<p>Would you say it's more difficult to get into JHU as a pre-med than as someone interested in something like music or the humanities?</p>
<p>Well, just to be clear, there is no “pre-med” major at Hopkins. Rather, there are pre-med requirements that individuals looking to go to medical school must fulfill - these varies from school to school, but usually its gen chem, orgo, bio, physics, calc, biochem, etc. However, you can major in anything you want to (eg English, History, or Writing Seminars) and still go to medical school as long as you have taken the prereqs. </p>
<p>Also, Hopkins does not admit students based on their prospective major; all students are evaluated on an individual basis.</p>
<p>To add on: The only major that you have to apply for and be accepted to specifically is Biomedical Engineering. Unless you’re applying for BME, you’re going to be accepted into the University as a whole, and you can pick any major in the School of Arts and Sciences or the School of Engineering. While the Admissions Office does want to try to get some mix of science, engineering, social science and humanities students, that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily “harder” if you applying as a biology major. While some people have the impression that Hopkins is a “pre-med” school, there are lots of students who apply and come to Hopkins to study writing, history, french etc etc. </p>
<p>So why does it matter what you write as your intended major on your application? The admissions officers are going to keep that intended major in their mind as they read your application. It’s completely alright to come in undecided, but if you say your interested in, say, History, but have nothing in your application that shows a passion for history (whether it’s your essay, your extracurriculars, your rec letters etc), then you’re application is not going to look very strong.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I’m not an admissions officer so whatever I’ve written is based on second and third hand information that I learned while volunteering for the admissions office during my time at Hopkins. Things may have changed since then and I may not be 100% correct, so make of that what you will.</p>
<p>Thanks so much to both of you for answering my question. Yes, I do understand that pre-med isn’t a major, but I do plan to express my interest in it when I apply there. I also wasn’t planning on putting down history or something similar in the hopes that it will be easier to be accepted. I’m definitely applying to Hopkins for other reasons than their strength in medicine; I was just curious whether the fact that I want to go into medicine would negatively affecting my chances.</p>
<p>Thanks again for replying! You’re both very informed and helpful.</p>
<p>Planning to go into medicine will not hurt you at all. Hopkins recognizes that the universe’s best medical school is down the street and encourages pre meds to explore the plethora of medical opportunities presented to them. What they don’t want is the student who wishes the Hopkins name to guarantee them into any and all med schools. But then again, the prestige must be nice :)</p>
<p>Awesome, I feel a lot better about it now. Thanks Anouchi!</p>