One of the first words that comes to mind when thinking of Johns Hopkins University is medicine. After all, almost 70 percent of incoming freshmen are pre-health with medical school aspirations. JHU produces the most medical school applicants of all private undergraduate institutions, with 494 in 2023 alone! Plus, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine consistently ranks within the top 5 institutions nationally and currently sits at #2 for research.
With over 50,000 applicants last year, medical school is simultaneously becoming more popular and more competitive with each cycle. Despite this challenging landscape, over 80 percent of Johns Hopkins premed applicants were admitted to at least one medical school within five years of graduation, far greater than the national average.
The Johns Hopkins premed track is very popular with entering freshmen, but students often find the time commitment and educational content to be overwhelming. Around campus, it’s commonly said that 70 percent of incoming pre-health first-year students will change majors and careers entirely before graduating.
This statistic deserves attention. Why do so many students with aspirations of becoming doctors switch tracks in only a few years? And how can you know if being a premed at Johns Hopkins will be the right fit for you?
Johns Hopkins premed is challenging—there is no way around that truth. The classes needed to meet premed requirements cover diverse and difficult material, including advanced physics, cellular biology, biochemistry, and even mathematics. With so many outside requirements to excel at as well, including extracurricular activities, the MCAT, and volunteering, it’s no wonder that students can feel overwhelmed by the prospect of being a Johns Hopkins premed.
This guide will provide advice and information to help better your understanding of what to expect in your journey from Johns Hopkins premed to future doctor. The topics covered are extensive and will encompass selecting the right major to study, the required Johns Hopkins premed course materials, relevant extracurricular activities, research and volunteer opportunities, and more.
Our goal is to help you navigate all the way through the premed track at Johns Hopkins University, culminating in medical school admissions success.
Although Johns Hopkins University does not offer an explicit premed major, a pre-health focus encompasses all prerequisites needed for medical school. Below, we offer a general guideline that students can follow. In addition, Johns Hopkins provides a useful premed planning guide.
Although some upper-level science classes may differ according to your specific major requirements, many require the same introductory-level courses or credits from AP exams as prerequisites. As such, premed students’ schedules are usually very similar during freshman and sophomore year as they get through introductory science classes.
However, not all schedules will be the same. For example, students in non-science disciplines, such as English and social sciences, may have different schedules due to the variety of courses from which you can choose and differing major requirements.
As a warning, students should be careful when using AP credits to place ahead of introductory courses. The content taught in these AP courses may not always match perfectly with the material that is taught in the equivalent Hopkins courses, information which may be needed down the road for exams such as the MCAT. Additionally, relearning and solidifying content you have already learned in high school often proves beneficial when preparing for exams in upper-level courses.
*There are many statistics courses that will fulfill premed requirements. You can pick a course based on what fulfills your major requirements.
**Calculus I and Calculus II are co-requisites for General Physics I and General Physics II.
As described above, basic science courses such as General Biology and Introduction to Chemistry are taken by virtually every Johns Hopkins premed student in their freshman and sophomore years, with variability and flexibility in their junior and senior years when upper-level courses become available.
However, premed courses will only comprise a percentage of all the courses you take. You will have other requirements to fill for your designated majors and minors. Ideally, there will also be space for 1–2 elective classes of your choosing in order to meet the minimum of 12 credits required per semester. A full course catalog is provided on the Johns Hopkins University website.
Traditionally, freshmen premeds will complete introductory courses in biology, calculus, and chemistry with the associated labs at the minimum. Sophomore year is generally when Johns Hopkins premed students complete Organic Chemistry I and II with the lab. Many students will also take General Physics I and II with the lab during this time. The remaining will complete it their junior year.
Remember, calculus must be taken before or concurrently with General Physics I and II. Most students will take it during their freshman year, while others opt to take calculus during their sophomore year and delay physics to their junior year.
Biochemistry is also generally taken junior year. Many students opt to take biochemistry in the fall semester before scheduling the MCAT. This is because the MCAT covers material taught in these basic science classes, and completing these courses prior to your dedicated MCAT studying period will help. (We’ll discuss MCAT timing further in just a bit.)
Pro tip: Many students will choose to take some of these basic science requirements in the summer at Johns Hopkins or other universities as they find they have more time to dedicate to the course. This also allows them more free time and flexibility within their fall and spring schedules.
Things to consider when creating your schedule:
A two-year sample schedule is provided below and can serve as a general guideline when crafting your freshman and sophomore schedules:
Keep in mind that your own course load will vary depending on how heavy you prefer your first four semesters. In addition, major requirement courses can be divided as you wish through your four years at Hopkins. Sometimes you may take 0 courses required for your major in a semester, other times you may take 3–4. It depends on how you create your schedule.
