Thoughts?

Colleges & Universities Johns Hopkins University
1

<p>I am a high school sophomore and I intend on applying to Hopkins as Early Decision; Hopkins is my dream school for several reasons, such as its state of the art research, world-renowned professors, and rigorous hands-on learning opportunities.</p>

<p>The thing is, I am not sure how strong of a candidate I am; I do not consider my performance ‘bad’ by any standard, but there are certainly people that, numbers-wise, will exceed me by quite the bit.</p>

<p>As for a bit about myself: I consider myself an intellectual, and Plato has been my hero for as long as I can remember; outside of academics, I am very passionate about theater, acting, and film and I have worked on short films and other projects before. I am also deeply interested in entrepreneurship, and literature (in fact, I have written essays and I am working on a book). </p>

<p>I am an Arab in orgin, but I consider myself to be the product of two cultures and I have a very deep attachment to the United States.</p>

<p>In high school, I am taking IB courses and will SL and HL in Chemistry and Biology; Calculus AP; Chinese IB; Et cetera.</p>

<p>I have also done volunteering at the Memorial Hermann hospital, and I have worked with a surgeon there that is a long-time family friend and will be happy to write me a letter of rec. Also, my Bio teacher who taught me freshman year will be teaching me HL Biology (once I am a Senior) and he is also an M.D, and will be writing a rec for me.</p>

<p>Okay, but now down to business:</p>

<p>Sophomore year (right now): 4.0 GPA, 4.5 W GPA; all good conduct. IB courses. I expect to keep up my performance during Junior and Senior years.</p>

<p>However, I am worried about my performance freshman year. Out of 8 courses, I got 7 A’s and one…F, in a military course; I do regret it, and I am worrying about how that screw up will affect my chances. In my defense, I was dealing with problems at home, and that in conjunction to the problems with my Colonel led to that F. However, I am not interested in writing excuses; instead, I am simply worried about the effect this will have. Though it was a failure, I have certainly learned from that failure and I feel that I have matured because of it. </p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

<p>Edit: Right, EC’s: I am involved quite a bit with my Theatre program at school, and I think that is one solid thing I have to offer to JHU, since the humanities at that school may be lacking. I have also founded two clubs about two things that I am passionate about: Latin and Libertarianism; I am also in NHS, and a few more clubs. I’m not a member of a million clubs, but I do think that the ones that I am involved in are things that actually matter to me. </p>

<p>Outside of school: I run my own magazine, and ‘small business’ if you want to call it that; and of course, I work on short films.</p>

2

<p>2 options: </p>

<p>1) retake the course if your school has a grade replacement option, and if you think you could get over any issues with the Col. that</p>

<p>2) write a good explanation, brief and to the point, in the additional information section of the application, of what happened. </p>

<p>don’t be too worried, if everything else is as solid as it seems, one blemish shouldn’t be the end of the world.</p>

3

<p>It is impossible to accurately predict one’s chances for admission; there are too many unknown factors (e.g., the makeup of the applicant pool for the year you are going to apply).</p>

<p>If JHU is your dream school, then continue to work hard and apply ED. Whatever happen, things usually work out for the best. The good news is that there are many excellent schools out there, and if you apply sensibly to a range of good schools, you likely will end up somewhere that you like.</p>