Medical Schools in West Virginia: How to Get In (2024)
/Unlock your path to success at medical schools in West Virginia with average GPA and MCAT scores, detailed school profiles, and expert tips to boost your chances of acceptance.
learn everything you need to know to get into medical schools in west virginia
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: List of medical schools in West Virginia: 2024 rankings & admissions statistics
Part 3: West Virginia medical school profiles
Part 4: West Virginia medical school admissions strategies
Appendix A: West Virginia medical schools by degree type
Appendix B: West Virginia medical schools by institution type
Appendix C: West Virginia medical schools by region
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Part 1: Introduction
As the only state situated entirely within the Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia’s unique location has played an enormous role in its history.
Its state motto reads, “Montani Semper Liberi," or "Mountaineers Are Always Free," and this has remained true since seceding from Virginia during the Civil War. You might know West Virginia as the heart of America’s coal industry, and while this is true it also speaks to a largely rural state with residents living in small, close-knit mountain communities.
If you’ve got a bit of the mountaineer spirit coursing through your veins but also dream of keeping those miners healthy and disease-free, you might want to consider attending one of the three medical schools in the Mountain State.
The medical schools in West Virginia give students the option of pursuing either an MD or DO, and in line with their state’s requirements, they’re all focused on assisting rural and underserved communities. If you’ve got a special place in your heart for small-town underserved in America, West Virginia could certainly use your white coat talents.
In this guide, we’ll dig into what it takes to gain admission to medical schools in West Virginia; discuss GPA and MCAT scores; and examine their overall missions and profiles, in addition to strategies for making a positive impression with adcoms through your extracurriculars and essays so you can decide if a medical school in West Virginia is the right choice for achieving your dream of becoming a physician.
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Part 2: List of medical schools in West Virginia: 2024 rankings & admissions statistics
The three medical schools in West Virginia have their unique characteristics, but all have one important thing in common—the serving of the residents of West Virginia.
Each school has this primary goal in mind, which is critical in a largely rural state with a small population. With many of its residents working in manual labor jobs, access to care is even more important.
The medical schools in West Virginia are strategically located throughout the state in order to support local communities, but this is also something you should bear in mind if you’re considering one of these institutions for your medical education. Each town will have its own flavor and community culture.
But to really determine your chances of getting into a medical school in West Virginia, you need to start by seeing how your stats match up. To help you with this, we’ve compiled the most recent stats for each school in the table below. While we were researching the medical schools in West Virginia, we noticed a few points that we found interesting.
All of the medical schools in West Virginia are public.
It appears to be significantly cheaper to attend these schools as a state resident, and as each school has a mission to serve West Virginia specifically, it may help with your admissions odds, too.
Overall, the average GPAs of entering classes at medical schools in West Virginia are on par with other schools across the country. However, they seem to accept lower MCAT scores than schools with cohorts that have similar GPAs.
(Note: We strongly advise you to sign up for MSAR for the most up-to-date and comprehensive data on individual MD programs and to sign up for Choose DO for DO program data.)
| West Virginia Medical Schools | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine* | UR (Primary Care) (2024) |
$59,150 OOS |
3.74 (science) |
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| West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine* | UR (Primary Care) (2024) |
$95,913 OOS |
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| West Virginia University School of Medicine* | Tier 3 (Primary Care) (2024) |
$52,035 OOS |
*Public medical schools in West Virginia | UR: Unranked | IS: In-state | OOS: Out-of-state | N/A: Not available
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Part 3: West Virginia medical school profiles
Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
The Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine prides itself on specializing in rural health issues. They note that most of their students come from rural areas of West Virginia and that they train them in rural clinical settings. If caring for rural populations is your medical school goal, you should seriously consider Marshall.
Marshall University also offers a BS/MD program and an Early Assurance program, so if you’re certain this is the path you want to pursue, they could be worth considering since both options allow you to skip the MCAT.
