The Journal Record 11/14/2012
ADA – East Central University students now have the opportunity to gain early admittance to the College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health and Sciences in Tulsa. The OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine seeks to admit students who desire to become primary care physicians in rural and underserved Oklahoma. The Rural and Underserved Primary Care Early Admissions Program allows ECU students to complete pre-doctoral medical training in seven years. Using a preset pre-medical curriculum for each course for the first three years at ECU and combined with the OSU-COM first-year curriculum as their fourth year, students will earn a bachelor of science degree from ECU. The students then progress through the second, third and fourth years of the rural and underserved medical track to graduate with a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree. During the admission period in 2011, ECU had a higher percentage of its students accepted into the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine than any of the other 14 universities whose students also applied. Nick Cheper, chairman of ECU’s Biology Department, said all seven of the ECU students who applied to the OSU medical school, part of the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Science in Tulsa, were selected for interviews. Six of the seven ECU students were accepted and five enrolled and are medical students this year in Tulsa. “The sixth student had two choices and decided to enroll at another medical school,” Cheper said. Out of the 265 applicants last year, OSU interviewed 147 prospective medical students and accepted 89. Of those, 74, including the five ECU students, went on to enroll.