On March 18, Hopkins released regular decision admissions for the Class of 2020, revealing the newest baby Blue Jays to be the most impressive group of students to have ever graced the Earth.
Because of the exceptional nature of this class, the University has decided to terminate enrollment for all current Hopkins students to mobilize all available resources to be at the disposal for the new students.
Current seniors will graduate in May as planned, Provost Robert Lieberman explained, but the remainder of the undergraduates will not be invited to return in the fall. “When we think about the future of Johns Hopkins, we’re always doing a cost-benefit analysis of sorts,” Lieberman said. “At this time, it is not worth the effort to continue supporting the other classes.”
The 3,122 students were admitted from a pool of 27,095 applicants, an acceptance rate of 11.5 percent. The cohort has the highest average high school GPA and the highest percentage of underrepresented minorities on record.
“The class not only breaks University records academically, but is also the most diverse to date,” the University press release said. The previous record for diversity was held by the also-record-breaking Class of 2019.
“The class not only breaks University records academically, but it the most diverse class Johns Hopkins has ever admitted,” that year’s press release said.
Ellen Kim, director of undergraduate admissions, commented upon this trend of record-breaking.
“As a school, we are heading in a positive direction. Every new class we admit is undeniably superior to the previous class,” Kim said. “I hate to say this, but all the current students at Hopkins don’t really deserve to be here because they aren’t up to the caliber of the incoming classes.”
Kim’s sentiment is shared across the school administration. As a result, the University has decided to end the enrollments of all current students to dedicate all of their resources to the superior incoming class.
Lieberman elaborated upon this shift in University structure.
“It wasn’t a hard decision to make. We are not a University that accepts mediocrity in any form, and clearly our current students are worse than mediocre in comparison to this incoming Class of 2020,” he said. “Hopkins is a school that only services the best of the best, and that is what this incoming class is. Because of this, we have to cut our losses with these current students. Sorry, but you all have got to go.”
This shift in University model requires a restructuring of the way faculty interacts with students. Beverly Wendland, dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, spearheaded this shift.
“There is a lot of work to be done to mobilize faculty to facilitate a smaller population of students. I’m glad that all current students are leaving; It will the job of faculty a lot easier,” Wendland said. “In addition, because of this measure, our student-to-faculty ratio will be exceptionally high.”
When asked whether or not the University will refund the tuition for current students, Daniel Cronin, senior associate dean for finance and administration, said that the university will not refund the tuition.
“No givesy-backsies,” Cronin said.
University President Ronald J. Daniels expressed optimism to this new step forward for the University.
“I’m excited to see where this takes us,” President Daniels wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “In fact, this step coincides perfectly with our current University initiative for diversity. After all, it is easier to be more diverse with a smaller student population.”
“The higher student-to-faculty ratio should help our national ranking too,” he added, “but that’s just a small coincidence.”
Current students generally expressed a resigned sadness to this news.
“I guess this was going to happen eventually. I mean, I don’t even know how I got in this school. I shouldn’t have been here from the start,” sophomore Katie Watkins said. “At least now I don’t have to really be stressed anymore.”
Junior David Miranda agreed that the move was inevitable. “Each new class is definitely better than the previous, so I understand how it’s hard to justify supporting the older students,” he said.“Looking at this crop of high school seniors, it’s hard not to feel irrelevant.”
Kim, the undergraduate admissions director, offered a foreboding note for the Class of 2020.
“The Class of 2020 should be prepared to stay for only one year here,” Kim said. “We predict that the Class of 2021 will be even more record-breaking than all of our previous classes.”
