August 30, 2010

A new year begins

The Class of 2014 arrives at Homewood, classes begin Monday

Cars, trucks and vans, all stuffed with cargo, lined up in caravan fashion on the Homewood campus last Wednesday and Thursday as the Class of 2014 moved into Johns Hopkins residence halls.

A large contingent of upperclassmen volunteers helped parents unload the vehicles as students checked into their housing and took in new surroundings. President Ron Daniels, decked out in a “Bleed Blue” Johns Hopkins University T-shirt, was on hand on Wednesday to meet and greet the students and families during the annual rite of passage.

The big move-in kicked off a whirlwind five-day period for the 1,249 new students, who begin classes today. After settling in, they took part in a string of orientation events, including campus tours, movie nights, an ice cream social, open houses, Playfair and welcome receptions. A Deans Assembly for the entire class was held on Friday, a busy day for the new class that ended with a semiformal Blue Jay Ball underneath a tent on the Decker Quad.

The weekend featured even more festivities, including a crab feast, HorrorFest, comedy show and Beach BBQ Party, culminating in the new-student convocation.

The midweek move-in, a change from years past, was precipitated by the new academic calendar for the Homewood schools, which now begins on a Monday because the majority of their courses are held in either a Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday format.

With full support from the department chairs and faculty, the change to a Monday start for the fall semester allowed the university to maintain the natural rhythm of the new schedule, restore fall break and eliminate a “hanging” Monday during the last week of classes.

The freshman class was culled from a record applicant pool of 18,458 high school seniors. The group, which is 52 percent male and 48 percent female, had a mean SAT combined score of 1402 and a high school GPA of 3.72.

Among the class of 2014 are nine Baltimore Scholars, graduates of Baltimore City public schools accepted into the university’s undergraduate programs who receive full-tuition scholarships.