Hopkins EssaysThatWorked

These are 6 additional Johns Hopkins essays that worked written by admitted students. Here you can read their essay examples and see how they got accepted.

I've also included some Common App essays written by admitted JHU students.

• 1. Runners Take Your Marks
• 2. Percussive Marching Arts
• 3. Constance Care Center
• 4. Governor's School of Science
• 6. Glowing Blob

#1. Johns Hopkins Supplement Example: Runners Take Your Marks

Prompt: Successful students at Johns Hopkins make the biggest impact by collaborating with others, including peers, mentors, and professors. Talk about a time, in or outside the classroom, when you worked with others and what you learned from the experience. (300-400 words)

"Runners take your marks, get set, collaborate?"

When one attempts to characterize the sport of cross-country, the term 'teammates' rarely comes to mind. More commonly, the activity is associated with words such as 'champion' or 'competitor', both singular nouns. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine the extent of my surprise when, stepping into my first-ever cross-country practice as a lanky ninth-grader, I witnessed the sense of camaraderie present among the more established members of the team. Despite my acknowledgement of these runners as teammates, I held my opposing views of cross-country and of collaboration at the poles of my mind, convinced that the two were terminally incompatible. Stubbornly clinging to this black-and-white philosophy, I carried it with me throughout the season's inaugural meet, unaware of the burden that such a dichotomous perspective created. Instead of tuning into the motivated cheering of coaches, I tuned into the laborious pumping of my arms, resultant of the intensity of the race.

Opposed to focusing on the changes in pace effected by my teammates, I chose to focus on the chafing around my ankles, resultant of an ill-fitting pair of racing spikes. Intent of ensuring my own success, I willfully ignored the reality that, although my teammates were assuming the role of rivals, my teammates were simultaneously assuming the role of collaborators, purposefully striving to ensure the success of one another. Consequently, the competing teams engaging in cooperative conduct similarly happened to be the teams with the greatest overall achievement at that first meet.

While witnessing the success of collaborative teams certainly set into motion a transformation of my polarized perspective in regards to cross-country, the true catalytic factor materialized itself as the interactions carried out between my teammates and I. As the season progressed, and as I gradually gained awareness of the team's nuanced character, I noticed that the strengths of one teammate served to supplement the weaknesses of another. Where one teammate may have fallen short on rhythm near the conclusion of a race, for example, another teammate would provide a blazing final 'kick'. Equipped with a transformative understanding of team dynamics, I ultimately came to realize that cooperative achievement arises not from compromise, but rather from the constructive amalgamation of distinctive individual qualities.

As I toe the starting line of an undefined future, I will undoubtedly carry these indelible lessons with me throughout the entirety of life's most daunting race.

#2. Johns Hopkins Supplement Example: Percussive Marching Arts

There is something intimate, almost profound, in mirroring the movements of about 14 people around you.

From paralleling the idiosyncrasies of a vibraphone player’s smile to the nuances of a marimba player’s wrist movements, it is difficult to achieve total nonverbal communication in a band’s front ensemble. The result, however, is an infinitely rewarding one; the visual mosaic we design — whether inside the confines of a gymnasium floor or on an expansive stretch of turf on a football field — is akin to the aural one we create as well. This tapestry, while ostensibly uniform, is woven with the gradations of every player’s physical form, their quirks quickly adopted by the whole ensemble.

Indeed, pantomiming and performing become one in the same in the stationary percussive marching arts. This mimicry demands a sacred conviction that every player will commit to maintaining the mosaic that we’ve worked so hard to build. The tense moment when each player waves his or her mallets above the board permits no hesitation; there is no room to confirm the camaraderie between players before striking the keys. We are forced to trust that everything will fall into place, and the tapestry will unfold as it should to captivate our audience.

I’ve learned a lot from playing mallet percussion across the ensembles offered at my school, but the most important thing I’ve learned is to relax, and allow the hours me and my peers have put into rehearsal take their course. I am a notoriously anxious person, obsessed with precision and perfection. Performing is anything but precise; it’s fluid and expressive. When the drum major counts off, I cannot worry about my stance behind the board, or if how much torque I am applying to the first stroke is the same as the person next to me. I must be unapologetically confident.

The faith that I’ve cultivated in my peers in creating this musical tapestry has translated to an increased faith in myself and my own abilities. No longer am I afraid to explore new talents, or take intellectual excursions into fields unbeknownst to me. I am free to teach myself anything, from the entirety of Claude Debussy's works on piano to the John Cena theme song on recorder. Indeed, contributing to something greater than myself has fundamentally changed who I am for the better.

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#3. Johns Hopkins Common App Essay Example: Constance Care Center

Common App Prompt #5: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. (250-650 words)

Why This Essay Works:

This student uses vulnerability in admitting that they held preconceived notions about the elderly before this experience. The quote introduces these preconceived notions well, while the description of how this student got their job in the care facility is also engaging.

Admission officers love to see your interactions with others. Showing how you interact reveals a lot about your character, and this essay benefits from reflecting upon the student's relationship with a particular elderly individual.

What They Might Improve:

It is good to be descriptive, but only when it supports your expression of ideas. In this essay, the author uses adjectives and adverbs excessively, without introducing new ideas. Your ideas are more important than having a diverse vocabulary, and the realizations in this essay are muddled by rephrasing similar ideas using seemingly "impressive," but ultimately somewhat meaningless, vocabulary.

This essay touches on some interesting ideas, but on multiple occasions these ideas are repeated just in different phrasing. If you have already expressed an idea, don't repeat it unless you're adding something new: a deeper context, a new angle, a broadened application, etc. Ask yourself: what is the purpose of each sentence, and have I expressed it already?

It's true that almost any topic can make for a strong essay, but certain topics are trickier because they make it easy to write about overly used ideas. In this essay, the main idea can be summarized as: "I realized the elderly were worthy humans too." It touches upon more interesting ideas, such as how people can be reduced down to their afflictions rather than their true character, but the main idea is somewhat surface-level.

#4. Johns Hopkins Common App Essay Example: Governor's School of Science

#5. johns hopkins personal statement example: riddles.

Common App Prompt #6: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? (250-650 words)

As I was going to St. Ives, Upon the road I met seven wives; Every wife had seven sacks, Every sack had seven cats: Cats, sacks, and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?

The riddles of life were not as straightforward as the puzzles in my books and websites. In fact, they were not straightforward at all, like winding mazes of philosophical quandary.

One of the most thought-provoking subjects that preoccupies my mind regards the existence of aliens. Initially, my mind was settled on the possibility of intelligent life. A universe so big could not possibly be lifeless.

As for the solution to the riddle at the start:

How many were going to St. Ives?

This essay does well by having a unique central topic—riddles—which allows the author to draw out interesting ideas related to this theme. Your topic doesn't necessarily need to be profound or hugely significant, because this author shows how you can take a seemingly unimportant topic and use it to make meaningful connections. In this essay, riddles grow to represent something greater than the activity itself, which is something you can do with almost any topic.

One of the most effective ways to "show, not tell" is to use specific and tangible examples. This essay does a great job of exemplifying their ideas. Rather than just saying "I enthralled my friends with questions," the author also shows this: "Over peanut butter and sliced ham, I assumed the role of story teller..." Examples are always more convincing because they are proof, and allow the reader to interpret for themselves. Don't tell the reader what you want them to think. Instead, set up moments that guide the reader to come to those conclusions themselves.

This conclusion connects back to the beginning, which is generally a good idea as it creates a cohesive structure. However, this ending doesn't quite make sense in the context of the riddle. Rather than creating new meaning, it comes off as arbitrary and contrived. Make sure your conclusion isn't creative just for creative-sake, and instead also has significant meaning attached to it.

#6. Johns Hopkins Personal Statement Example: Glowing Blob

Common App Prompt #7: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design. (250-650 words)

The diamond leaves of gnarled oak trees throw spectrums of color onto mounds of frosty snow that gleam melancholily under the moonlight. The leaves chime as wind violently rustles them in a haunting melody. I splinter a leaf off its branch and inspect the shard of my illusion, eyes dancing with amusement.