The curriculum at Marshall University is segmented into two phases: preclerkship and clerkship. The first two years will have you mastering the foundational knowledge of medicine before spending the following two years on rotations. You’ll have eight weeks each engaged in particular specialties like internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics, and in the second half of Phase II, you’ll begin to specialize your path as you spend 36 weeks on ‘career exploration,’ a combination of research, electives, and rotations.
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM) is your option for obtaining a DO in the Mountain State. If you’re interested in osteopathic manipulative medicine and wish to serve the residents of West Virginia, here is where you can master whole-patient holistic treatments.
Earning a DO at WVSOM starts with the ‘Patient Presentation Curriculum (PPC), which teaches medicine using the ways that patients present themselves as a framework. Your learning includes large group activities, labs, and team-based learning, as well as human patient simulators in the WVSOM Clinical Evaluation Center (CEC).
During your second two years, you’ll be assigned to a base hospital in one of six regions throughout the state. You’ll complete clinical rotations of eight weeks each in specialties like family medicine and general surgery. Once you get to the fourth year, you’ll complete additional eight-week rotations, plus four weeks of pediatrics and 10 weeks of electives.
West Virginia University School of Medicine
The West Virginia University School of Medicine is an institution deeply committed to the service of the citizens of West Virginia. As the state’s land-grant university, it has an obligation to the state and it operates three campuses to provide healthcare access to residents in all corners of West Virginia.
Upon acceptance to WVU SOM, you’ll be assigned to either the Morgantown, Charleston, or Eastern campus, where you’ll spend your first two years in the program. Each campus has its own opportunities for clinical rotations and partner hospitals.
The first year includes a fall, spring, and summer term, during which you’ll undergo a combined 45 weeks of instruction in foundational sciences, biochemistry, and organ systems. During the second year, you’ll continue building upon your foundation but also engage in self-directed learning and develop core clinical skills that will serve you throughout your career.
The clerkship phase begins in the summer after your second year, and you’ll join in rotations throughout specialties like internal medicine and surgery. While these rotations are required, you can complete them in any order. Your fourth and final year is a mixture of 12 weeks of required rotations and 20 weeks of electives which are all completed at various locations throughout the state.
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Part 4: West Virginia medical school admissions strategies
Strategy 1: Align your application with the core values of medical schools in West Virginia
Med school admissions committees throughout the nation receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications every year, and medical schools in West Virginia are no different. Your competition for a spot in their program will likely have GPA and MCAT scores as impressive as your own. They may even have similar extracurricular activities and be just as passionate about a career in medicine.
All of these factors are important for your applications, but recognizing and highlighting each school’s unique characteristics is what will set your application apart. What programs or opportunities do they offer that are distinct from other institutions? What personal experiences have led you not only to pursue a career in medicine but also to conclude that a particular West Virginia school is the right fit for you?
Your personal statement and secondary essays should showcase your alignment with the core values of medical schools in West Virginia. For instance, the West Virginia University School of Medicine (WVU SOM) is dedicated to training skilled and compassionate physicians, particularly those focused on serving the healthcare needs of West Virginia's diverse and underserved populations.
Consider your own experiences and identify anecdotes that align with this idea. Can you effectively answer the question, “Why West Virginia?” in your application? Be sure to detail your connections to the state and express your commitment to serving its communities. This theme should resonate throughout your application process, including during interviews.
Strategy 2: Sharpen your interview techniques with practice
A medical school interview is a unique process that differs significantly from typical job or volunteer interviews. If you’ve made it this far, admissions committees are keen to see if your application materials match up with who you are in person.
Are you personable? Are you easy to work with? How committed are you to medicine, really? Most importantly, your interviewers will be trying to determine how dedicated you are to their school and their mission.
