Johns Hopkins Medical School to Go Tuition Free

Johns Hopkins University just became the latest medical school to announce plans to go tuition-free after a $1 Billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies. 

Starting in the fall, Johns Hopkins medical students from families that earn under $300,000 per year, which includes 95 percent of all Americans, will receive free tuition. Medical students from families earning under $175,000 annually will receive financial aid that covers living expenses in addition to tuition and fees. Approximately two-thirds of current and entering medical students will qualify and will receive their updated financial aid packages over the summer. 

"As the U.S. struggles to recover from a disturbing decline in life expectancy, our country faces a serious shortage of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals—and yet, the high cost of medical, nursing, and graduate school too often bars students from enrolling," said Michael Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P and 1964 graduate of Johns Hopkins. "By reducing the financial barriers to these essential fields, we can free more students to pursue careers they're passionate about—and enable them to serve more of the families and communities who need them the most."

The gift will also fund expanded financial aid for other graduate health programs, including students at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Nursing, as well as those pursuing graduate degrees at the Johns Hopkins schools of Education, Engineering, Business, Arts and Sciences, and Advanced International Studies, the Peabody Institute, and the School of Government and Policy. 

This donation to Johns Hopkins by Bloomberg Philanthropies expands upon a 2018 donation of $1.8 Billion to support undergraduate financial aid. 

Johns Hopkins Takes Top Spot in U.S. News’ Best Research Medical Schools Ranking Preview

In the U.S. News’ preview of its 2024 Best Medical Schools (Research), Johns Hopkins University overtook perennial leader, Harvard, for the top rank. The full rankings will be released April 18th.  

In addition to the noteworthy change at the top, significant movement occurred elsewhere within the top-ranked schools when compared to the 2023 rankings. 

• University of Michigan and Northwestern University entered the elite tier of medical schools, climbing to 9th and 12th, respectively, from a tie at 17th last year. 

• Three schools dropped out of the top 15: University of Washington (ranked 8th in 2023), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ranked 11th in 2023), and Vanderbilt University (ranked 13th in 2023). 

• NYU Grossman saw a sharp decline, although it still remained in the top 15, falling from 2nd in 2023 to 13th in 2024. 

• Washington University in St. Louis climbed seven spots from last year, moving from the 11th rank in 2023, to tie for 4th in 2024. 

Rank School

1 Johns Hopkins University, +2 from 2023

2 University of Pennsylvania (Perelman), +4

3 Harvard University, -2

4 University of California—San Francisco (tie), -1

4 Washington University in St. Louis (tie), +7

6 Columbia University, -3

7 Stanford University (tie), +1

7 Yale University (tie), +3

9 Duke University (tie), -3

9 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (tie), +8

11 University of Pittsburgh, +3

12 Northwestern University (Feinberg), +5

13 New York University (Grossman), -11

14 Cornell University (Weill) (tie), no change

14 Mayo Clinic School of Medicine (Alix) (tie), no change

U.S. News has also made changes to their ranking methodology, which includes the addition of a research quality metric, increased weight given to faculty-student ratios, and a reduced weight for reputation surveys, MCAT, and GPA scores.

Briefly addressing the departure of many medical schools from the rankings—including those at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Duke and University of Chicago—U.S. News explained that it ranked all schools using publicly available data from the National Institutes of Health, as well as data submitted through surveys in 2023 (or 2022 if 2023 was not available).