Is Johns Hopkins University a medical school? How long do I have to spend in a medical school to become a doctor?
Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University is a renowned research university that does offer an exceptional School of Medicine along with many other programs. They have a School of Engineering; a School of Business and Education; and the School of Arts & Sciences, which offers departments ranging from Anthropology and Earth & Planetary Sciences to English, Philosophy, and Art History, just to name a few.
You can find a full list of Johns Hopkins academic programs by visiting their Web site.
Becoming a medical doctor requires years of study and training. First, you'll need an undergraduate degree (which generally takes four years to complete) from a college or university. Then you'll enter medical school, which generally lasts another four years. To be accepted into medical school, you'll need excellent undergraduate grades, solid scores on the medical school entrance exams (MCAT), and personal and academic references.
After these eight years of education, you must obtain a license to practice medicine by passing another exam (Medical Boards), and most states require at least one more year of supervised training. Then, almost all doctors pursue further training in a three- to seven-year residency, where you'll be trained in your chosen specialty (family practice, pediatrics, surgery, ER medicine, etc.).
So, we're looking at no less than 8 and upwards of 16 years before establishing your own practice. Quite a commitment, isn't it? Don't be intimidated. We need the best, most highly trained, most ethical people serving as our doctors. Set your mind to it and you'll be wearing a stethoscope before you know it.
Believe it or not, doctors who want to become specialists even accept post-residency programs, called fellowships, which narrowly focus in on a specific area of medicine, such as gastroenterology (treatment of the digestive system), oncology (cancer treatment), or cardiology (focus on the heart and blood vessels). A fellowship can take one to four years to complete after residency.