On Sunday, May 19, the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) in Blacksburg, Virginia, will celebrate the graduation of its Class of 2024, consisting of 176 new physicians.
Like all physicians, VCOM graduates complete four years of study, including two years of on-campus classroom and laboratory learning followed by two years of clinical rotations. The VCOM 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 VCOM-Virginia’s best, with a 100% match rate to residencies from primary care to surgery and psychiatry. In fact, more than 60% of VCOM-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 VCOM-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 VCOM’s mission of providing care to medically underserved communities throughout the Appalachian and Delta regions of the United States. In fact, since VCOM-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 VCOM-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 VCOM-Virginia Class of 2024 will graduate with research distinction, reinforcing the VCOM mission of engaging in research that benefits human health.
In addition, more than 400 VCOM-Virginia alumni completed their undergraduate degrees at Virginia Tech. VCOM is incredibly proud of its continued collaboration with its university neighbor, both in welcoming Hokies to the VCOM family and in the research projects the two institutions do together.
With the graduation of the Class of 2024, VCOM-Virginia will have nearly 3,100 alumni providing excellent care to thousands of patients across the United States and the globe.