With more than 2,200 students across three campuses, Erie, Pa.-based Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine provides a low-cost alternative to the traditional, four-year medical school education.
Here are five things to know about LECOM.
1. Since opening in 1992, the college graduated roughly 6,000 Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine and 10,000 physicians, pharmacists and dentists across its various schools. The osteopathic medical school's incoming 2021 graduating class has an average GPA of 3.52 and an average MCAT score of 502.
2. LECOM officials recognize students' numerous learning styles and crafted five innovative learning pathways to ensure all students receive information in a way that's most digestible to them, a spokesperson for the school told Becker's Hospital Review. The various learning techniques include a small-group, problem-based learning pathway, a self-directed study pathway and the traditional lecture-discussion learning model, among others.
3. The institution ranked among the top 10 least expensive private medical schools by U.S. News & World Report for 2016-17. While the college keeps tuition affordable for all students, two three-year medical degree programs add an extra year of savings, a spokesperson for the institution said. The school's primary care scholars pathway program is designed to attract more students to primary care, general internal and family medicine by condensing the traditional four-year program to three years, thereby decreasing tuition costs.
4. Using data from its Best Medical Schools 2018 rankings, U.S. News ranked LECOM among the top 30 public and private medical schools in the nation where students graduate with the least amount of debt. The average LECOM medical school graduate in 2015 incurred approximately $194,609 in debt, according to the ranking.
5. LECOM also partners with more than 100 undergraduate institutions nationwide as part of its early acceptance program. Eligible candidates for the program are interviewed by LECOM staff prior to their first year of undergraduate school and are offered admission to the medical school upon successful completion of their undergraduate degree.