Some departments may also provide sample course plans for their major, which can be useful in planning out your course schedule. For example, here’s a sample schedule for biology majors.
Johns Hopkins demands hard work and dedication to achieve high grades. The average high school GPA of incoming classes is generally greater than 3.9, with SAT scores in math and reading well above 700. Incoming freshmen should already have well-established study skills, but the transition to college-level courses can still be challenging. Plus, most students take a heavy load of premed requirements right off the bat.
At JHU, basic science courses tend to be graded on a curve, making it more difficult to receive As (typically given to the top 10–15 percent of students). Other courses may be graded in a more straightforward manner.
As a rule of thumb, most medical schools prefer a GPA of at least 3.5 for science courses, and it is a good number to aim for in your overall GPA as well. Of course, the higher, the better.
Some guidance to help maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher is provided below:
Maintaining a high GPA at Johns Hopkins will require substantial effort but there are a plethora of resources available to you to ensure your grades don’t fall below what’s required to get into medical school.
The first place to look for study help is the academic support center. Here, you’ll find fantastic resources such as Learning Den Tutoring , where you can join a drop-in tutoring session and get help with many premed prerequisite courses. In addition, there’s also the PILOT (peer-led team learning) program which will have you joining teams of six to ten students that meet weekly to study and work out problems together. This collaborative learning environment can be extremely helpful in keeping you focused and its social aspect can speed up your learning as you bounce ideas and questions off team members.
Struggling with writing a paper? Make sure you schedule an appointment at the Writing Center and get individualized feedback on your work. Students of the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences can find more general academic guidance here , while students of the Whiting School of Engineering can look here .
Study consulting is another enormously beneficial academic resource for premeds at Johns Hopkins. This program will pair you with a junior, senior, or graduate student at Johns Hopkins to meet once a week and nail down effective study skills to help you succeed, such as dealing with high reading loads and test anxiety.
First, it’s important to note that JHU does not have a “premed” major. Instead, you major in an area of your interest and take the required course load for medical school detailed above.
There is no perfect major that medical schools look for, nor is there a major that perfectly prepares you for what lies ahead. There has been no statistically significant difference in medical school acceptance rates among students majoring in the sciences vs. humanities vs. other disciplines when factors like GPA and MCAT scores are on par. In fact, non-traditional majors have become common among first-year medical students.
However, science majors do provide the opportunity for some classes to count both towards premed and major requirement credits, which helps reduce course load per semester. Accordingly, these majors are far more common among premed students.
The most popular premed majors at Johns Hopkins are neuroscience, biomedical engineering, molecular/cellular biology, and public health studies. Together, these four majors account for more than 70% of Johns Hopkins medical school applicants.
Other common premed majors include:
A full list of majors/minors and descriptions is available here.
As mentioned previously, non-traditional applicants are now more common, with many choosing fields of study such as writing seminars, political science, mechanical engineering, anthropology, and sociology.
When picking your major, first explore all the possible options. It is most important to pick a topic that you enjoy and feel that you can succeed in (this includes maintaining a competitive GPA). Talk with your advisor and senior students about the majors you are considering to obtain a full understanding and hear firsthand experiences before committing in your sophomore year.
There are many factors to consider when scheduling your exam date, but generally students elect to take the MCAT during their junior year.
Here at SAC, we typically recommend taking it during the fall of your junior year, as it builds in plenty of extra time in case you wind up needing to retake the test. However, it is equally important that you’ve completed the premed classes listed below before taking the MCAT:
Note that Organic Chemistry Lab is not required before the MCAT as it does not provide new information from Organic Chemistry I and II, but it may help solidify your knowledge. In addition, courses in psychology and sociology are also recommended but by no means required.
All courses listed above comprise the different components of the MCAT. The most important course is biochemistry, as there is a heavy emphasis on this topic in multiple sections of the MCAT. Do not take this course lightly!
Allow plenty of preparation time to dedicate to studying for the MCAT. Suggested study schedules commonly incorporate MCAT-specific classes as well as self-directed learning. We recommend taking at least three practice tests, but the more the better. Remember, retaking the MCAT is not a failure and schools like to see an improvement in your score on your second attempt.
Some students elect to take a gap year following graduation, which allows more flexibility in scheduling, as they can delay taking the MCAT until senior summer. Gap years also give students the advantage of making their application more competitive through jobs in healthcare for more clinical exposure or additional research opportunities.
Over 80 percent of students accepted to medical school from JHU have taken at least one gap year, as it helps to add more experiences to strengthen your application and overall resume. This trend is not JHU-specific, with a majority of first-year medical students also taking at least one gap year.