As I dwell in my worries, a cold hand reaches from behind me and taps my shoulder.

I jerk away, fear bubbling in my amygdala as I look into the nonexistent eyes of my intruding visitor.

The moon illuminates a blob of pink squish as it draws back slowly, points its spindly hands towards my drink and asks: “Could I have some of that?”

The blob wipes its invisible mouth with its nonexistent sleeve. I ask: “What are you?”

The blob tells me to stop looking at it so suspiciously. “I can prove it,” It says. I tell it, please, go ahead.

Suddenly we are back in the glowing forest. “Diamonds? Pah!” The blob dismisses them. Instantly, the leaves turn solid gold, the snow melts, and the wintry world is thrown into a blistering summer.

The blob laughs heartlessly. “Your cortex is under my control,” it says smugly.

“I heard you had a question for me?” It taps its invisible ears knowingly.

The blob wriggles its invisible brows as it waits.

It smiles that wicked smile. It laughs that sinful laugh. Then that insufferable blob wakes me up.

As I sit up in the dark and rub my bleary eyes, I am vaguely aware of the deep­set unfulfillment settling itself inside me. I yawn and plop back into bed, the soft red glow of my alarm clock indicating that it is still before midnight.

One thing is for sure about this essay: it has a unique idea that has surely not been written before. Regardless of your topic, you want your essay to be unique in some way, even if it isn't as fantastical as this essay. You can use a unique structure, such as having central symbolism, metaphor, or being structured as a recipe, for example. But this can easily become "gimmicky" if it doesn't have a clear purpose. In general, the most effective way to have a unique essay is to focus on having deep and unique ideas and reflections. By focusing on interesting takeaways and connections that are ultra-specific to you and your experiences, your essay will standout regardless of the structure.

This essay uses a lot of fiction-like writing that is fantastical and "flowery." Although moments of this kind of writing can make your essay more vivid, it is quite easy to end up with dense storytelling and descriptions that ultimately don't share anything interesting about you. The purpose of your essay is ultimately to learn about you: your values, your ideas, your identity, etc. By using dense story-like writing, it can be easy to lose focus of what admissions officers are looking for. In general, avoid writing "fancy" stories like this essay, unless you have a clear and distinct purpose for doing so. Everything in your essay should have a purpose in "going somewhere" (i.e. reaching interesting ideas and takeaways).

This essay is definitely creative, but lacks meaningful takeaways and ideas. By the end of the essay, we don't know much about the author besides the fact that they have an affinity for creative writing and are "on a search." Although the content is unique, the end result comes off as quite generic and surface-level because no interesting thoughts are explored deeply. The most interesting part of this essay is "I open my mouth and ask it my most crucial question," but this is super unsatisfying because the question is never divulged. Instead, the reader is teased by this fantasy story and the essay goes nowhere meaningful, which comes off as gimmicky and "creative for creative's sake," rather than deeply personal and interesting.

This essay ends on the idea of "continuing my search," but for what exactly? It is never explained, elaborated, or even implied (besides one reference to painting earlier). That makes this conclusion comes off as somewhat surface-level and uninteresting. Admissions officers won't care about "your search" unless they have a reason to care. That is, unless it tells something specific about you. On it's own, this idea of "exploring" and "searching" is meaningless because it is too broad and unelaborated.

What Can You Learn From These Johns Hopkins Essays?

If you're trying to get into Johns Hopkins University this year, you'll need to write essays that help you stand out and get accepted. These 6 examples of Johns Hopkins essays that worked show how real students got into JHU in recent years.

In this article, you can read and learn from essay examples responding to the Johns Hopkins writing supplement for 2023 as well as successful Common App personal statements .

Let me know, what did you think of these Johns Hopkins essay examples?

Ryan Chiang , Founder of EssaysThatWorked

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People love to ask why. Why do you wear a turban? Why do you have long hair? Why are you playing a guitar with only 3 strings and watching TV at 3 A.M.—where did you get that cat? Why won’t you go back to your country, you terrorist? My answer is... uncomfortable. Many truths of the world are uncomfortable...

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Her baking is not confined to an amalgamation of sugar, butter, and flour. It's an outstretched hand, an open invitation, a makeshift bridge thrown across the divides of age and culture. Thanks to Buni, the reason I bake has evolved. What started as stress relief is now a lifeline to my heritage, a language that allows me to communicate with my family in ways my tongue cannot. By rolling dough for saratele and crushing walnuts for cornulete, my baking speaks more fluently to my Romanian heritage than my broken Romanian ever could....

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A cow gave birth and I watched. Staring from the window of our stopped car, I experienced two beginnings that day: the small bovine life and my future. Both emerged when I was only 10 years old and cruising along the twisting roads of rural Maryland...

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College Essays

Johns Hopkins University is considered one of the top-10 national schools in the United States. As the country's first research university, Johns Hopkins is interested in fostering lifelong learning and research. Although their medical school is perhaps their most famous department, Johns Hopkins has many prestigious programs—and their reputation means that admittance is extremely competitive, with just a 8% acceptance rate .

If you want to join the band of Blue Jays, you'll need to be a stellar student—and you'll need to write a killer Johns Hopkins essay. This guide will walk you through the Johns Hopkins supplement, including best practices for answering the prompt, how to plan your essay, and analyzing essays that got other applicants in.

Feature Image: Matthew Petroff /Wikimedia Commons

What Should You Know About the Johns Hopkins Supplement?

The Johns Hopkins application process is fairly straightforward. You can apply using the Coalition Application or Common Application , which each have their own essay questions to answer.

In addition to whatever essay you choose for your application, Johns Hopkins asks for an additional required essay of up to 400 words. There is just a single prompt, so no struggling to pick which one will best suit your needs here!

What Is the Johns Hopkins Essay Prompt?

Johns Hopkins has just one essay prompt. The 2022-2023 prompt focuses on collaboration and teamwork, asking you to think about your own role in working with others:

Founded in the spirit of exploration and discovery, Johns Hopkins University encourages students to share their perspectives, develop their interests, and pursue new experiences. Use this space to share something you'd like the admissions committee to know about you (your interests, your background, your identity, or your community), and how it has shaped what you want to get out of your college experience at Hopkins. (300-400 words)

This prompt is a bit less structured than Johns Hopkins essays in the past, which can present new challenges to students. It can be hard to figure out what exactly Johns Hopkins wants you to write about with a prompt like this one! But don't worry: we're going to break it down for you.

What This Prompt Is Asking You to Do

First things first: let's take a closer look at the first sentence of the prompt. In this sentence, Johns Hopkins is outlining exactly what kind of student they want to admit. Admissions counselors are looking for students with diverse ideas and experiences who are curious and passionate. They also want to admit students who aren't stuck in their ways: Johns Hopkins wants their students to be brave enough to try new things, pursue new ideas, and push themselves academically and otherwise.

To that end, this prompt is asking you to share one thing about yourself and how it has impacted both you and your future goals at Johns Hopkins.

How to Answer the Prompt

To answer this prompt well , you need to zero in on an aspect of your personality that a) isn't addressed in your other application materials, and b) fits with Johns Hopkins' mission and academic culture. Our secret trick to choosing the right trait to talk about? Make a list.

Sit down with a pen and paper and write down unique and interesting things about you. While it's good to focus on the categories in the prompt (identity, background, etc.), don't be afraid to branch out if it makes sense. For instance, maybe you have an incredibly interesting hobby or skill you want to share. Even though those things aren't explicitly listed in the prompt, it's okay to list those things down, too.

Once you've built your list, go through and start culling down until you have a topic that works. Here's what you should ask yourself as you start crossing off ideas:

• Do I talk about this in my application already?
• Is this a common topic that other applicants will write about (like being in band or enjoying the outdoors)?
• Is this aspect of your personality too broad or vague?
• Can you tell a story about this part of yourself?

Once you've picked the aspect of your personality that you want to write about, you need to tell a story around it . Don't just say you've hiked the Appalachian trail. Tell a story about your hike. What was it like? What did you experience? Why did you do it in the first place?

