Your average person on the street neither knows nor cares about the great medical schools.
Sure, they’ll assume that high-ranking institutions like Harvard and Yale have good medical schools.
And if they live in the vicinity of schools like Duke University or the University of Michigan, they may have had involvement with those medical schools.
But everybody has heard of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and not just because it is one of the best medical schools in the world.
The school has been featured in countless movies and tv shows, to the point that it is just shorthand for “a school where the smartest doctors in the world study.”
That’s not just a point of fiction. Since the school was established in 1893, it has worked to become a home for innovative researchers and keen thinkers in the medical field.
18 Nobel Prize winners have been associated with Johns Hopkins Med, either as faculty members or as alumni.
The school has associations with first-rate hospitals, which give students unparalleled access to training and resources.
The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center is a level 1 pediatric trauma center with 196 beds, ready to treat rare and challenging cases. It is a recognized leader in the field of pediatrics.
Likewise, the Johns Hopkins Hospital has been ranked as the country’s best hospital for 21 years in a row. A level 1 trauma center with over 1,000 beds, the Johns Hopkins Hospital provides students with access to every kind of medical issue.
While all of these are impressive facts, a question still remains: is Johns Hopkins Medical the right school for you?
Johns Hopkins Medical School Acceptance Rate
According to numbers released by the school, 5,604 students applied to study at Johns Hopkins Med in 2021.
Out of that group, 664 students were invited to interview with the admissions counselors. Finally, a mere 284 were given offers of admission. That’s a 7% acceptance rate, which is quite low, even among medical schools.
Very few average people know the names of any medical schools. But nearly everyone has heard of Johns Hopkins Medical School. That level of name recognition speaks to the quality of Johns Hopkins Med, demonstrating that the school is responsible for training some of the most important medical minds in the world and for life-saving scientific innovations.
But it also means that Johns Hopkins Med is one of the most popular medical schools in the world. And that means that anyone applying to the school will have a lot of competition.
Even more than the most elite schools in the United States, medical schools are exclusive. The 7% acceptance rate is only outdone by Ivy league schools such as Harvard, which takes 3.4% of its applicants, and Princeton, which takes 4.3% of its applicants.
Without question, that’s an intimidating number. But it’s important to remember that even if they only take 7% of their applicants, Johns Hopkins is bringing in 284 students every year. So while it is undoubtedly exclusive, the school does accept hundreds of students every year.
Johns Hopkins Medical School Tuition
By now, it’s a cliché to say that doctors make a lot of money. But that’s only half of the truth. Part of the reason that doctors charge so much money is that it costs so much for them to go to school and develop the expertise of their trade. Put more simply, doctors are expensive because medical school is expensive.
As one of the best medical schools in the world, Johns Hopkins is no exception to the rule.
According to statistics provided by the school, students should plan to pay $89,555 for their first year of study, and over $94,000 for years two and three. In year four, the school estimates $85,076 in expenses.
To be sure, that’s a lot of money. But it’s not outrageous for medical school education. For example, the Geffen School of Medicine at NYU costs $83,182 in total expenses. Students at Stanford Med pay over $62,000 each year for their studies.
Furthermore, the amounts provided by Johns Hopkins make a distinction between direct and indirect costs. Direct costs involve things that can’t really be avoided, such as $58,000 a year for tuition, $4,356 for basic health insurance, and $850 for the University Health Service fee.
Conversely, indirect costs are things that can change or even be avoided, such as $1,000 yearly for books and supplies or $17,500 for room and board.
Johns Hopkins Medical School Requirements
As we’ve already established, Johns Hopkins Med is one of the most difficult medical schools to enter. While it’s certainly true that 284 students are admitted each year, 5,320 get rejected as well. To be part of that fortunate 284, applicants must at least meet the minimum requirements for the school.
At the very basic level, you’ll need to have great grades to get into Johns Hopkins Medical. On average, students going into the school have a 3.93 GPA on a 4.0 scale.
