Your high school transcript means absolutely nothing in the medical school admissions process. They don’t look at it or consider it. Throw it away

Honestly, your college name means almost nothing as well. Don’t believe the hype about how a 3.5 at an IvyLeague is weighed the same as a 4.0 at a public school. That’s b.s.

To get into Hopkins, it comes down to three things

1. GPA

2. MCAT

3. Research

You don’t have to major in biology or chem ( I majored in English). In fact, if I could do it over again, I would major in Sociology or Communications and just do the Pre-Med prerequisite classes which 2 semesters of Gen Bio, Gen Chem, Organic Chem w/Lab, Physics with Lab and 1 Calculus. That will keep your GPA up.

Schools only care about numbers and not how you got them or where you got them. A lot of med students have great GPA’s 3.7 and higher. What will set you apart is your MCAT score and your research. Try to get a paper published in research and shoot for an MCAT score higher than 36 to be competitive for Hopkins. Aim for a GPA for 3.7 or higher. The MCAT score is the most important so you need to rock that. To do well on the MCAT, make sure you have firm understanding of the basic sciences like Chemistry, Ochem and Physics. Biology is easy.

To get into a good college, you have to nail the SAT. Everyone has strong GPA’s but the SAT will set you apart. Just enroll in Kaplan and do the entire question bank. Hire a private tutor to improve in weak areas and devote yourself to that test. Trust me, high school is worth sacaficing. The “cool kids” in high school are usually dumb jocks or hot cheerleaders who are going to end up going to Public U and then getting married and making 50K for the rest of their lives after college. Trust me, you will look pretty damn cool when you are a doctor at 31 years old driving a Porsche and wearing Boss suits. Forget cheerleaders, you will get women a lot hotter than that….of course they will be gold diggers but who cares

Medical schools are divided into two 2 year programs. The first two years are called Basic Science and that is what it is: you learn the sciences you need to know to understand how the body works. The second two years are called Clinical Rotations and this is when you spend anywhere between 4 to 12 weeks being tutored by physicians in the main specialties of medicine. This gives you an overview of how to manage most conditions. Once you complete these four years (and pass the licensing exams) you get your MD and apply for a residency training program in a specialty that interests you. I use this example a lot because I know it so well: let’s say you wanted to learn Emergency Medicine. Now, Johns Hopkins does have a certified residency program in Emergency Medicine and you could learn what you need to know very well there and become Board Certified. But Johns Hopkins isn’t “known” for its Emergency Medicine program. The two best programs are UCLA and the University of Maryland, which is just across town from Johns Hopkins.

At each stage of your education and training you become indoctrinated into the medical community. Once you are in practice, nobody cares where you went to medical school. By that time, every body knows the truth. What they want to know is where did you do your residency because that denotes the caliber of your training and your skills. Here’s an explanation for that: Let’s use Johns Hopkins’ Emergency Medicine residency program as an example. It’s a three year program that accepts 25 applicants for the first year, has only 10 slots for the second year and then five slots for the final year. Let’s say we already know that you’re so good that you’ll make it all the way through to the third year. But in the second year, those 25 people in training are going to get pared down. It may be that only five of your first year peers remain and the program has accepted 5 new people who had completed the first year at different program. So, where did those other 20 people go? They had to scramble to be accepted at other Emergency Medicne programs, just like those 5 new people that came into yours. So, if you make it all the way through a residency program at one place, it says they thought very highly of you. But when you ask a doctor where he/she did their residency, they always just tell you where they finished versus how many programs they attended. Now you know some inside secrets 🙂

My standard advice is to do your undergrad at your state university and then apply to its medical school. They offer you the best opportunity and education.