And of course, you also have to explain how this aspect of your personality will impact your education at Johns Hopkins. Maybe you decided to hike the Appalachian Trail because you enjoy testing your endurance, and you want to bring that same tenacity to your studies at Hopkins. Make sure you're tying everything back to your education!

There's no wrong way to celebrate a successful essay.

2 Johns Hopkins Essays That Worked

Even with a guide, it can be hard to figure out exactly what Johns Hopkins is looking for in their essays. Thankfully, the college posts successful essays on their website —complete with admissions office comments—giving you the chance to look through Johns Hopkins essays that worked.

These examples are responses to past prompts, so they do some things quite differently. But reading through them can still give you valuable insight into what Johns Hopkins University values in an essay, such as a cohesive look at each applicant and a creative frame for the topic.

#1: "Time to Spin the Wheel"

Add the fact that I was raised in a Bengali household and studied Spanish in high school for four years, and I was able to add other exotic words. Sinfin, zanahoria, katukutu, and churanto soon took their rightful places alongside my English favorites.

And yet, during this time of vocabulary enrichment, I never thought that Honors English and Biology had much in common. Imagine my surprise one night as a freshman as I was nonchalantly flipping through a science textbook. I came upon fascinating new terms: adiabatic, axiom, cotyledon, phalanges … and I couldn't help but wonder why these non-literary, seemingly random words were drawing me in. These words had sharp syllables, were challenging to enunciate, and didn't possess any particularly abstract meaning.

I was flummoxed, but curious … I kept reading.

… and then it hit me. For all my interest in STEM classes, I never fully embraced the beauty of technical language, that words have the power to simultaneously communicate infinite ideas and sensations AND intricate relationships and complex processes.

Perhaps that's why my love of words has led me to a calling in science, an opportunity to better understand the parts that allow the world to function. At day's end, it's language that is perhaps the most important tool in scientific education, enabling us all to communicate new findings in a comprehensible manner, whether it be focused on minute atoms or vast galaxies.

Romila's interest in language is introduced at the very beginning, but the essay takes a surprising turn midway Because she focuses on language, we'd expect that she's interested in pursuing a literature or writing degree; instead, her interest in language helped shape her love for biology.

What works particularly well in this essay is that it demonstrates Romila's unique background as a language-loving biology major of Bengali heritage. She doesn't need to declare her diversity; it's demonstrated through each unique facet of her personality she brings up.

As the admissions committee comments below the essay, Romila also does a wonderful job of showing her interest in interdisciplinary learning . It's not just that she loves linguistics and biology, but that she sees a clear line from one to the other—she loves both of them and the ways that they flow together.

It's unlikely that you have the same experience as Romila, but keep these things in mind when writing your own essay. How can you use your essay to discuss your educational aspirations? Does the work you've done with others fall into interdisciplinary learning? That can be as unconventional as an edible presentation on nuclear physics or as simple as understanding that your soccer team was made up of people with different skills and positions and how, together, you won the championship.

#2: "And on That Note"

While practicing a concert D-flat scale, I messed up a fingering for a low B-flat, and my instrument produced a strange noise with two notes. My band teacher got very excited and exclaimed, "Hey, you just played a polyphonic note!" I like it when accidents lead to discovering new ideas.

I like this polyphonic sound because it reminds me of myself: many things at once. ... Even though my last name gives them a hint, the Asian students at our school don't believe that I'm half Japanese. Meanwhile the non-Asians are surprised that I'm also part Welsh. I feel comfortable being unique or thinking differently. As a Student Ambassador this enables me to help freshman [sic] and others who are new to our school feel welcome and accepted. I help the new students know that it's okay to be themselves.

There is added value in mixing things together. I realized this when my brother and I won an international Kavli Science Foundation contest where we explained the math behind the Pixar movie "Up." Using stop motion animation we explored the plausibility and science behind lifting a house with helium balloons. I like offering a new view and expanding the way people see things. In many of my videos I combine art with education. I want to continue making films that not only entertain, but also make you think.

Like Romila, Curtis' essay uses an introductory framing device—his experience with playing a polyphonic note—to transition into a discussion of all the ways he is multiple things at once.

Demonstrating his multiple interests is part of why Curtis' essay succeeds so well, but most of these examples aren't just examples of contradictions or subverted expectations. They show other things, too, such as the way other people see him (Asian students don't believe he's half Japanese, non-Asian kids only see him as Asian), how his interest in different fields leads him to create unique projects, and how his experience being different allows him to be welcoming to others.

Curtis' writing is lively without getting lost in the metaphor. The framing device is clear, but it doesn't come up so much that it feels too focused on the idea of a polyphonic note. The essay would work just fine without the metaphor, which means his points are strong and sound.

According to the admissions officers' notes, Curtis' essay stood out in part because of the way it shows his ability to think across disciplines. Creative thinking is a huge asset at a research university such as Johns Hopkins. Like Romila's essay, this interest in interdisciplinary learning proves that he'll be a good fit for Johns Hopkins.

4 Key Tips for Writing Your Johns Hopkins Essay

Because the Johns Hopkins supplement has just one prompt, you'll want to do your absolute best on it. That means getting started early and giving yourself plenty of time to polish and refine your work.

As with all college essays, you should go through multiple drafts and seek feedback from others to make sure your essay is as strong as it can be. The earlier you start, the more time you'll have to whip it into shape!

#1: Brainstorm

Remember all those exercises your high school teachers had you work on, such as mind mapping and free writing? Now's the time to bust them out.

Look at the prompt and write down as many short answers as you can think of, no matter how silly they might sound—you don't have to use them if you don't feel strongly about them! If you spend some time writing down all your ideas, you can choose the one that speaks most strongly to you rather than getting midway through an essay before realizing that it's not what you really want to write about.

#2: Be Specific

Specificity is extremely important. With just 400 words, you need to make sure you're using your space wisely.

Tie your idea directly to Johns Hopkins University rather than speaking in generalities. Look through their course catalog and club offerings, and try to connect some of them to your goals and aspirations. Because the prompt asks about collaboration, try to envision yourself in those spaces, accomplishing your goals thanks to your classmates' support.

#3: Get Feedback

Once you've gone through a draft or two, it's time to turn your precious essay over to someone else for feedback. Find people you trust to give you honest and helpful critique. If they're too harsh, you're not going to want to use their advice. But if they focus too much on praise, you might not end up with anything to change.

Look to teachers or other people who have experience with writing—preferably not parents, as they're a little too close to you to be objective—for good advice.

Let all that feedback sit for a while before you sit down to revise your Johns Hopkins essay. Often, our initial response to feedback is to either implement or reject all of it, neither of which is necessarily the best way to improve an essay.

Consider the feedback you receive and find a middle ground between the recommendations and your voice and goals. It's OK if you don't agree with some of it, but do be sure that you always ask yourself why someone might not have understood your meaning. If clarity is an issue, you can still address that even if you don't agree with someone's suggestion.

What's Next?

A good essay is just one part of a successful Johns Hopkins application. Take some time to make sure your GPA , ACT , and SAT scores are up to par, too!

Need some additional help in writing a great college essay? This guide has all the tips and tricks for turning your ideas into essays !

The college application process can be long and confusing, especially when you're applying to a competitive school like Johns Hopkins. This expert guide to college applications will give you all the tips and information you need to create a truly spectacular application!

Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

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How to Write the Johns Hopkins University Essay 2023-2024

Johns Hopkins University has just one supplemental essay, which all applicants are required to respond to. However, while other schools you’re applying to may have more supplements, you want to make sure you dedicate enough time to this essay, as Hopkins is one of the most competitive schools in the country, especially for students interested in medicine.

In this post, we’ll break down how to brainstorm for and actually write your Hopkins essay, as well as common mistakes you want to be sure to avoid.

Read these Johns Hopkins essay examples to inspire your writing.

Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essay Prompt

Tell us about an aspect of your identity (e.g. race, gender, sexuality, religion, community, etc.) or a life experience that has shaped you as an individual and how that influenced what you’d like to pursue in college at hopkins. (this can be a future goal or experience that is either academic, extracurricular, or social). (200-350 words).

