WVSOM doubles in-state enrollment

By Sara Crickenberger for RealWV,

LEWISBURG, W.Va. — During the 2022-2023 academic year, the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine enrolled 32 new West Virginia students in the first-year class and 169 out-of-state students. In-state students made up only 16 percent of that class.

By the time classes started in July this year, the school had increased the in-state number to 82 while the out-of-state number dropped to 139. This year in-state students make up 37 percent of the first-year class – a dramatic increase over three years. 

James W. Nemitz, Ph.D., president of West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, said that change was no accident. It is the result of both a Board of Governor’s mandate to school leadership to attract and enroll more in-state students and a concerted effort by school officials to develop pipeline programs to funnel West Virginia students into the school. 

The Board of Governors also created a tuition waiver program for in-state students during the 2023-2024 academic year. So far, 20 students have been awarded tuition waivers, according to WVSOM. Nemitz also credited the school’s ability to hold tuition costs steady for the last four years as another reason it is attractive to prospective students. 

“We’re going to bring in the largest number of in-state students in the history of the school,” Nemitz said. He credited the school’s three-prong approach to enrolling in-state students, with two efforts greatly increasing its success. 

“The reason why we have such a high percentage of in-state coming in is the pipeline programs, and the MSBS program,” Nemitz said. “We now have three streams of applicants. We have traditional applicants that go through the traditional approach, the pipeline programs with the different colleges around the state, and then our MSBS program.”

He said about 31 students in the Class of 2030 came through the traditional application route. The rest came through the two pipeline programs. 

Successful POMP college students are guaranteed admission to WVSOM

The oldest of the two programs is the Pre-Osteopathic Medicine Program (POMP), a partnership between WVSOM and 14 undergraduate institutions: Bethany College, Bluefield State University, Concord University, Davis & Elkins College, Fairmont State University, Frostburg (Md.) State University, Glenville State University, Shepherd University, University of Charleston, Waynesburg (Pa.) University, West Liberty University, West Virginia State University, West Virginia University of Technology, and West Virginia Wesleyan.  

According to the WVSOM website, students in POMP receive early, guaranteed acceptance to WVSOM if they have completed at least 30 college credit hours with 12 hours in the sciences, have a science GPA of 3.4 or higher, submit a letter recommendation from a science faculty member, and are a U.S. permanent resident or citizen. Students with a science GPA of 3.7 or higher are not required to take the Medical College Admission Test. 

Master of Science in the Biomedical Sciences program offers fast track to medical school

WVSOM enrolled the first class of 26 students in its new two-semester, nine-month MSBS program in 2024. The next year there were 47 students, Nemitz said. This year the program has enrolled 72 students. Twenty-six are in-state residents, and 46 are from out of state.

One benefit of the program is that students who successfully complete it and achieve an overall score of 85 percent or higher are guaranteed acceptance into the medical school after graduation and are not required to take the MCAT. They must provide a faculty letter of recommendation and otherwise meet the admissions requirements, according to the WVSOM website. 

Students who do not meet the 85 percent average are guaranteed an admission interview at WVSOM. They also must provide a faculty recommendation letter and meet admissions requirements. “Recommendations will be made on a case by case basis, after the interview,” the website says.

Nemitz said the first 21 students admitted through the MSBS program just finished their first year of medical school. 

“I asked, ‘how are the MSBS students doing in the DO program?’ They were all doing fine,” he said. 

WVSOM, which is located in Lewisburg, was founded as the private Greenbrier College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1972 by four osteopathic physicians, according to the school’s website. The location on the campus of the former Greenbrier Military School in Lewisburg, was chosen for its location in the center of the Appalachian region. 

In January 1976 the school was brought into the state higher education system and renamed the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. It is the largest and the only free-standing medical school in the state, with a current enrollment of more than 800 students.

Stay tuned for an in-depth story coming next week on the financial pressures medical students face in today’s student loan climate.