In other words, successful applicants tend to earn all A’s in their classes, especially in the courses that relate to the studies that relate to their future medical career: biology, chemistry, and other STEM classes.
Johns Hopkins also requires students to submit their scores on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). A standardized test designed to assess the medical knowledge that one developed during their undergraduate studies, the MCAT gives colleges a sense of a student’s ability to succeed in med school.
The MCAT consists of sections that cover issues such as biochemistry and biological systems, behavior foundations, and analytical and reasoning skills.
On average, students entering Johns Hopkins score a 522 on the MCAT, which is near perfect.
That’s a high standard to meet, but it’s not all about numbers. Johns Hopkins also looks at things such as letters of recommendation, an application essay, work experience, and more. With a strong showing on these materials, students can make up for lower grades.
Johns Hopkins Medical School Notable Alumni
Because it’s one of the highest-ranked medical schools in the nation, Johns Hopkins Medical has the distinction of training some of the greatest medical leaders in history. Their alumni include numerous Nobel laureates and scientific innovators.
Peter Agre earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1974, and then served as Duke University Medical Center’s Vice Chancellor for Science and eventually the director of the Malaria Research Institute at Johns Hopkins.
Agre has earned a number of prestigious awards, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, admission into the American Academy of Arts of Sciences, and the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Upon earning his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1953, Paul Greengard did his postdoctoral work at the University of London, Cambridge University, and the University of Amsterdam.
Over the years, Greengard used his education to teach at Yale and The Rockefeller University and to serve organizations such as the Board of Scientific Governess at Scripps Research Institute, the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and more.
In 2000, Greengard earned the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Medicine, alongside Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel.
These two outstanding examples are just a few of the brilliant minds who got their start at Johns Hopkins Medical.
Johns Hopkins Medical School Ranking
We all have heard of Johns Hopkins Medical School, but we also know that fame isn’t the same thing as quality. Just because we know the name, that doesn’t mean that it’s a good school, right?
While that might be true, the fact of the matter is that Johns Hopkins is one of the world’s best medical schools. That’s an opinion held by nearly every magazine responsible for ranking the quality of medical schools.
We see that principle in the rankings provided by U.S. News & World Report, the most respected observer of university trends. More than any other outlet, U.S. News is trusted by those in higher education.
Thanks to its thorough research and its compelling evaluation matrix, U.S. News is better than most at ranking institutes of higher education.
On its list of best medical schools for research, Johns Hopkins Medical falls in the number seven spot, tying with the School of Medicine at the University of Washington and beating out great institutions such as the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the School of Medicine at Yale.
Looking beyond just the United States, Johns Hopkins Med does well worldwide as well. According to topuniversities.com, Johns Hopkins has the fifth-best medical school in the world, tied with the Karolinska Institutet of Sweden and falling only behind Harvard Med and Stanford Med in the U.S. and the U.K. Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Should You Attend Johns Hopkins Medical School?
At first glance, the answer to this question would be a resounding, “Yes! You should attend the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.”
After all, some of the world’s greatest doctors and scientists have either graduated from or taught at Johns Hopkins Med.
The school consistently ranks among the top ten medical schools in the entire world. Its contributions to our understanding of health and the human body are unmatched.
Anyone who goes to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is guaranteed an unparalleled educational experience, as well as a network of fellow students which will help their future careers.
But at the same time, Johns Hopkins is an extremely difficult school to enter.
Not only is the cost of tuition very high, but the school also has exacting demands for entry. Anyone who wants to get into Johns Hopkins Med must have the highest possible grades, nearly perfect standardized test scores, and excellent application materials.
For some, that might just be too tall of an order. The demands are just too high, and they can certainly find a satisfying career after graduating from a school with lower rankings and less stringent application requirements.
But for those ready to accept the challenge, there’s no question that the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will make them into excellent doctors and health care professionals, ready to improve the lives of not just their patients, but of humanity as a whole.