Brainstorming Your Topic

This prompt is a version of the common Diversity Essay , with the added layer of explicitly connecting your identity to one of your goals for your time at Hopkins.

The first thing to note is that the way colleges factor race into their admissions processes will be different this year, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in June. 

Colleges can still consider race on an individual level, however, so if you would like to respond to this prompt by talking about how your racial background has impacted you, you are welcome to do so.

You are also welcome to write about a wide range of other aspects of your identity. As the prompt itself highlights, an individual is more than just their race, gender, sexuality, and other attributes that typically come to mind when you hear the word “diversity.” We are also shaped by the communities we’re in, the hobbies we enjoy, our interests, and so on. So, if you are having a hard time coming up with a topic for this prompt, shift to that line of thinking. Here are some examples of less traditional topics that could work:

• The people you see every day while walking your dog before school
• A group sea kayaking trip you did one summer
• Your passion for the color purple

The main requirement for your topic is that it has “shaped you as an individual,” per Hopkins’ request. There is one other thing you want to consider, though. Namely, can you connect this aspect of your identity to one of your goals for Hopkins?

Note that this connection doesn’t have to be direct. If your parents immigrated to the United States from Korea, you don’t have to write about wanting to do research on international migration with Professor Erin Chung. You can, of course, if you genuinely are interested in that line of research. But the connection you make can also be more nuanced.

For example, say that some of your relatives still in Korea don’t speak English, but you have developed a relationship with them through visits to museums and famous architectural sites, as you have a shared love of art. These experiences have shown you the unifying power of art, which is a phenomenon you’d like to explore more through Hopkins’ Renaissance Art History study abroad program in Florence.

Although this connection may not be one your reader was expecting, it works, as you explain it in a clear, easy-to-follow way. Plus, this essay is on the longer side for a supplement. You have 350 words at your disposal, so you have plenty of space to draw more sophisticated connections.

Tips for Writing Your Essay

If you have done your brainstorming well, writing the actual essay should be pretty straightforward: you want to describe the aspect of your identity you’re focusing on, and then connect it to the goal you’ve chosen to highlight. As just noted above, you have room to work with, so there’s no need to rush anything.

The only real rule here is that the connection you’re drawing is explained clearly. For a rather extreme example, if you just said “I have family in Korea, which makes me want to study abroad in Florence,” your reader would have no idea what you’re talking about. So, just make sure you’re able to articulate the link you see, so admissions officers understand how we got from A to B.

If you’re having a hard time with that, maybe take a step back from your essay, and come back the next day with a clear head. Sometimes, spending too much time on an essay will bog you down, and make it hard to see where to go next. 

If you’re still having trouble the next day, you might want to return to the brainstorming stage, and either focus on a different aspect of your identity, or connect it to a different goal you have for college. There’s no shame in hitting rewind. Most students do at some point in their essay-writing process, as even topics that seem perfect at first can prove to be not quite right once you start trying to actually write about them.

Finally, like with any college essay, your writing will be stronger if you show, rather than tell. That means you want to rely on specific anecdotes and experiences to support your points, as that will make your essay more engaging. You can compare the two approaches below:

Telling: “I have quite a few family members still in Korea. Most of them live in Seoul, but some of them live in more remote areas.”

Showing: “I press my nose against the car window to get one last look at the glittering skyscrapers of Seoul, before my dad turns onto the winding, tree-lined road which leads to my uncle’s house.”

The information communicated is basically the same, but the showing approach paints us a picture, rather than reading us a list of facts like the telling approach. Because we are immersed in the student’s story, we feel much closer to them, and the whole point of college essays is to get admissions officers to understand who you are.

Mistakes to Avoid

The biggest potential pitfall here is answering the second half of the prompt (the “how that influenced what you’d like to pursue in college at Hopkins” part) in a way that isn’t specific enough to Hopkins. This subset of the prompt is essentially a mini “Why This College?” essay, which means you don’t want to just share a goal you have for college in general, but rather something you hope to achieve at Hopkins specifically.

The examples above show the level of specificity you want to get to. Contrast those examples with vague versions of the same goals: “At Hopkins, I hope to research migration from Asia,” or “At Hopkins, I hope to do a study abroad program that will allow me to pursue my interest in art.” These goals would be fine to share with a family member at Thanksgiving, but for Hopkins admissions officers, they’re too general, as these are things you could do in some form at plenty of other schools around the country. 

By going a level deeper, to a particular professor who does the kind of research you’re interested in, and a particular program that will allow you to study art, you show Hopkins admissions officers that you’ve really done your homework on their school, which gives them confidence you’re ready to hit the ground running when you arrive on campus.

If you’re not sure about how to get to this level of specificity, hop onto Hopkins’ website, and skim their course offerings, faculty directory, study abroad programs, club pages, and so on. Odds are, you’ll see something there that aligns with the general goal you’ve identified for yourself, which will take you from the big picture to the narrower focus you want.

Where to Get Your Johns Hopkins Essay Edited 

Do you want feedback on your Johns Hopkins essay? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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Johns Hopkins University | JHU’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Identity short response.

Tell us about an aspect of your identity (e.g. race, gender, sexuality, religion, community, etc.) or a life experience that has shaped you as an individual and how that influenced what you’d like to pursue in college at Hopkins.? (This can be a future goal or experience that is either academic, extracurricular, or social).

Common App Personal Essay

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

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2020 Top Admits: Zandy Wong, Johns Hopkins ’24

“When I was applying, I thought I never really had a chance with schools like Johns Hopkins. I am pretty normal person,” says Alexandra “Zandy” Wong, admitted student to Johns Hopkins’s neuroscience department. The incoming JHU freshman shares how hearing loss and bullying led her to become a social self-advocate, how she landed a computer science internship at the University of Maryland, why she regrets applying to so many safety schools, and how her essays got her in. Read on for Zandy’s takeaways on optimizing college fairs, narrowing down her college list, prepping for the ACT, and the truth behind low scores on AP tests.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Zandy. What do you think got you into Johns Hopkins?

Definitely my essays. I put a lot of time into that. I’m just pretty much a normal kid besides that.

How do you think your essays set you apart?

I knew instantly what I wanted to write about. I wrote five drafts of it and I got edited. It took a lot out of me to write that essay. I think I just took risks in my essays, because for my Johns Hopkins collaboration supplement, I wrote this metaphor comparing myself to a chameleon, saying I transformed into a chameleon. I wrote about how I learned to tutor people, and how that taught me how to listen and not override everything that people were saying and how to adapt in collaborative settings. I was definitely a risk trying to compare myself.

Can you share a line from your essay that you’re proud of?

The first line says, “I transformed into a chameleon that’s triggered by sound.” It’s this idea of when you talk to people, you have to adjust and fit their comfort zone to mold something better. I think that was definitely a big risk on my part, because it could come off a little bit insensitive sometimes. But it’s what I wanted to write about. I got the idea for that because one of my friends who had gotten into Johns Hopkins the year before had written about the Writing Center, too, but I didn’t want to do the same thing as her.

What about your Common App essay?

I wrote it about my experience with hearing loss and the bullying I faced. It’s called “the silence of sound,” this metaphor of the idea that bullying isn’t just associated with taunts and people deriding you; it can also just be silence: no one’s willing to include you. No one’s willing to speak up or say anything. It’s also the laughter that can create a really hostile environment. I wrote about that, and about experiences I faced, and I wrote about how that didn’t really define me anymore.

What do you mean by the experiences you faced?

The main incident had happened back in December of 2018. I started writing in April. It was really hard to write, because I would tear up writing about it. I used the metaphor of music, of sound.  I included this metaphor about the one time I did blindfolded piano improv. The opening scene is about me stepping on the stage, about to do blindfolded piano improv, and then it’s a switch back to going through my experience as a teen with hearing loss. It’s this idea that once I had finally done that piano improv, I finally was comfortable with my identity and who I was and not letting that define me. I wrote my essay back in April, and I had just finished dealing with the aftermath of that incident. For the first draft, I just did a brain dump, and I actually got a lot of really good ideas out of that. I just let it sit for a while. I was like, “Wow, this is a really good essay.”

