On Sunday, May 19, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ) in Blacksburg, Virginia, will celebrate the graduation of its Class of 2024, consisting of 176 new physicians.
Like all physicians, ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ graduates complete four years of study, including two years of on-campus classroom and laboratory learning followed by two years of clinical rotations. The ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ Class of 2024 began their medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing masks during their years of on-campus learning and rarely seeing the full faces of their classmates.
Despite that, this year’s class is among ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia’s best, with a 100% match rate to residencies from primary care to surgery and psychiatry. In fact, more than 60% of ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia’s Class of 2024 will head to primary care residencies—which include family medicine, internal medicine, OB/GYN and pediatrics. The top five states for this year’s ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia graduates are Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio. Twelve graduates will complete residencies in the U.S. military.
Clearly, these excellent new physicians are committed to ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ’s mission of providing care to medically underserved communities throughout the Appalachian and Delta regions of the United States. In fact, since ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia welcomed its first students in 2003, there has been an increase of 213% in the number of osteopathic physicians in Virginia, and more than 60% of ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia graduates are practicing in medically underserved areas of the state—significantly more than any other medical school in Virginia.
Also of note, 29 members of the ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia Class of 2024 will graduate with research distinction, reinforcing the ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ mission of engaging in research that benefits human health.
In addition, more than 400 ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia alumni completed their undergraduate degrees at Virginia Tech. ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ is incredibly proud of its continued collaboration with its university neighbor, both in welcoming Hokies to the ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ family and in the research projects the two institutions do together.
With the graduation of the Class of 2024, ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ-Virginia will have nearly 3,100 alumni providing excellent care to thousands of patients across the United States and the globe.