The Valley College of Osteopathic Medicine has received preliminary accreditation from COCA and is now accepting applications for its inaugural class that will start July 2026.
I see a lot of these posts for new schools.
Will it significantly improve odds for pre-meds, assuming they are willing to go DO?
Significantly? Not at all.
These 3 new schools add only about 300-400 seats to the 28,000 existing MD & DO seats.
There were over 55,000 US MD applicants in 2024 and over 34,000 US DO applicants in 2024.
There is a subset of students who apply to both, but assuming about 1/4 of MD applicants cross apply to DO schools….that means there are approximately 20,250 DO-only applicants.
So another 300-400 seats is a drop in the bucket (1.5% increase) for the over 75,000 applicants.
P.S. The reason why there are 3 announcements for new schools—COCA just released its semi-annual list of accredited programs that included the updated decisions of the COCA accreditation committee from its December 3rd meeting.
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Adding…it seems that more and more students are applying to medical schools these days. Maybe I’m wrong about that…but it seems that way.
Of course, with the change in federally funded loans, this could change…
Med school applications were down slightly in 2024-25 cycle. Data for the 2025-26 cycle has not yet been released.
Historically, med school applications tend to go up when the job market is weak.
It may only be 150 new seats (per year) but I believe all the new DO schools give preference to those from the state or region, so residents from those states may benefit more than the general med school pool.
Colorado is thrilled to have a second new medical school as the only one we had was CU and it is a tough admit. My daughter’s BIL is just finishing his residency after attending the DO school in Idaho (he was from Wyoming with ZERO med schools) in the first class (I think it was 2018 when it opened).
I think you mean a third med school. Rocky Vista College of Medicine in Parker, CO has been open since 2006.
Some DO schools show some instate preference.
Except for North Texas University COM, all DO schools are private. About 7 or 8 are for-profit, including one (RVU-COM) that’s owned by the same individual that owns two Caribbean medical schools.
NCU-COM will have a regional preference because the school receives some funding from the state of Colorado.
ICOM in Idaho is presently not only a private school, but a for-profit private school. (Although it’s widely rumored that the state of Idaho is exploring buying out the private equity owner’s interest in the school.)
Wyoming is part of WWAMI, which guarantees Wyoming residents get at least 20 seats at University of Washington. Additionally, Wyoming residents are eligible for WRGP which means that Wyoming residents may apply to certain other public med school in the WICHE service area and get admission preference and a pay a discounted tuition rate.
Idaho is guaranteed 20 seats under WWAMI and also participates in the WRGP program.
Washington State School of Medicine in Spokane accepts Wyoming and Idaho residents through WRGP. So does the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. (D1 had a med school classmate from Wyoming and another one from Alaska.) UNM-SOM and WSU_SOM generally do not accept OOS students.
BTW, WWAMI sends students from outside Washington back to their home states for the final 2 years of clinical rotations and strongly encourages them to consider applying for residencies in those states.
Idaho has 9 residency programs in Family Medicine, 2 in Internal Medicine, 1 in Pediatrics and 2 in Psychiatry.
Wyoming has 3 Family Medicine residency programs.
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I’m sure Colorado is delighted to have a third med school. When BCOM opened in Las Cruces, everyone in New Mexico was very excited, especially since as part of its commitment to the state (private equity owner received some state monies to help open to the school), BCOM committed to creating additional residency slots in underserved areas of southern NM.
I meant a second DO school, and I still consider Rocky Vista ‘new’ at lease compared to CU.
Many people don’t know it exists, but I met someone attending and have run into a few grads doing their residencies around Denver. Parker is still considered the boonies to some from metro Denver even though it is a pretty big bedroom community. Northern Colorado has gotten more publicity than Rocky Vista even though Greeley is an hour away. The person I met actually lived in Colorado Springs and drove up to Parker every day for class.