What resources did you utilize for help on your essay and who did you ask for help?

My 11th grade English teacher said it was “really darn good already,” but I came back to it and I showed it to my older sister. My older sister was the only one who edited it. At the time, she had graduated from college and works for NPR and is big into journalism. So she’s a great writer, and I trust her stuff a lot. I would write and send it to her. My writing center director helped me edit a little bit, but that’s about it. I wrote about five drafts, and each time got her to edit it. That’s how it turned out the way it’s supposed to be.

Alright, let’s back up a little bit and talk about your high school experience. Where did you go to high school?

I went to high school at Hayfield Secondary in Alexandria, Virginia. We have about 3000 students because it’s grades seven through 12, so about 500 students in my grade; it’s a pretty big school. We’re pretty diverse. We have about 30%, free and reduced lunch, and I’ve always loved going to Hayfield because of the diversity. I get to meet people from all different backgrounds, and I’ve managed to make friends with pretty much everyone, so it’s really great learning their perspectives.

Can you tell me about the classes you took at Hayfield?

Was Hayfield an IB or AP school?

An AP school. We have 15-16 AP courses. I didn’t take all of them.

Some people think they need to take 18 AP courses to get into a school like Johns Hopkins. How many did you take?

I took 9. Actually, when I was applying to college, I forgot to submit my AP scores. They didn’t help me anyway.

When you’re done with class and you’re done with homework, what do you spend your time doing?

My guilty pleasures is that I follow up on Dance Moms and watch figure skating. That’s my guilty pleasure. But my main time commitment was working a part-time job at Mathnasium. I got to tutor kids. I played piano and was nationally recognized in piano for six years before high school.

Wow that’s impressive. How many hours a day do you have to practice to become a nationally-recognized pianist?

Just 30 minutes before I go to school. I did a blindfold piano improv, and I also won regional awards in music composition. I participated in PTA reflections and wrote pieces that reflected the theme.

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Where do you think you get your musical talent.

Well, my whole family plays the piano, so it’s pretty no-brainer.

Tell us more about your extracurriculars besides playing piano.

My sophomore year, I created brochures which were basically a quick how-to guide to Hayfield in a fun format. At Hayfield, I distributed about 500 of these copies for new students and parents, and there was really positive feedback. The year after that, around orientation time, I sent out the copies and the templates to all the high schools in the county. I was able to get it into every county high school, which is really exciting. I was able to distribute about 1000 copies there. That was my own individual project; it just felt good doing that. I also had a great time at the writing center. It’s actually a class you take, but I was able to tutor and I got to present at some national conferences. It was just a really big part of my high school career, because that’s where I found my community.

My other noteworthy accomplishment was that I was able to create an online recruitment system so it was able to process information faster. That wasn’t even coding; that was just Google Forms. I just made it sound fancy on the application. That was something I really loved doing. Then TSA. I was part of the Technology Student Association. I won seventh in nationals for future tech teacher. I really love teaching. I love seeing people smile and seeing that “aha” moment. It’s kind of strange. I have a lot of interests. I have interest in teaching and in agricultural biotechnology. My lessons for the past three years at TSA have been about GMOs and cloning. It’s seeing that agriculture is accessible; agriculture isn’t antiquated. It’s really interesting seeing that. Oh, and I did tennis and I worked a part-time job. Those are the major ones. I did a bunch of other stuff as well.

Your schedule sounds packed to the brim! How many hours did you sleep per night as a high schooler?

I usually got six to eight.

That’s great. I think I would’ve expected somewhere closer to four. How did you manage your time?

I didn’t really have that much homework.

Can you share how you landed an internship as a high schooler? Many students want to intern but find that their lack of experience prohibits them from getting hired.

I just found my internship when I was talking to my friend who goes to another local high school, and she had done an internship last year. It was an organization called STEMShip. It’s these guys based at George Washington University. They basically do the facilitating: They match up students that apply with mentors in their interest.

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Johns Hopkins University Essays Guide: 2021-2022

Not sure how to approach the Johns Hopkins essay prompts? CollegeAdvisor.com’s guide to the Johns Hopkins supplemental essays will show you exactly how to write engaging Johns Hopkins essays and maximize your chances of admission. If you need help crafting your Johns Hopkins supplemental essays, create your   free account  or  schedule a no-cost advising consultation  by calling (844) 505-4682.

Johns Hopkins  Essay Guide Quick Facts:

• Johns Hopkins University has an acceptance rate of 9%— U.S. News  ranks Johns Hopkins as a  most selective  school.
• Johns Hopkins is ranked #9 in National Universities.

What is Johns Hopkins known for?

Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins University is a private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland.

Widely considered the first research university in the United States, Johns Hopkins’ popular  majors  include public health, biomedical engineering, molecular biology, international relations and affairs, and economics.

Interested in applying? This John Hopkins essay guide will teach you how to maximize your Johns Hopkins essays and increase your chances of admission.

Is Johns Hopkins hard to get into?

Last year, over  30,000  students applied to Johns Hopkins. The school boasts  famous alumni  like novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and film director Wes Craven. As one of the 9% of applicants admitted to Johns Hopkins, you’d be in good company.

Your Johns Hopkins essay can be a great opportunity to introduce yourself to Admissions Officers, fill in gaps in your application, and make a case for why you belong at Johns Hopkins. With expert advice from CollegeAdvisor.com, we’ll help you craft engaging Johns Hopkins supplemental essays and maximize your admissions odds.

Does Johns Hopkins require supplemental essays?

Yes—in addition to the main essay prompts on the  Common App  or  Coalition App , you must complete one Johns Hopkins-specific essay. For a complete list of application requirements and access to the Johns Hopkins application essay, visit the  Johns Hopkins admissions website .

Need help navigating your Common App application? CollegeAdvisor.com’s Common App essay  breakdown  can help de-mystify the process.

How many essays do you have to write for Johns Hopkins?

Applicants only need to write one Johns Hopkins essay, which has a word limit of 300-400 words. Since this is the only Johns Hopkins essay prompt, you’ll want to give this essay the attention it deserves.

Johns Hopkins Essay — Prompt 1 (Required)

Founded on a spirit of exploration and discovery, Johns Hopkins University encourages students to share their perspectives, develop their interests and pursue new experiences. Use this space to share something you’d like the admissions committee to know about you (your interests, your background, your identity or your community) and how it has shaped what you want to get out of your college experience at Hopkins. (300-400 words)

The Johns Hopkins essay prompt may feel overwhelming. After all, its open-ended nature lets you discuss anything that matters to you! In the next section, we’ll break down how to tackle the Johns Hopkins essay and stand out to admissions officers.

How do I write the Johns Hopkins essay?

As you approach the Johns Hopkins supplemental essays, remember that Johns Hopkins University is a research institution. Like any university, they want to build a diverse academic community of intellectually curious individuals— inside and outside of the classroom. This Johns Hopkins essay invites you to share what makes you,  you.  Then, it asks how this aspect of you will guide your time at Johns Hopkins and beyond.

Strong Johns Hopkins essays will invite the reader into the world of the applicant. A successful Johns Hopkins essay will use descriptive, dynamic language. Focus on setting a scene rather than trying to dazzle readers with SAT vocabulary words. After all, the best Johns Hopkins essays will be the most authentic!

Ready to craft an impressive Johns Hopkins application essay?

Organize your thoughts

Begin drafting this Johns Hopkins supplemental essay by thinking about who you are. Start a list of your key qualities and categorize each item using the criteria in the Johns Hopkins essay prompt: your interests, background, identity, and community.

Distinguish each category—interests, background, identity, and community—as carefully as possible as you start to tackle this Johns Hopkins essay prompt. Begin with your interests. For example, if you devour every article and book you can find on quantum mechanics, that’s an interest. Avoid listing non-intellectual interests like an obsession with learning new TikTok dances. Of course, if you plan to major in  dance  or  sociology , you may be able to connect these activities to what you hope to experience at Hopkins. Think of yourself as a student and community member — use that to guide your Johns Hopkins supplement essay topic.

