The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine MD program

Genes to Society is integrated within each year and across all four, so science, clinical skills and social context are taught together. After the fall foundation courses, Organ Systems Foundations of Medicine (OSFM) takes the body one system at a time, covering the biochemistry, cell biology, epidemiology, pathology and pharmacology of each. Some school pages call this course Genes to Society, like the whole curriculum.

Horizontal Strands carry themes through all four years. The biological strands include genetics, pharmacology, nutrition, neoplasia and aging. Others cover ethics, professionalism and health inequities, including how social and economic forces shape who gets sick, and health systems science, from health policy and informatics to patient safety.

Most lectures are prerecorded e-lectures you watch online when it suits you, and the school aims to keep lectures under 40% of required course time. Required sessions are mainly small groups working through case-based question sets, plus labs, virtual microscopy (studying digital slides on a computer), team-based learning, journal clubs and student-led workshops.

Attendance is taken seriously. Under the non-clerkship policy in force from August 2026, you must attend at least 90% of required sessions each academic year. Planning to miss a session with patients, in the Simulation Center or in a TIME course means asking a dean first. Clinical courses, including Clinical Foundations of Medicine, the weekly clinic and clerkships, allow no free personal days.

In the fall of Year 1, science classes usually run on weekday mornings from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to the Scientific Foundations of Medicine page. Afternoons bring your three-hour Clinical Foundations of Medicine group on a Monday or Wednesday, and Foundations in Public Health on Tuesdays from 2 to 4 p.m. for ten weeks. Many Thursday afternoons hold individual clinical skills tasks of about an hour.

From January, the clinic course adds one afternoon a week; once a month that slot becomes small-group and simulated-patient sessions on campus. Before your first clerkship, the school's workload policy aims for no more than 35 hours of scheduled academic work a week, averaged over two weeks, counting required e-lectures.

On clerkships, required activities are capped at 80 hours a week averaged over two weeks, with at least one day off in seven averaged over four weeks, and weekend shifts can be scheduled. On sub-internships, where you act as an intern (a first-year resident), and on other advanced rotations, overnight hospital call comes no more than every third night on average. After 24 hours of call you get at least 14 hours off.

Anatomy comes first. Foundations of Human Anatomy runs for seven weeks at the start of Year 1, alongside Clinical Foundations of Medicine, so you learn the body's structure while you begin examining patients. In the 2025-26 calendar it ran from August 21 to October 8.

The course takes a regional approach in three parts: thorax, abdomen and pelvis; back and limbs; and head and neck. For each region you have lectures on gross anatomy, with embryology where relevant, dissect that region of the human body, and take part in clinical correlations, team-based learning and small-group work. In 2025-26 each part ended with its own exam. Histology and pathology, the study of tissue and disease under the microscope, are taught in the fall through virtual microscopy.

Clinical Foundations of Medicine runs through the fall of Year 1 (late August to late November in 2025-26). In a group of five students with your College advisor, you learn to take a history, examine a patient and present your findings. You practice through role play and with standardized patients, then interview Johns Hopkins volunteer outpatients and inpatients, and your advisor reviews a video of your interview with you.

From January of Year 1, the Longitudinal Ambulatory Clerkship (LAC) gives you a home clinic, an outpatient or community practice where a physician preceptor supervises you for a half-day each week. The course pages put the session at three or four hours. In 2025-26 it ran from January to mid-June in Year 1 and from August to late November in Year 2.

There you use your new skills with real patients, follow some of them over time and see how social, behavioral and health-system issues affect their care. You keep a learning contract and a portfolio of patient logs, case write-ups and reflections.

Under the grading policy in force since December 2025, all pre-clerkship courses are pass/fail, as are the weekly clinic course, Transition to the Wards, the core clerkships, the two advanced clerkships and TRIPLE. Professionalism is part of every grade, and strong exam results cannot make up for falling short on it.

