Johns Hopkins’ 140-acre Homewood campus sits in the tree-lined Charles Village neighborhood, about three miles north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Georgian-style red-brick buildings ring several connected quads (“The Beach” is the student sun-bathing lawn), while labs, libraries, and the Baltimore Museum of Art frame the perimeter. Students enjoy a distinct collegiate bubble yet can walk to cafés, vintage shops, and the city’s light-rail line in minutes.

Biomedical Engineering #1
The Whiting School’s BME program has topped U.S. News rankings for more than three decades, pairing undergrads with clinicians at Johns Hopkins Hospital to design real medical devices. 

Largest Research Budget
Johns Hopkins has been No. 1 on the National Science Foundation’s HERD survey for 44 consecutive years, directing $3.4 billion in R&D spending—about $1.8 billion more than the next-closest school. Read more about R1 research institutions here. 

Medicine & Public Health
The university founded the first research-based medical school (1893) and the world’s first school of public health (1916), now the Bloomberg School, which shaped global responses from polio to COVID-19.

The Applied Physics Laboratory
Hopkins’ Laurel, MD, division has built or managed more than 70 spacecraft, including NASA’s New Horizons probe to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Parker Solar Probe, and DART mission. 

Pioneering Research University
Founded in 1876, Hopkins introduced the German model of faculty-led research and the Ph.D. to American higher education.

Lacrosse Heritage
With 44 men’s national titles across eras and a women’s program that regularly reaches the NCAA tournament, the Blue Jays are a marquee name in collegiate lacrosse.

Data-driven Impact
The JHU Coronavirus Resource Center set global standards for real-time pandemic dashboards, attracting billions of page views and informing policy worldwide.

Nobel & Pulitzer Alumni
27 Nobel laureates and a long list of MacArthur Fellows, National Medal of Science winners, and Pulitzer Prize recipients trace roots to Hopkins labs and classrooms.

Hopkins undergraduates study in the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences or the Whiting School of Engineering but can tap the resources of nine academic divisions, from the Peabody Conservatory to the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The university lists 55 majors and 53 minors with a 6:1 student–faculty ratio and an average class size of 21, ensuring close interaction with faculty.

Popular majors
Popular majors include Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, Public Health Studies, International Studies, Computer Science, and Writing Seminars. Interdisciplinary options such as Medicine, Science & the Humanities or Environmental Science & Studies let students blend fields with ease.

Undergraduate academic life
Hopkins is on a semester system with flexible distribution requirements; most students take four to five courses and declare a major by the end of sophomore year. Research is practically a rite of passage—80 % of undergrads conduct original research or creative work before graduation, often co-authoring papers or presenting at conferences. Academic support includes a robust advising network, the JHU Writing Center, and funded summer research fellowships that span everything from astrophysics to bioethics.

Selectivity
For the Class of 2029 (first-years entering fall 2025), Hopkins received roughly 48,000 applications and admitted 2,525 students—an overall acceptance rate near 5 %. Regular Decision alone ran just 4 %—the most competitive cycle in school history.

Application requirements
JHU accepts the Common App, Coalition, or QuestBridge application plus requires two teacher recommendations, and supplemental essays. 

For the 2025-26 admissions cycle (Class of 2030), JHU requires either the SAT or ACT. In the Class of 2028, the middle 50% of enrolled students had a SAT score of 1530-1560 or an ACT score of 34-36.

International students educated in languages other than English must provide TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo English scores.

What does JHU look for?
The application review is holistic: intellectual curiosity, impact outside the classroom, and alignment with Hopkins’ research ethos carry weight. Successful applicants typically present top-tier grades in the most rigorous courses available, substantial commitment to activities, and essays that reveal an authentic voice and clear academic vision.

Admissions Rounds

• Early Decision  I and II  (binding)

• Regular Decision (non-binding)

Housing
A two-year residency requirement keeps first- and second-year students in university housing clustered around the quads or in nearby Charles Village apartments. Upper-class students may move off-campus, but many remain close for convenience.

First- and second-year Blue Jays live on or next to the Homewood quads in classic red-brick halls (AMRs, Wolman, McCoy) or suite-style apartments in Charles Village. Study lounges, social game rooms, and 24-hour card-access makerspaces give each building a “home-within-a-home” feel, while Residential Advisers host weekly events from trivia nights to Baltimore food crawls. Upper-class students can move a few blocks off-campus, but many stay nearby to keep a five-minute walk to classes, the rec center, and Homewood Field.

Activities
More than 400 student organizations thrive at Hopkins—from the Barnstormers theatre troupe and Blue Jay lacrosse pep band to Hopkins Model UN and dozens of cultural groups. Baltimore’s flourishing arts scene and numerous hospitals create plentiful internship and volunteering options.

Athletics
Most varsity teams compete in NCAA Division III, but men’s and women’s lacrosse battle at the Division I Big Ten level, filling 8,500-seat Homewood Field every spring. Outdoor enthusiasts join the Johns Hopkins Outdoors Club for backpacking in Shenandoah or kayaking the Chesapeake, while intramural soccer, broomball, and Quidditch leagues meet under new LED lights on the turf.

Mascot
The energetic Blue Jay mascot dates to a 1966 student cartoon and has since become a beloved symbol of scholarly grit.

Support services
The Counseling Center offers 24/7 tele-mental-health, drop-in therapy dogs, and affinity-based support groups. Identity hubs—Center for Diversity & Inclusion, LGBTQ Life, and the FLI Network—run mentorship dinners and career treks. Sustainability buffs join the Green Houses program, which equips dorms with composting stations and energy dashboards to track real-time electricity use.

Signature traditions
Hopkins culture revolves around several beloved annual events:

• Spring Fair: a 54-year-old festival that turns the quads into a carnival with live concerts, artisan markets, and a Saturday-night fireworks show just before finals. 

• Lighting of the Quads: each December thousands sip hot chocolate as the president counts down a dazzling light display and fireworks to celebrate the end of fall term. 

• Hoptoberfest: a week of autumn concerts, food-truck rodeos, pumpkin painting, and even a campus petting zoo, culminating in a big outdoor performance on Keyser Quad. 

• Student Involvement Fair: held every January and September, this expo packs the quads with 400-plus organizations recruiting new members, from Blue Jay Racing to Witness Theater.

Baltimore connections
A free JH Transit loop links Homewood to Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Bloomberg Center in D.C., and cultural hotspots like the Baltimore Museum of Art (steps from the main gate). Many students volunteer through the Center for Social Concern, tutor in city schools, or intern at nearby biotech startups in Hopkins’ FastForward U accelerator.

Johns Hopkins boasts 27 Nobel laureates and changemakers across disciplines. Notables include former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg (’64), environmental pioneer Rachel Carson (M.A. ’32), U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (Ph.D. ’86), astrophysicist Adam Riess (Nobel 2011), and Pulitzer-winning author N. Scott Momaday. 

From its storied Homewood quads to cutting-edge labs and lacrosse glory, Johns Hopkins University offers an environment where undergraduate curiosity fuels real-world discovery. With generous need-based aid and unrivaled research access—even for first-years—Hopkins invites students to join a legacy of breakthroughs that span medicine, the humanities, and beyond. For driven scholars eager to “seek knowledge for the world,” the Blue Jay experience may be the perfect launchpad.