Next, shift to your background. Think about where you come from and how these places and experiences have made you who you are. In your Johns Hopkins essay, you’ll want to avoid cliché, overly sentimental aspects of your background. For example, having a parent who attended Johns Hopkins may have shaped why you want to attend, but this doesn’t tell Admissions Officers anything interesting about you or what you hope to learn at Johns Hopkins. Look for experiences that sparked intellectual curiosity. Are you a softball player that spent a season perfecting your pitch but, in the process, began learning about physics?

Then, move to identity. When categorizing identity in this Johns Hopkins essay, you may automatically default to the classic definitions: ethnicity, gender, age, religious beliefs, etc. While there’s nothing wrong with starting here, think outside of the box for this Johns Hopkins essay prompt. Are you a contrarian? An activist? A pessimist? Thinking about the less obvious ways that you self-identify can help you write an interesting Johns Hopkins essay.

Finally, shift to your community. Jot down some of the communities you belong to. Whether it’s a religious community, your neighborhood, or even the building where you live, list the spaces you inhabit. Again, this Johns Hopkins supplemental essay rewards those who think outside the box. Are you an active member of an online community of gamers? Do you spend time with fellow gardeners sharing tips on how to care for plants? Community manifests in a wide variety of ways; as you brainstorm for the Johns Hopkins essay prompt, make sure to cover all important ways you live and work with others.

After jotting down experiences, interests, identities, etc., sit with your list for a day or two. Do any items stick out as a perfect response to this Johns Hopkins essay prompt? If not, don’t worry. Try our  reflection exercise . Set a timer and spend 30 minutes or so expanding on a few of your topics. Limit yourself to 10 minutes per topic. Were there any topics that you couldn’t stop writing on? If so, you’ve found the subject for your Johns Hopkins supplement essay!

Tell the Story

In this Johns Hopkins essay prompt, you only have 300-400 words. Use them wisely to maximize the impact your Johns Hopkins essay can have in admissions.

This word count creates the key challenge of the Johns Hopkins supplemental essays: namely, you’ll want to balance a concise structure with descriptive language. Your language should draw the reader into the interest, background, identity, or community your Johns Hopkins supplement essay addresses. At the same time, you’ll want to avoid excessive wordiness.

Let’s try an exercise to help you make your Johns Hopkins supplement essay shine. Which of the descriptions below seems more engaging?

Example 1: Since the age of five, I’ve belonged to my local church.

Example 2: There is a pew in the center of my church. If you look closely, you’ll see where I scratched my initials into the wood at age five.

See the difference? Both sentences communicate the same information (church attendance from a very young age). However, the second example provides details that invite the reader into your story.

Read over your Johns Hopkins essay and think about how every word serves your essay’s overall narrative. Your Johns Hopkins essay should use as few words to make as significant an impact as possible.

Make Johns Hopkins Connections

This Johns Hopkins application essay isn’t a “Why Johns Hopkins” prompt in the classic sense. However ,  this essay still asks how your identity, background, interests, and community have shaped what you will bring to Hopkins. Johns Hopkins essays that answer this part of the prompt will be the most impressive.

Maybe you know what you want to major in and can draw a clear connection between your background/identity/community and that intended major. Use this Johns Hopkins essay to emphasize that connection. Successful Johns Hopkins supplemental essays will reveal both who an applicant is and why they belong at Johns Hopkins.

Let’s revisit the “gamer community” example.

Ex. I have learned so much from organizing coding events in my online gaming forum. My friends from all over the world have shown me that even if we don’t speak the same language, our passion for coding and games is universal. I’m looking forward to taking classes in the JHU video game design lab and building a bridge between my online community and the in-person one I’ll find at JHU.

If you don’t yet know your major, you can still answer this portion of the Johns Hopkins supplemental essay. To do this, you’ll want to make the focus of your Johns Hopkins application essay more abstract. For example, let’s say you choose to write about your community, specifically the apartment building you live in.

Ex. The hot Houston sun draws the people from my building by late afternoon. Grannies of every race and culture line the long bench in front of the building and watch the younger children play. The other families in building 3318 are like my extended family. I’m reminded of this when I knock on Mr. Johnson’s door to borrow an extra onion for my mom’s soup or when I’m invited to a birthday party for one of the Gonzalez cousins. Family is where you find it, and location makes all the difference. At Johns Hopkins, I’m hoping to build a community like the one that my family and I have found in building 3318.

Johns Hopkins Essay Key Questions:

When you’ve finished your Johns Hopkins essay prompt draft, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I clearly identify an interest, part of my background, identity, or community?
• Am I writing about my topic using descriptive, dynamic language that draws the reader in?
• Does my Johns Hopkins essay draft show evidence of how this interest, background, identity, etc. has shaped me?
• Is there a connection between my topic and what I hope to learn/experience at Johns Hopkins?

What does Johns Hopkins look for in an essay?

The best Johns Hopkins supplemental essays will be genuine and vulnerable. They will also showcase traits that would make you a valuable addition to the Johns Hopkins community. Your Johns Hopkins supplemental essay should reveal who you are beyond your scores and transcript, allowing the admissions committee to view you as a person rather than a statistic.

Every year, the university publishes several successful Johns Hopkins essays. Read over these Johns Hopkins essays to get an  idea  of what works. Notice in these Johns Hopkins supplemental essays that each student has a concrete sense of self. For example, in the Johns Hopkins essay  “Oreo by Design”  by Faith, she discusses her identity as a Black woman and a musician. Similarly, the Johns Hopkins application essay  “Lessons Learned”   by Zerubabel explores his background as an immigrant and how his family’s evolution in America has shaped who he is as a student and community member.

All of these Johns Hopkins essays are unique. In the case of Jess’s Johns Hopkins supplemental essay,  “Fried Rice in One (Not So) Easy Step”  Jess begins her essay with a recipe. By including this Johns Hopkins application essay, the university is encouraging you to be creative in not only your experience but the way that you structure your response to the Johns Hopkins essay prompt. Think about how you can replicate this kind of creativity in your Johns Hopkins application essay.

Make sure your Johns Hopkins application essay structure serves the prompt. Creativity is good, but you don’t want your Johns Hopkins supplemental essay to look and read like a gimmick. Above all, tell your story in the way most authentic to you!

Finally, and it should go without saying, these Johns Hopkins supplemental essays are examples. Don’t think of them as a blueprint of how you must structure your own Johns Hopkins application essay. You also shouldn’t compare the experiences shared in these Johns Hopkins supplemental essays with your own.

Johns Hopkins essays are personal statements. Every person is unique—every Johns Hopkins essay will be, too. Strong Johns Hopkins essays will be inherently individual, so don’t worry if yours doesn’t look like the examples.

Does the Johns Hopkins essay matter?

Everything that is included in the  Johns Hopkins application  is important, from your mid-year report to the Johns Hopkins essay. Treat each item on the application as crucial to creating a compelling candidate profile.

With more selective schools like Johns Hopkins, most candidates have high test scores and GPAs. The Johns Hopkins essay, then, becomes a chance for you to truly stand out from other applicants. Strong Johns Hopkins supplemental essays can make a major difference in admissions!

Johns Hopkins Essay – Final Thoughts

Completing the Johns Hopkins application essay can seem like a daunting challenge. Try to view this Johns Hopkins supplemental essay as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the admissions team. Use the Johns Hopkins supplemental essays provided on the JHU site for inspiration. You have a rich well of personal experiences to draw from for this Johns Hopkins application essay—you just have to give yourself the space to find it.

Remember that the Johns Hopkins application essay matters! Maybe you’re applying with fewer extracurricular activities than you would like or perhaps a lower  SAT/ACT score  than normally accepted. A well-written Johns Hopkins essay can be the difference. Use this guide to help you approach the Johns Hopkins supplemental essay with a solid strategy and a timeline that gives you a few months to create a draft and allow for revisions. Good luck—you’ve got this!

