Featured Supplemental Essay Prompt For Johns Hopkins Applicants:

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. 400 Word Maximum.

Successful Supplemental Essay Example From Our Accepted Alumni Student:

My childhood obsessions: bugs, brains, and blood. Basically, anything that grossed my mom out became thoroughly captivating to me. At age five, I visited every exhibit on centipedes and beetles. At nine, I wielded a scalpel to dissect a sheep’s brain. As my father saw me captivated by blood cells and capillaries, he explained his progressing hypertension. I was concerned, but he made problems into lessons.

It was fitting, then, when I found myself cultivating D. melanogaster larvae—and digging through dirt to find more—as I embarked on research at Governor’s School last summer. There, I saw the inextricable interaction between biology, sustainability, and statistical analysis—between bugs, nourishment, healthcare.

Compared to my childhood curiosities, the interactions mean more now, the stakes higher. I have pressing questions: How can we promote access to medical care, information, and healthful foods? How can we provide sustainable nourishment?

A Johns Hopkins University education would help me explore these questions—and more. At JHU, I want to soak up interdisciplinary exploration that can teach me more than any lone textbook. When I shadowed at a [City] hospital, my childhood idealism was transformed by real-world patient concerns which elucidated glaring inequities. In Sociology of Health and Illness, I can bridge disciplines, examining healthcare inequities and seeking solutions.

As a hopeful Biology or Chemistry major, I look forward to exploring biology and its interdisciplinary applications. Single Molecule Approaches to Biology fascinates me, as I currently investigate enzyme structures and mechanisms in my research assistantship. I’m beyond excited about Hamad Lab research on diabetes-1, examining mutations and inhibiting processes within metabolic pathways.

My passion for learning is tied to community—from sparking science confidence with my students in downtown [City] to launching my cultural community’s remote learning program. And I can’t wait to foster new connections at Johns Hopkins. There, through Active Minds student speaker panels, I would advance mental health awareness, like I have as a Freshman Mentor at [High School]. I also hope to conduct Baltimore First outreach, empowering communities through STEM education, nutrition initiatives, and healthcare access.

In my life thus far, education has occurred not only in classrooms, but in any space fostering connection and curiosity. I learn from hearing kids’ favorite Spongebob plotlines, from wandering through nature. In my hopeful Hopkins education—and in life—I will always learn something new, as long as I stay curious—in classrooms, in daydreams, and in getting my hands dirty.