Johns hopkins non-medical acceptance

NixonDenier
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 18:14:06 +0000

@vrhou98 is correct. While some schools like Northwestern offer joint BS/MD programs that provide students both a bachelor’s degree (undergraduate degree) and a medical degree over seven or eight years (see full list here: https://www.premedhq.com/2011/07/list-of-bamd-programs.html), Hopkins has no such program. You are only applying to be an undergraduate student. Hopkins has two undergraduate schools (School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences), but unless you are applying specifically to the Biomedical Engineering Major (BME, which is part of the School of Engineering) you are otherwise being considered for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences. When you are applying they will ask what major you intend on studying and they have you mark which school you intend on enrolling in, but none of this is binding and the application process is identical. Now internally I’m sure they have quotas they are trying to meet to make sure that enough students are enrolling in the humanities, engineering, etc. to get a balanced class and not exceed the resources of any one department, but there is no formal difference in the application process. Does this mean it might be easier to get into Hopkins applying as a humanities major and then switching later into an engineering major if that was your true desire? Possibly, and that would be allowed, but there is no published data on how many students are applying with various majors and what the average stats are for those accepted students, so we can only speculate. Of course it is to your benefit to have taken subject tests and coursework in engineering-related content (Math IIC, physics, etc.) if you are applying to an engineer program, etc. but that isn’t a different application process, just recommendations by Admissions on how to be a more competitive applicant.

As a side note to you premeds (people interested in pursuing medicine, this is not a formal program), you do NOT need to be a science/biology major to apply to medical school. As long as you fulfill medical school requirements (they are slightly different from school to school but most require two years of biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, a year of math, a year of writing coursework, associated lab coursework etc.) there is no required major you need to be. Interestingly, there is even a growing movement to remove all medical school coursework requirements, as seen with the new requirements for the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California (http://www.keck.usc.edu/education/md-program/admissions/).

Hopefully this better oriented you to the process.

TL;DR: There are only two options when you are applying - BME or everything else.