This 2021-2022 essay guide was written by Senior Advisor  Arianna Lee , Dartmouth ‘17. Want help crafting your Johns Hopkins supplemental essay?  Create your free account  or  schedule a no-cost advising consultation  by calling (844) 505-4682.

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Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essays (2023-24) Prompts and Advice

September 3, 2023

In the most recent admissions cycle, Johns Hopkins University admitted approximately 6% of applicants into the Class of 2027. As a school that rejects thousands of applicants each year with 1500+ SATs and impeccable transcripts, those hoping for a positive result at JHU need to find additional ways to shine in the eyes of the admissions committee. The Johns Hopkins supplemental essay is one such opportunity.

(Want to learn more about How to Get Into Johns Hopkins University? Visit our blog entitled:  How to Get Into Johns Hopkins  for all of the most recent admissions data as well as tips for gaining acceptance.)

Given that 19 of every 20 RD applicants to Johns Hopkins University are ultimately unsuccessful, you need to do everything you can to stand out amidst a sea of uber-qualified teens from around the globe. Through its one mandatory essay prompt, Johns Hopkins University’s supplemental section still affords applicants an opportunity to highlight what makes them uniquely qualified for admission. Below is Johns Hopkins’s supplemental prompt for the 2023-24 admissions cycle. Additionally, you’ll find our tips on how to write a winning composition.

Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essay Prompt

Tell us about an aspect of your identity (e.g. race, gender, sexuality, religion, community, etc.) or a life experience that has shaped you as an individual and how that influenced what you’d like to pursue in college at Hopkins. (This can be a future goal or experience that is either academic, extracurricular, or social). (300 word limit)

JHU is inviting you to share more about your background/identity/community through the lens of how that will impact your experience at the university. Take note of the wide-open nature of this prompt. You are essentially invited to talk about any of the following topics:

• A perspective you hold
• An experience/challenge you had
• A community you belong to
• Your cultural background
• Your religious background
• Your family background
• Your sexual orientation or gender identity

Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essays (Continued)

Although this prompt’s open floor plan may feel daunting, a good tactic is to first consider what has already been communicated within your Common App personal statement and activities list. What important aspect(s) of yourself have not been shared (or sufficiently discussed)? The admissions officer reading your essay is hoping to connect with you through your written words, so—within your essay’s reflection—be open, humble, thoughtful, inquisitive, emotionally honest, mature, and/or insightful about what you learned and how you grew.

You’ll then need to discuss how your background/identity/experiences have influenced your academic, social, or extracurricular college goals. As such, think about what you learned and how it relates to one of the previously mentioned areas. For example, perhaps growing up in Northern California has made you passionate about post-wildfire ecosystem restoration, which you hope to pursue further through Johns Hopkins’ environmental science program. Or, perhaps your experience as a tutor has made you interested in The Tutorial Project , or the discrimination you watched your sibling face after revealing their gender identity has informed your desire to be part of initiatives like the Safe Zone Program .

To that end, be sure you address how you will take advantage of Johns Hopkins’s immense resources. The includes both inside and/or outside of the classroom. You can accomplish this by citing specific academic programs , professors , research opportunities , internship/externship programs , study abroad programs , student-run organizations , etc.

How important are the Johns Hopkins supplemental essays?

Johns Hopkins University considers six factors “very important” in evaluating a candidate. The essays are among them. In addition to the essays, Johns Hopkins gives the greatest consideration to the rigor of one’s school record, GPA, standardized test scores, recommendations, and character/personal qualities.

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Approaching the Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essay 2023-2024

October 5, 2023

Recognized as one of the top 10 schools in the nation, Johns Hopkins University has built a strong reputation for itself. With its exceptional medical programs, this esteemed institution attracts talented students in STEM and pre-med fields from around the globe. However, if your interests lie in the humanities or arts, fear not, as Johns Hopkins offers a wide array of over 50 majors to choose from, including a notable strength in creative writing. In addition to academic prowess, Johns Hopkins places a high value on collaboration, making the Johns Hopkins supplemental essay 2023-2024 a crucial opportunity for you to showcase your teamwork abilities and how you would contribute to the thriving Johns Hopkins community.

With just one supplemental essay question, your response holds significant weight. It presents a valuable chance for you to demonstrate your skills as a team player and establish connections between your collaborative experiences, academic interests, and your desired major at Johns Hopkins. To help you navigate this essay prompt in detail, I have provided an outline of the prompt, along with dos and don'ts for crafting your response, as well as additional tips to kickstart your writing process for the Johns Hopkins supplemental essay 2023-2024.

Prompt for the Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

Tell us about an aspect of your identity (e.g. race, gender, sexuality, religion, community, etc.) or a life experience that has shaped you as an individual and how that influenced what you’d like to pursue in college at hopkins (this can be a future goal or experience that is either academic, extracurricular, or social). 300 word limit.

If you’ve worked on other applications, you know that many schools throw multiple prompts at you. While this might be a welcome change from the number of essays you’ve had to write, having only one prompt also makes it more challenging to make a lasting impact. As your only school-specific question, it’s a chance to seal the deal on why you’ve chosen Hopkins and how you would be a valuable addition to the campus. Here, you have a relatively generous amount of space to elaborate on who you are and what makes you tick. 

Note that Hopkins refers to this part of you as “something” and “it.” They are looking for that one special aspect of you, so avoid sharing multiple sides of you. Think depth rather than breadth. Admissions officers want to know about what’s important to you. In writing your essay, make sure to answer the following questions: 

• What is the one thing that makes you most unique?
• How has this shaped your experiences and perspectives?
• How has this shaped your goals?
• What do you want to accomplish at Johns Hopkins and how will you do it?

Johns Hopkins wants “students who are eager to follow their interests at the college level and are enthusiastic about joining the campus community.” In order to have a personal, individualized response, think about an anecdote that ties your background or interest to your intellectual pursuits. Have you led any initiatives to help your school or local community? Have you started a club or organization within your field that engages others? Did a part of your family background heavily influence what you’ve decided to pursue academically? Admissions officers make it clear that it can be any side of you. As long as you haven’t already mentioned this aspect of your identity in your Common Application personal statement, you can write about anything.

The question asks how this side of you has impacted why you’ve chosen Hopkins . Admissions officers don’t just want to understand what makes you different from other applicants, they want to know what you’ll bring to their specific school. They want to know what you value in a community or classroom, and evaluate how you would get along with your peers at Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins highly values leadership and community, sure you choose an example that best showcases your collaborative nature, and use the space you’ve been given to transport the admissions officers to the scene of a particular anecdote. 

However, don’t spend too much time talking about what happened;  instead, portray how you have made an impact, show how the incident has shaped your perspective and goals, and articulate how Hopkins is the place to pursue your interests. Upon reading your essay, admissions officers should understand the impact you have made. They should also take away what your biggest interests are and be able to envision how you might contribute to the Johns Hopkins campus if accepted.

Additional Tips for Writing the Johns Hopkins Supplemental Essays 2023-2024

• Read the website! You may not have been asked the traditional “Why Hopkins” question for your Johns Hopkins supplemental essay 2023-2024, but it’s still crucial that you conduct thorough research on the school. In your search, you might find that the Johns Hopkins website has a page on “ Essays that Worked. ” This page provides you with some useful examples that can help you get a clearer picture of what the admissions officers are looking for. Reading these responses might just end up being what inspires your own essay, so don’t underestimate the power of research.
• Dedicate significant time to brainstorming: Since there’s only one prompt for the Johns Hopkins supplemental essay 2023-2024, a lot of students might take it lightly. However, Johns Hopkins states that the essay can be “ one of the most important components of your application. ” Don’t just come up with the exact same topic as your personal statement. At the same time, think about a part of you that really shaped you. Choose an instance that allows you to be as specific as possible. Ensuring that your essay topic has a cohesive connection to the rest of your application can go a long way toward convincing admissions officers that you’re a strong candidate who has spent time specializing in your field.
• Check out our blog from a Former Admissions Officer: For further reading, you might be interested in the “ How to Get into Johns Hopkins ” blog by our Former Admissions Officer Zak Harris, who served as the Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Hopkins. In the article, he provides insights into how to frame your application, and what makes up the ideal candidate for the school. Regarding the supplemental essay component, Zak adds, “Some students take this essay for granted and don’t spend nearly as much time on it as they should. Or, they use an underdeveloped idea or a rather generic topic that doesn’t come across as very impressive. My advice is to spend significant time thinking about how you work with others and provide concrete anecdotes exemplifying your collaboration skills.” 

