Posted by Greco S.
If you are reading this then it is safe to assume you are aware of Hopkins Interactive and the blogs, videos, forums, and other related projects. So who’s in charge of all these?
WE ARE -- the Student Admissions Advisory Board, SAAB in short (pronounced just like the car) and we are in many was the student marketing branch for the Admissions Office. We are the faces of Johns Hopkins University and we try our best to show the real life at Hopkins, should it be academic or personal. Our goals are to make the school admissions more approachable and accessible to all the prospective and admitted students and to help those students make their best college decisions.
To do so, some of us post blogs. Most bloggers post entries every week, but we can also share blogs (like all the freshmen SAABers) and post entries every other week. You can write about your classes, research experience, or something personal like what you did on Halloween! Through blogging, we are hoping to provide something beyond our formal admission website and talk about Hopkins in current students’ point of view. We also use twitter as well. Right now, JHU_Saznin, JHU_Brian, and JHU_Keith are posting daily tweets about their college lives. It’s all about making our school more approachable and relatable to our prospective and admitted students.
Another role is to answer the questions posted on our Hopkins Forums (Message Boards). Our Hopkins Interactive Forum is the place where prospective/admitted students post questions about academics, student life, and admissions process. In addition, we have a “Parents’ Corner” for all the parents to ask questions as well. Students can directly interact with us and get information from the real insiders!
This is not all! We also participate in Open Houses as well. Some of you might have visited our Fall Open House 2009 programs. I was there mingling with you all during lunch and answered questions. We will also be doing similar thing during the Spring Open Houses for admitted students as well. Some of us are designing an awesome booklet named the Insider’s Guide, which will provide a variety of information from choosing the right dorm to finding good restaurants around the campus. All of us also interact face-to-face with the students during the Open Houses and answer questions. It’s all about being the friendly faces of Hopkins.
We meet once every week and the meeting is usually an hour and a half, sometimes shorter but never longer. Most of the time we talk about upcoming events like Open Houses and brainstorm ideas for ongoing projects. Every SAABers, no matter what year he/she is in, has an equal voice during the meetings.
Aside from all the work we do, ALL the SAAB people here (SAABers) are amazing and unique individuals. It’s just so interesting how diverse we are in terms of where we are from, ethnicity, majors, and even interests. It’s a group in which you can be who you are and truly feel like you are contributing. I did have some difficulties adjusting to this new college environment, but not for long; many of the upperclassmen SAABers helped me a lot with the transition from choosing classes and finding resources. It feels great to know that I belong here.
Hopkins is different. And it is our role to show this to the prospective students. In order to do so, we need people with creativity. We need people who can think outside the box and give Hopkins a distinct appeal to the prospective students. Commitment is also very important as well. Commitment is what makes us active on forums, blogs, and other projects we are working on. Personally, I would love to have people with diverse background to join us since we would very much like to be accessible to students with diverse interests and talents.
To be part of SAAB, you need to fill out the application provided during summer. SAAB members and Admissions_Daniel read all the applications and pick the applicants we would like to interview during the Hopkins orientation period. After the interview, SAABers and Daniel meet once again for the final deliberation.
SAAB is always evolving. We started with only a few people helping out during open houses, but now we are utilizing not only our own Hopkins Interactive website, but also blogs, Twitter, and even Youtube. We also connect through Facebook, creating Facebook groups for specific class years. The result is tremendous, almost every admitted students joining our groups and actively posting discussions and even planning meet-ups before actually coming to Hopkins! With our effort, Hopkins is more and more opening its arms to the prospective/admitted students and I feel honored to be part of this amazing, innovative group of people.
If you are interested, get your application next summer! We are so eager to meet you!