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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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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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Essays That Worked (Johns Hopkins Edition)

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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 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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2 Rice University Essay Examples

Rice University is a highly-selective college, so it’s important to write strong essays to help your application stand out. In this post, we’ll share essays real students have submitted to Rice University. (Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved).

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our Rice University essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

Prompt: 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?

It’s family movie night, and we’ve chosen to watch Bird Brain , a nature documentary about birds and their unique abilities. I’m starting to lose interest, but the narrator says something wild that perplexes me: “Some birds have the ability to hold their breath for over 15 minutes underwater.” Well, now I have to know more. 

My mom groans as I pause the movie to spend the rest of my night understanding that one statement. I rush to my room and open my laptop, while my fingers type furiously as videos, images, and articles flood the screen. I click on the first site I see: “Emperor penguins dive to catch fish in the ocean, and their bodies begin to metabolize anaerobically after a certain point of being submerged.” But that wasn’t enough. I continue to scroll as my mind hunts for answers. How big are emperor penguins? How cold is the ocean in Antarctica? And what even is anaerobic metabolization? Ahhhhh! I feel like I am going to explode! I have to know more. 

This example of the emperor penguin is one of the many instances where I am motivated by the need to question what I hear. I encounter a similar situation on any given day. Whether it’s a quick Google search or an all nighter, I find myself lost in time as the world around me blurs while I unearth its secrets. This love of research stems from my childhood, as I was determined to find my own answers. From conducting at-home plant dissections to confirm what was taught in class, or reading an actual newspaper for the latest reports, nothing was true unless I had found evidence. Soon, this habit became deeply ingrained in my character. 

I call moments like these an “internet search spiral.” Part of the reason why these spirals are so captivating is because they can never be boring; it would take me 23.8 million years to go through the 295 exabytes of information on the web. Call me crazy, but I would do it. The never-ending knowledge found within the internet never fails to hold my attention, as my inquiries are like an emperor penguin plunging into the cold Antarctic waters for a swim. Knowing that there’s something I haven’t learned, a skill I haven’t mastered, or an equation I haven’t solved creates a warp in time that transports me to a region where seconds and minutes don’t restrain my knowledge.

 Internet search spirals capture every part of me but often leave me seeking additional material. The search for more information not available online connects me with like-minded thinkers, and this connection is what I aim to foster as a student at Rice. This quest for knowledge is more meaningful when I encounter someone whose passion for teaching matches my appreciation of learning. I turn to those who feel compelled to share. 

These internet search spirals ultimately transform me into a more mindful person. Every time I understand something new, I feel like a little penguin egg that’s ready to hatch and experience the world in a new way. The feeling of analyzing fresh material is one I will never give up. I don’t feel bound by the restriction of time because somehow my eyes never get tired of scanning endless papers and textbooks. After all, the knowledge I gain is worth it, because every bit of information gives me the chance to be a better individual. The purpose of knowledge is action, and knowledge that is acted on becomes greatness. I aspire to embody that greatness. Whether it’s from a website, a medical textbook, a documentary, or a good-old-fashioned human being, learning frees me from the constraints of time. 

So, thank you, emperor penguins, for sparking internet search spirals that push me to be a better individual.

What the Essay Did Well

This essay does a good job of using an anecdote at the beginning to hook the reader in and then continuing to weave callbacks to the anecdote throughout the essay. Including these callbacks where the student refers to themselves as “an emperor penguin plunging into the cold Antarctic waters” and “a little penguin egg that’s ready to hatch” help make the essay feel more cohesive. The use of the anecdote also allows the student to describe the thoughts that run through their brain while researching penguins, which not only shows how the student thinks, but creates the same feeling of excitement and anticipation the student felt in the moment for the reader. 

Another great thing this essay does is reflect on why this activity is so important to who the student is as a person. Although the prompt doesn’t specifically ask for anything more than why the topic is captivating and what do you turn to for more information, providing a reflection on how researching has positively impacted the student to become a better person proves to the admissions committee that this student knows who they are. The student took a passion they have and used it to show their growth as a person through engaging in this activity and how this activity will allow them to achieve their future goals. The last paragraph ties together the essay and takes it a step beyond what was required to elevate the essay.