To set yourself up for success, start by understanding the interview formats utilized by the medical schools in West Virginia. For instance, West Virginia University School of Medicine typically conducts virtual interviews featuring a structured format that lasts around twenty-five minutes, during which candidates interact with two members of the admissions committee. In contrast, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine may opt for a more traditional on-campus interview, probing deeper into your motivations with questions like, “Why do you want to attend WV SOM?” or “What specifically interests you about our program?”
Regardless of the format you encounter, even if it’s a multiple mini interview (MMI), it’s important to think through your answers beforehand. This will help you come off as confident and positive their school is right for you, leaving a great impression with adcoms.
You don’t want to memorize your answers as you might risk sounding robotic, but you also want to avoid any pauses that could be construed as uncertainty in your decision to attend medical school.
As you prepare, ensure that your responses convey not only your qualifications but also your dedication to making a meaningful impact in West Virginia's healthcare landscape. By doing so, you’ll demonstrate that you are not just a candidate but a potential asset to their community.
Suggested reading: (How to Ace Medical School Interviews (Questions Included))
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Gain instant access to the most common traditional and MMI interview questions, plus sample responses for each, to help you craft responses that lead to acceptances. Subscribe today to lock in the current investments, which will be increasing in the future for new subscribers.
Strategy 3: Strategically allocate time for writing secondary essays
You’ve written multiple drafts of your personal statement, editing and revising sometimes late into the night. Once you were finally happy with the result, you fired off your applications. Only now, instead of getting the relief you were hoping for, you just get requests for more essays!
At this stage in the application process, you’re likely juggling extracurriculars and volunteering commitments, studying for final exams, and even writing papers for other classes. The last thing you need are more essays to write, but unfortunately, you’ll just have to get them done.
With so much on your plate, it’s vital that you plan your writing and editing time strategically. Whereas when you wrote your personal statement, you had just one essay to think through, now you’ll have multiple secondary essay prompts to answer for each school you’ve applied to. The length of these essays can vary from as few as 10 words up to 1,000 or more. What’s more, you may have 20 essays of 100 words each for one school but only one 500-word essay at another.
As you can see, having a plan of action can help tremendously in finding ways to tackle your secondary essays effectively without skimping on the quality of your work.
Each medical school in West Virginia has its own set of secondary essay requirements, with varying lengths and numbers of essays. To aid in your preparation, here’s a quick overview of the number of secondary essay prompts for West Virginia medical schools:
| West Virginia Medical Schools | |
|---|---|
| Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine | |
| West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine | |
| West Virginia University School of Medicine |
Approach this task in a way that aligns with your individual working style. You might prefer to write longer essays first or start with those that have shorter word counts. Regardless of how you choose to proceed, having a clear plan is essential for success.
Suggested reading: (Medical School Secondary Essays: The Complete Guide 2024 (Examples Included))
Looking for medical school secondary essay examples? We have a sample essay in response to every prompt required by every medical school in the US and Canada. You can subscribe below.
Gain instant access to med school secondary essay examples for every single prompt required by every medical school in the United States and Canada. Subscribe today to lock in the current investments, which will be increasing in the future for new subscribers.
Final thoughts
Securing admission to medical schools in West Virginia involves strategic preparation and focused applications that highlight your dedication to tackling healthcare disparities in the Mountain State.
Demonstrating your commitment to addressing the needs of rural and underserved populations will endear you to adcoms at West Virginia med schools and underscore your ability to make a difference both on their campuses and within their communities.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
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Appendix A: West Virginia medical schools by degree type
Allopathic medical schools in West Virginia (MD)
Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
West Virginia University School of Medicine
Osteopathic medical schools in West Virginia (DO)
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
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Appendix B: West Virginia medical schools by institution type
Public medical schools in West Virginia
Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
West Virginia University School of Medicine
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Private medical schools in West Virginia
There are no private medical schools in West Virginia.
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Appendix C: West Virginia medical schools by region
Medical Schools in the Mountain and Lakes Country region
West Virginia University School of Medicine
Medical Schools in the Metro Valley region
Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Medical Schools in the New River and Greenbier Valleys region
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
