Johns Hopkins University 2025-26 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Johns Hopkins University 2025-26 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 1 essay of 350 words

Over the past 150 years, every monumental discovery at Hopkins has started with a first step: The first draft by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. A prototype that led to a life-changing medical invention. The first pitch that launched a new startup venture. As we commemorate the university’s sesquicentennial—150 years since its founding—we continue to celebrate first steps just as much as final achievements. Tell us about an important first in your life—big or small—that has shaped you. (350 word limit)

Admissions wants to know what has made you into the person you are today and how one first step led to lasting change. So, tell a story about an experience that has shaped you and connect the first step you took to the growth you’ve experienced since. You can approach this backward by thinking about the values, experiences, and activities that are most important to you and tracing them back to their origins. Maybe on a whim, you scanned a QR code about a free yoga class and got so hooked that you joined a studio and recently earned your yoga teacher certification. Perhaps you picked up a stray gum wrapper on your walk to school and began noticing all the litter in your city, leading you to organize a school-wide litter pick-up day that got local news attention, prompting your city to take litter more seriously. Why did you take that first step? How did it feel? Could you have predicted where it would lead? What has the effect been on your life, goals, and values? Whatever you write about, make sure your response to this prompt shows that you have put some serious thought into the things that have shaped you and how small decisions can have a lasting impact.