To pass a pre-clerkship course or exam you need the lower of 70% or 1.5 standard deviations below the class mean. Fail an end-of-course exam and you get an Incomplete and a closed-book retake at least a week later, needing 70%. A second failure brings a learning plan, possible tutoring and written short answers before a third attempt; failing that refers you to the Promotions Committee.

Core clerkship grades include at least a standardized clinical performance evaluation and a written knowledge exam. Where available, the written exam is a National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) clinical subject exam, the national end-of-rotation shelf exam, and you must score above the 5th percentile; internal exams need 60%. Some clerkships also use a standardized-patient exam. You get two more tries at a failed knowledge or standardized-patient exam within six months; a third failure means repeating the clerkship. Every required clerkship gives you formal feedback by its midpoint. Sub-internships, clinical electives and research electives are graded Honors, High Pass, Pass or Fail.

The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards and the NBME, has three steps. Step 1 covers the science behind medicine and has been reported only as pass or fail since January 2022. Step 2 CK tests clinical medicine, and Step 3 follows graduation. Hopkins requires you to pass Step 1 by graduation and sit Step 2 CK by March 31 of your final year.

In August 2026 the USMLE program announced a move to designated testing dates from January 2029, with Step exams offered less often each year. On the current schedule, students entering in 2027 would sit Step 1 and Step 2 CK under that model, so the school's timing rules may change.

For each step you can register for up to one quarter, nine weeks, of independent study; studying longer means a leave of absence. Your record is reviewed monthly. Failing two pre-clerkship exams or one shelf exam brings a Formal Notice, while failing a course, two shelf exams or a USMLE step brings Formal Monitored Academic Status, with closer support from your advisor.

Your clinical years are spent mainly at Johns Hopkins hospitals and affiliated hospitals and clinics in the Baltimore-Washington area. Internal medicine, for example, splits its eight weeks between The Johns Hopkins Hospital and either Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center or Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. Pediatrics includes a required rotation at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a hospital for children with developmental disabilities and rehabilitation needs.

Within clerkships you rotate across services. Surgery pairs four weeks of general surgery with four on two subspecialties you choose, such as transplant surgery or neurosurgery. Gynecology and obstetrics adds two two-week selectives, such as gynecologic oncology, to inpatient obstetrics and gynecology.

The Registrar allocates clerkship places through an online system. You state preferences, including when to take Step 1, vacation plans and circumstances such as military, medical or religious needs, and a lottery decides when a clerkship is oversubscribed. Because every place must be filled each quarter, you may be given a clerkship in a period you did not choose.

Once assignments are out, you can use any block without a required course for electives or vacation. Departments then collect site preferences, without weighing career plans, and place you at random if you miss the deadline. You arrange and pay for your own transport.

Pediatrics also has a site in Florida. Usually four pediatrics students each half quarter (two inpatient, two outpatient) spend four weeks at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, with round-trip airfare, local travel, a room and some meals provided. A lottery is used if more than eight students ask. If fewer ask, places are filled at random, but a compassionate-consideration process lets you explain why you need to stay near Baltimore.

Electives open in Quarter 3 of Year 2 and generally last four weeks. Every department offers them, from laboratory research to advanced clinical work, and the Registrar's Electives Book lists what is available.

Students who started in fall 2024 or later, which includes the class entering in 2027, need 34 elective weeks (1,326 hours) to graduate. At least 26 weeks must be with School of Medicine faculty and at least 10 must be clinical. Electives should not be scheduled over university holidays or breaks unless a dean approves an exception. Study time for Step exams does not count.

Electives at other medical schools, usually called away rotations, need approval from the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, and the catalogue allows one elective quarter at a non-affiliated institution. Electives abroad need extra steps before departure, including an ethics case series on global health, a travel safety course and a health assessment. The university provides HX Global travel assistance at no charge.

The Global Health Leadership Program offers two electives of at least three to four weeks. GHLP-International sends you to a partner site, currently in India, Nepal or Peru, for clinical work and a scholarly project. GHLP-Migrant Health and Human Rights involves forensic evaluations of asylum seekers and work with Centro SOL at Johns Hopkins Bayview, with an optional six- to eight-week version that adds a Tahirih Justice Center internship.

