What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$0 to $37,774 a year, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $85,947 a year. Average need-based aid package: $68,992.Aid and debt
52.6%
receive need-based grants
$28,217
average debt at graduation
346
students got merit aid
about 5% of undergraduates
$30,315
average merit award
Getting In
Admit rates
6.1%
admitted overall
10.9%
admitted Early Decision
5.2%
admitted Regular Decision
Early Decision
Early Decision applicants were admitted at nearly 2x the Regular Decision rate, and Early Decision is binding: you commit to attend if admitted.
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Some of that gap reflects who applies early (recruited athletes, legacy applicants and highly committed students concentrate in that pool), so it isn't proof that applying early would raise any one student's own odds.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1530–1565 · 57% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 35–35 · 20% of the class submitted
100% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Class rank
- GPA
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Important
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Considered
- First-gen status
- Where you're from
- Not considered
- Legacy status
- In-state residency
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Johns Hopkins rates course rigor, your essay, and your recommendations as Very Important, and your activities as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. The essay is weighted like your GPA. Choose recommenders who can be specific about you, not just confirm your transcript. And depth and leadership in a few activities matter more than a long list.
Johns Hopkins doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Johns Hopkins just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Johns Hopkins essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
Class sizes aren't reported by this school.
9:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
78.6%
first-years from out of state
46%
live on campus
23%
of men in fraternities
15%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- Asian34%
- White19.9%
- Hispanic16.3%
- Black7.2%
- Multiracial5.9%
- Unknown / other2.1%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Johns Hopkins CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
85.4% of Johns Hopkins students graduate in 4 years.
85.4%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
93.4%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
97.83%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
92.7% finish in 6 years, against 93.4% of all students.
Pell Grant students finish at about the same rate as everyone else.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Baltimore.
The Homewood campus is a red-brick quadrangle set in green a few miles north of downtown Baltimore, with the medical campus and hospital across the city.
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Charles Village around it is where most upperclassmen live; the city is cheap, historic and uneven, and rewards students who engage with it.
The City
Major city
Baltimore, MD
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Rachel Carson
Wrote Silent Spring, which started the modern environmental movement and led to the ban on DDT. She took her master's in zoology here in 1932.
Class of 1932
Michael Bloomberg
Founded Bloomberg LP and served three terms as mayor of New York. He graduated here in engineering in 1964 and has since become the university's largest benefactor.
Class of 1964
Woodrow Wilson
President of the United States and winner of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. He took the first political science doctorate awarded here, in 1886.
Class of 1886
Peter Agre
Shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering aquaporins, the channels that move water through cell membranes. He earned his medical degree here in 1974 and returned to teach.
Class of 1974
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Spring Fair
A student-run festival that takes over the campus each April and draws the surrounding neighbourhoods in — one of the largest of its kind run entirely by undergraduates.
Lacrosse
The one sport where Hopkins competes at the top national level, with a rivalry against Maryland that predates most of the modern game.
Research from year one
Undergraduates working in laboratories early is the norm rather than a distinction here, which is what the first American research university was founded to do.
The Blue Jay
The mascot, and the name students use for themselves as readily as the university's own.
Weekend escapes from Baltimore
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Baltimore
Washington DC
About an hour by trainReachable without a car from Penn Station, for museums, internships and politics.
The Inner Harbor and Fell's Point
About 15 minutesThe waterfront, the aquarium and the older cobbled quarter beyond it.
Annapolis and the Chesapeake
About 45 minutesSailing water and a colonial waterfront, the standard warm-weather trip.
Shenandoah National Park
About 2 hours 30 minutesBlue Ridge hiking and Skyline Drive when the leaves turn.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Baltimore/Washington International (BWI)
About 25 minutes from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Baltimore Ravens NFL
- Baltimore Orioles MLB
- Washington Capitals NHL
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
The university's own hospital and applied physics laboratory are two of Maryland's largest employers, and Washington is an hour away by train.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Johns Hopkins Hospital
- Applied Physics Laboratory
- Northrop Grumman
- T. Rowe Price
- MedStar Health
Baltimore, with Washington DC about an hour south by train
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Johns Hopkins admits 6.1%, and 10.9% under early decision, so applying early nearly doubles the rate for a family prepared to commit. Test scores are required for the Homewood schools — arts and sciences and engineering, which is where essentially every undergraduate applicant is headed — and the middle half of enrolled first-years scored 1530 to 1565. The financial answer is among the strongest in this catalog: 100% of demonstrated need is met, 52.6% of undergraduates receive need-based aid, the average package is $68,992 and graduates who borrow leave owing about $28,217. Outcomes match, with 97.8% returning for a second year, 85.4% graduating in four and 93.4% within six. Two honest gaps: the university did not report its class-size distribution at all this year, so the usual measure of how many sections run under 20 is simply unavailable here, and 46.0% live in university housing, which means most upperclassmen are renting in Charles Village rather than living on campus. 13.3% of undergraduates are international. The research culture is the reason to come — this was the first American university built around it — and it reaches undergraduates early, which is why so many arrive intending medicine and stay for the laboratory.