The incoming class of 2010 is following a progressive, though marginal, rising trend in academic prowess and ethnic diversity of admitted classes. The attraction of each rising class, however, is the talent and expertise that the Office of Admissions attempts to harvest.
Faced with a record number of applicants, next year's freshman class will be the most selective ever, according to the Office of Admissions, as is reflected by a 7 percent increase in the University's selectivity rating from last year.
"We were just kind of dumbfounded about how interesting, how talented, the kids who were not going to get in were," John Latting director of undergraduate admissions said. "We're really excited about what this means for next year's freshman class."
Similar to the class of 2009, next year's incoming class should be larger than any previous year, "I can say that all signs are that we are on track to meet our target of 1,160 new freshmen next fall," Latting wrote in an e-mail.
Hopkins' yield rate is expected to be approximately 34 percent, in contrast to what Dean of Enrollment and Academic Services William Conely called Harvard's "gold standard" of around 80 percent. Excluding Early Decision applicants, who are required to attend if they are accepted, Hopkins' yield rate drops to about one out of five; this statistic is not available from other schools, Conley said.
But Conley wasn't concerned about the numbers, "We could be more selective if we decided to play that game,
but the deans have told me they want the best class we can get, and we'll take our chances," he said.
The number of applicants has increased by 156 percent from 2002.
In response to skyrocketing numbers of applicants, the admissions office plans to change its selection practices. "We need to always revisit how we're selecting students. We need to move on from those simple things to more sophisticated measures," Latting said.
Although he is not sure what changes will be made to next year's selection process, he suggested a change in the interview process, which is currently optional, to learn more about students before offering them admission.
Latting said that changes in the applicant pool are attracting students to Hopkins. "There's a clear increasing interest in going to a college with a real name brand that has status and prestige," he said. Students are also increasingly attracted to urban universities, he said.
At the same time, Latting believes that improvements at Hopkins are also attracting students. "I think its getting better. The word on the street is [that] this place is really coming up," he said.
In some respects, this year's pool of admitted students closely resembles that of 2005. The average SAT score remained constant at 1440, while average high school GPA has increased by only 0.02 points, to 3.85.
Racial diversity and the division between Krieger and Whiting showed the most alterations, with a 4 percent increase of both engineering and humanities students.
However, Latting stressed that the actual class is expected to be more diverse than the admitted students. "More minorities applied early decision, so the class should have a higher number of minorities. We don't feel like there's going to be a decline in diversity at all," he said.
The ratio of women admitted has declined to 47 percent from 51 percent last year.
Hopkins does not collect statistics about students' intentions to being pre-med, but Conley estimates that "probably 35 to 40 percent would say they are pre-med." However, most of these are estimated they will not be pre-med by the time they graduate. "If all the people who say they want to be doctors became doctors, the price of health care would go down like that," Conley said, gesturing towards the floor.
Security has not been much of a major concern among applicants for the class of 2010. "Students and their parents are very educated consumers on the issue of security c9 what we don't see is an obsession with security. People recognize that in an urban university they're taking on a difficult situation," Conley said.
Freshman Ana Johnson thinks that Hopkins's security is, if anything, too strict. "I forgot my access card once and they had to call over someone from the main office to `verify my identity.' It was pretty ridiculous," she commented.
There are other aspects of campus some students are dissatisfied with, freshman Oleh Romaniw said, "I would say the social life here is sub-par compared to other universities. That isn't to say it doesn't exist, but you have to look harder for it."
The Class of 2009 has not proven to be a disappointment for all students though, as freshman Morolake Odumosu said, "Hopkins is my dream school, and it's just a good school."
Conley also expressed his enthusiasm.
"We're expecting a very bright class, very diverse. We have all the components to have a class of 2010 as extraordinary as the class of 2009 was. It's almost like Christmas. You're waiting to see what ends up under the tree," Conley said.