You can also apply to two tracks that run alongside the curriculum. The Primary Care Leadership Track takes 10 first-year students a year, who do a primary care scholarly project and their weekly clinic at track sites. They return to those sites for a half-day a month, with at least two sessions required every six months, through December of Year 4. The Global Health Leadership Track runs from November of Year 1 to March of Year 4, with workshops, a global health version of the weekly clinic, field experience and a capstone.

Every MD student completes a scholarly project through the Scholarly Concentrations course: 55.5 scheduled hours over about 18 months. After a fall orientation in Year 1, you choose a concentration at the end of November. You then meet your concentration faculty in three-afternoon modules during TIME weeks, four in Year 1 and two in Year 2. Students in the MD-PhD program, the Medical Scientist Training Program, are exempt.

The five concentrations are Preclinical and Translational Research; Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes Research; History of Medicine; Humanism, Ethics and the Art of Medicine (HEART); and Public Health Research. You submit a proposal, a summer progress report, an abstract and a poster or talk, and statisticians from the Biostatistics Consulting Center can help with analysis.

Many students go further. The research office says 86% of students take research electives beyond the scholarly project, and the school says nearly 100 students a summer do research with Hopkins grants. You can also step out for 9 to 12 months on Advanced Studies Program Status; the Dean's Year of Research funds a 12-month project, its stipend split between the Dean's Office and your department.

The MD-PhD program admits about 12 students a year, and all eligible admitted students are funded, with a stipend and health and dental insurance. The catalogue gives about eight years for both degrees; the School of Medicine's combined-degree page says six to eight. Most students do two years of medical school, the PhD, then the last two years; some take three medical years first, or start with the PhD.

The MD/MBA with the Carey Business School takes five years. You complete 36 MBA credits at Carey's Harbor East location between Years 2 and 3 or Years 3 and 4, and Carey counts 18 MD credits toward its 54-credit degree. You can apply with your MD application or as a current student. The MD/MS in Health Care Management, also with Carey, uses the same two windows, with applications due by June 1 of Year 2 or 3.

The school also lists dual-degree options in health sciences informatics, health innovation and technology, education in the health professions, history of medicine, bioethics and public health. Time out for a degree such as a Master of Public Health at the Bloomberg School is taken as a leave of absence.

Most teaching happens in the Armstrong Medical Education Building, which also serves as study space after hours. It has two 170-seat lecture halls that combine into one, small-group rooms for up to 15, 25 or 40 people, and five teaching labs for virtual microscopy. There is also an 80-seat case study room and a flat-floor Learning Studio for team-based learning, and each college has a suite on the second floor.

The Johns Hopkins Medicine Simulation Center, a partnership between the School of Medicine and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, is accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. It uses standardized patients and teaching associates, human patient simulators, virtual reality, task trainers and computer-based simulation. You use it for clinic exams, Transition to the Wards and several PRECEDE sessions.

The Colleges Advisory Program, founded in 2005, is the center of student support. Each of its four colleges takes 30 students from every class and has six core faculty. Within your college you belong to an advisory molecule of five students with one advisor, who teaches your Clinical Foundations of Medicine group and stays with you through graduation.

Your advisor covers personal, academic, career and residency advising, from study plans and Step scheduling to electives, research mentors and your residency application. Small-group Dialogues on Professional Growth run in every year during TIME and Translational Science weeks. Each college is paired with one of four deans in the Office of Medical Student Affairs and runs its own peer advising.

A learning specialist helps students in all four years with study plans, test-taking, time management and resources for Step and shelf exams, and can connect you with peer tutoring. If you fail a pre-clerkship exam, your College advisor is told and you are referred to the learning specialist.

Student Health and Well-Being provides primary care and mental health services on every Hopkins campus. Through TimelyCare you can reach a provider on demand at any hour or book ongoing video counseling, and a behavioral health crisis team answers a phone line around the clock.