With a large pool of applicants vying for admission to Johns Hopkins, it's important to find ways to set yourself apart. Crafting your Johns Hopkins supplemental essay 2023-2024 in a truly distinctive manner is the key to achieving this. Your essay will showcase your depth of interest, intellectual engagement, and how you would contribute to the vibrant campus community. Take this opportunity to distinguish yourself from the competition and demonstrate to Johns Hopkins why you are the perfect fit for their collaborative environment.

If you are looking for a college admissions counselor to help maximize your chances of getting into your dream school, we can help! InGenius Prep has helped more than 6,000 students around the world gain admission into the most competitive schools including Harvard, Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, NYU, and more. Sign up for a free strategy call today and join the 6,000+ students we've helped get accepted into their dream schools. 

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Johns Hopkins University 2020-21 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Regular Decision: 

Johns Hopkins University  2020-2021 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 1 essay of 300-400 words.

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Community

Founded in the spirit of exploration and discovery, Johns Hopkins University encourages students to share their perspectives, develop their interests, and pursue new experiences.

Use this space to share something you’d like the admissions committee to know about you (your interests, your background, your identity, or your community), and how it has shaped what you want to get out of your college experience at hopkins. (300-400 words).

JHU is purposefully leaving this question super open-ended, so that you can write about any facet of your background or community that has been most integral in shaping your identity. Admissions also wants to know how this aspect of your experience has impacted what you want to seek from your time attending Hopkins. So, start by thinking about your identity. You can write down some words that you would use to describe yourself, or work backwards by thinking about what you hope to gain by attending Hopkins, and then consider how that relates to your interests, identity, background, or community.

Maybe you dream of becoming a surgeon, specializing in gender affirming surgery, to marry your interest in science and medicine with your passion for helping members of the trans community. Perhaps you don’t know what you want to major in yet, but you hope to expand your horizons at JHU as a first-generation student, sharing what you absorb with your relatives so that they can learn alongside you. As long as you put aside time to brainstorm freely and edit meticulously, we’re confident you’ll impress admissions with your response!

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The Interpreter

Why gaza protests on u.s. college campuses have become so contagious.

Experts say the partisan political context in Washington is a driver behind the spread of protests at American universities even as overseas campuses have stayed relatively calm.

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By Amanda Taub

The past week has seen a growing wave of protest encampments and other demonstrations on university campuses across the United States, many of which have been met by mass arrests and other forceful police actions, as well as intense media scrutiny. And the demonstrations continue to spread.

But campus protests overseas have been sporadic and smaller, and none have started a wider student movement.

In Britain, for example, small groups of students temporarily occupied university buildings on the campuses of the University of Manchester and the University of Glasgow. But they never generated national news or set off a widening wave of demonstrations.

The protest wave may yet spread to foreign universities. There were some early signs of that this week. On Wednesday, students set up a protest encampment on the campus of Sydney University in Australia. On Friday classes were canceled at Sciences Po, an elite university in Paris, because of a student protest there.

But that still would leave the question of why this particular protest movement caught fire and spread at American universities first. The answer, experts say, has more to do with the partisan political context in Washington than with the events in Gaza.

The ‘ovation’ effect: Why the protest wave began with Columbia

Protests, like many forms of group behavior, can be contagious.

One way to understand how protest movements spread is the “ovation model,” said Omar Wasow, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies how protest movements can affect politics.

In a theater audience, “if some people in the front stand up, then other people start to stand up, and it’s a cascade through the auditorium,” he said.

In this case, he said, it is not surprising that the “ovation” began last week at Columbia University. The university’s proximity to national media in New York and its status as an Ivy League institution give it a position of prominence, he said, that is similar to someone in the front row of an auditorium. So pro-Palestinian protests there drew wider attention than they might have elsewhere. In addition, the campus is also home to a large population of Jewish students, many of whom have said that they feel afraid of antisemitic harassment or attacks from protesters. This expression of fear fueled more media coverage and political scrutiny.

More than 100 demonstrators were arrested on April 18 after Columbia called in the police to empty an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters, fulfilling a promise to Congress by Nemat Shafik, the university’s president, that she was prepared to punish people for unauthorized protests on campus.

But when the arrests came, they led to further action in solidarity with protesters — and counterreactions from those who saw the protests as antisemitic or wished to show support for Israel, in a wave that quickly spread across the country.

“The conflict there then contributes to this great cascade, to other campuses joining in, and other media around the country and around the world paying attention,” Wasow said.

The events would not have gained so much prominence without the arrests, said Daniel Schlozman, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies U.S. social movements and party politics.

But the arrests were more than an isolated decision by one university president. They were the result of the particular political and legal context in the United States that made Columbia the most likely place for an “ovation” to begin.

The unique politics of U.S. campus protests

“Basic politics is to find issues that unite your side and divide the other side,” Schlozman said. And the war in Gaza has turned out to be a particularly potent example of that for Republicans.

The Republican Party is broadly united in its support for Israel. Republicans have also long taken aim at universities as bastions of leftist ideology, seeking to portray them as incubators of radicalism on issues of race and gender, and hostile environments for anyone who doesn’t adhere to those ideologies.

The Democrats, by contrast, are far more divided over Israel, the war in Gaza and when and whether anti-Israel protests spill into in antisemitism.

So for Republican lawmakers, criticizing university presidents for failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism is a useful political issue with the potential to deepen divisions among Democrats — one that, unsurprisingly, they have pursued vociferously.

University presidents are in many ways soft targets, Schlozman said.

“Inside universities, administrators are trying to assuage multiple constituencies: donors, protesters, faculty,” he said. “But those alignments are lining up imperfectly into national politics.” Actions that might calm tensions within campus communities could invite political scrutiny from outside — and the opposite is also true, as the arrests on campuses across the country this week have shown.

Last December, Republican lawmakers grilled university presidents over their handling of protests against the war in Gaza, in hearings that contributed to the eventual resignations of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. Shafik, Columbia’s president, had reason to fear for her job when she was called before Congress last week, where she vowed to punish student protesters if necessary. That same evening, she called the police to campus.

It is not clear exactly what role the congressional questioning played in her decision. But her actual motivation is less relevant than the impression it gave to people on all sides of the issue that Republican pressure had led to the mass arrests. That would have acted like a “bat signal,” Schlozman said, to those on different sides of the issue.

To the Republican politicians who have turned criticism of campus protests and antisemitism into a cause célèbre, the arrests sent a message of “look, we are winning. We can divide our opponents’ coalition,” he said.

To students and others who might have sympathized with the protesters without joining them, the shock of the arrests may have galvanized action rather than passive support. And to faculty and others in the political center, anger at the arrests themselves, rather than the underlying political dispute over the war in Gaza, led many to join the protests.

In other countries, less drama meant less attention

In other countries, by contrast, protests and antisemitism on campuses have thus far not been political flash points. (Though there have, of course, been large demonstrations in cities around the world against the war, and against antisemitism.) In February, students at Glasgow University occupied a campus building for 15 days, but left after negotiations with a senior university official. The story barely made local news.

In France, there was a brief outbreak of political outrage last month after a Jewish student claimed that she had been barred from a university event because of her religion, but it passed quickly when other students, some of them Jewish, offered a different version of events.

And although several university heads were called before the French Parliament to discuss antisemitism on campus, the resulting discussion got almost no media attention — a far cry from the closely watched hearings in the United States.

Ultimately, nonviolent protests are most effective when they generate some sort of “drama,” Wasow, the professor, said. In other countries, a lack of drama may have kept campuses relatively quiet.

But now that the ovation has started, that may change.

Amanda Taub writes the Interpreter , an explanatory column and newsletter about world events. She is based in London. More about Amanda Taub