What Could Be Improved

One thing this essay could work would be to tell less and show more. It’s cliche essay advice, but for a good reason. A lot of this essay tells the reader about the student’s researching habits without putting the reader in the chair next to the student while they sift through Internet tabs or flip through textbook pages. The anecdote at the beginning shows the excitement and thought process of the student when they are researching penguins which draws the reader in.

After the first paragraph the essay relies mostly on telling the reader what the student does and why they enjoy it, rather than using specific experiences and details to describe what was happening and how they felt. An easy way the student could improve their writing to show more would be to include more of their internal monologue while researching. 

It should also be noted that this was a Common App essay submitted to Rice that specifically mentioned Rice: “This connection is what I am to foster as a student at Rice.” Common App essays don’t need to be school specific, so including school names can actually be highly risky and costly if you make a mistake. This student could have easily submitted their Common App essay to Rice with another school’s name or with a blank they meant to fill in. The best way to avoid this mistake is simply to not included schools in your Common App, or if you really want to, make sure someone else proofreads your essay before you submit! 

Prompt: Rice is lauded for creating a collaborative atmosphere that enhances the quality of life for all members of our campus community. The Residential College System and undergraduate life are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What life perspectives would you contribute to the Rice community?

One of the many Boarding School rules that I despised at the time but now look back at nostalgically was a 45-minute phone time. So with nothing else to do, our suitemates would gather together after “lights-out” and just talk. Sometimes it would be consoling a friend coming out of a bad break-up, and other times it’d be a serious debate on the merits of Latin honors. Whatever the topic, these conversations were always compassionate, spirited, and a source of familial support. 

This camaraderie also made studying with friends profoundly different. My Indian family was always relentless in reminding me to “Forget joy for four years” because delaying gratification was the only way to find “permanent security.” Apparently, in our divine meritocracy, College is just one step on the continual stairway of advancement. I couldn’t disagree more with this notion that an education is simply a means to an end.

But, as I studied with my best friends in our hostel, learning and fun were never antithetical ideas. Nights reserved for calculus were always accompanied by ping-pong sessions, but we never intended to sabotage each other in a futile race to the top. Ours was a collaborative family, where instead of selfish opportunity costs, we were driven by brotherly love. No accolade could beat this feeling of security and finding a home — away from home.

At Rice, to build that sense of family, I want to create a discussion group—Night Owls—to gather at night and ponder both the grandiose and whimsical philosophical questions over hot chocolate . Think of these events as a modern version of the infamous Greek Symposia, just without the booze. This combination of conversation, whimsy, and intellectual inquiry is what I want from college. It doesn’t sound very prudential, but it’s surely poetic.

The student who wrote this essay did a good job of tying their previous experience to an experience they want to bring to the Rice community. This student pinpointed exactly what they loved so much about living in a community with their peers and how they planned to recreate that experience in college. The descriptions about the types of debates or ping-pong tournaments the student engaged in create an image of an intellectual and supportive environment admissions officers want to see at their college.

Additionally, by coming up with a name and a plan for the discussion group, the student’s interest is evident and it shows that they took time to consider genuinely starting this group at college. In general, the student’s writing created a warm sense of family and bonding that displayed some of the student’s key values. This leaves the reader with a positive impression of the type of person this student is outside of the classroom, which was exactly what the prompt was looking to achieve.

This essay could benefit from a more focused and cohesive story. The way the essay begins describing late night discussions at boarding school, then transitions to a discussion on the student’s family, and then returns back to his school study group is a bit disjointed. The second paragraph adds very little to the essay as a whole and distracts from the sense of community the student was trying to establish in his study group. This student probably felt the need to discuss his family and his Indian heritage to address the “cultural traditions” the prompt mentions, however the experiences studying with his friend are unique and special enough to satisfy the prompt so this was an unnecessary addition. The essay could just describe the late night conversations he had at boarding school and how they created a sense of camaraderie and family among strangers that he wants to bring to college, without needing to bring up his family.

The words this student saves by removing the paragraph on their family could be used to create more concrete examples of the types of discussions the student had at boarding school or what they want to have at Rice. Although the essay mentions discussing bad break-ups or Latin honors, adding more detail like a quote said by one of the student’s friends or an introduced idea that made them reflect on the world would help put the reader in the room with the student or gain a better appreciation for the impact of the discussions. 

Where to Get Your Rice University  Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your Rice University essays? 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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