Hopkins mailed decision letters last weekend to 13,869 high school students who competed for admission to the class of 2010, an increase of 23 percent compared to 2005 and the largest increase Hopkins has seen in the past ten years.
Of those applicants, 3,711 were offered admission making for a record low admission rate of 27 percent.
The trend was evident at many of Hopkins' peer institutions, which also saw record low acceptance rates this year. Yale, for example, reported an 8.6 percent acceptance rate -- the lowest in the Ivy League. Early Decision admissions at Yale had a selectivity rate of 17.7 percent, also the lowest Yale has ever seen.
John Latting, the director of admissions, commented, "I think it's just great news. Since 2001, Johns Hopkins has had a larger and larger applicant pool from which to choose the freshman class. Not only is the number of applicants going up but the overall diversity and quality of students is increasing. I think we should feel good about how many people want to study at Hopkins."
The median high school un-weighted GPA of those admitted this year was 3.85 compared to 3.83 in 2005. The average SAT scores were the same -- counting only verbal and math -- as last year. Latting said that this year's admissions process was relatively unaffected by the
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scoring error in the October SAT.
"It was a small number of our applicants affected by that. We knew who they were and went back and checked. Now there is the broader point about just how heavily we should rely on testing in general. That's one that we have been thinking about before the issue came up with the October test date. In my opinion, a lot of times we put too much emphasis on SAT scores. In the JHU admissions office, we look at as many factors as we can and don't just look at any one thing."
The College Board reported that change in acceptance rates nationally is largely due to the increase of applications.
"The increase comes from a surge in births during the 1980s. Children of the baby boomers are coming of age. Experts predict applications will continue to rise faster than openings at most colleges through about 2010," it said.
Several other factors may have contributed to the increase in selectivity. First, there is the projected yield, or approximately how many of the accepted students matriculate to the University. Last year, Hopkins accepted 600 more students than in 2004, due in part to a projected large yield drop. However, this was not the case, as the yield dropped only 2 percent to 30 percent, which caused a lack of housing.
This increase in selectivity will affect Hopkins' position in the U.S. News and World Report's university rankings. A school's spot on the list is based on a points system (out of 100), and selectivity contributes to 15 percent of a school's 'score.' This is then broken down into standardized testing scores (50 percent), the number of students enrolled in the top 10 percent of their high school class (40 percent) and literal selectivity rate (10 percent). Hopkins is currently reported as having a 30 percent acceptance rate (data from 2004).
Tied with Hopkins on the list is Cornell University, which reported a selectivity rate of 24.7 percent.
Higher rankings also boost the chances of alumni getting a job. "The benefit of going to a highly ranked school is that major companies are often very willing to recruit from your students -- so they are usually very anxious to get their foot in the door of, say, a career fair at a prestigious university," Heather Jackson, a career assistant at the University of Connecticut, said. "So those students have a little edge over students from lower ranked colleges."
Latting agreed, saying that this will have a positive effect on all those affiliated with Hopkins. "Everybody associated with JHU all wants the strongest possible reputation. It's good for students who become alumni, existing alumni, faculty and staff members to be part of a strong institution."
