Medical Schools in Virginia

Virginia is home to 168 colleges and universities, but you'll find only four medical schools where you can earn a Doctor of Medicine degree. Three are affiliated to public universities while one has no university connection. Here you'll find information about each of the schools.

of 04

Eastern Virginia Medical School

Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
Sichensliu / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

The Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) location in Norfolk, Virginia provides medical students with numerous opportunities for clinical practice. Located in the Eastern Virginia Medical Center, the campus includes the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, the only Level One trauma center in the state. The campus is also home to the state's only stand alone hospital for kids, Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. Other facilities include the Sentara Heart Hospital, Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, and Edward E. Brickell Medical Sciences Library. Students also have clinical research opportunities at the Jones Institute, Leroy T. Canoles Jr. Cancer Research Center, and the Strelitz Diabetes Center.

Students can complement their MD degrees with a Master of Public Health degree in collaboration with Old Dominion University or an MBA with The College of William and Mary. EVMS has a community-centered focus and has a preference for students from Virginia. Community service is an important part of the school's medical training. Initiatives include Hopes, the free student-run clinic, and Medical Spanish, a program in which students work with Spanish-speaking physicians and neighborhoods to help overcome language barriers in the medical profession.

Admission to EVMS is selective, and students who enroll have a mean GPA of 3.50 and a mean MCAT score of 511. The school enrolls approximately 150 students each year.

of 04

University of Virginia School of Medicine

Old University of Virginia Medical School Building.
Bill McChesney / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

The University of Virginia School of Medicine ranks well in U.S. News & World Report for research and primary care. The school takes pride in its "Next Generation" Cells to Society curriculum that integrates classroom and clinical learning experiences throughout the four-year MD program. Students will have ample experiential learning opportunities through laboratory work, independent study, hospital and community-based clinical work, and problem-based learning experiences.

The University of Virginia School of Medicine is located in Charlottesville, Virginia, on the southeast corner of the main UVA campus. The university's active-learning curriculum is supported by the state-of-the-art Claude Moore Medical Education Building that first opened its doors in 2010. University Hospital, the UVA Cancer Center, and UVA Pediatrics are all on the university's medical campus.

The UVA School of Medicine is highly selective. For the class of 2023, the school had 4,790 applicants from which 581 were interviewed. From those, roughly 300 offers of admissions were extended in order to have a class of 156 students. The entering class had a mean GPA of 3.84 and a mean MCAT score of 518.

of 04

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

VCU Gateway Building and Main Hospital.
Taber Andrew Bain / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

Located in Richmond, the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine divides its curriculum into four phases: The Scientific Foundations of Medicine, Applied Medical Sciences, Core Clinical Concentrations, and Advanced Clinical Concentrations. The school has a 2.1 to 1 faculty-student ratio, and faculty members represent over 200 medical specialties. The school has 18 clinical departments including anesthesiology, neurosurgery, radiation oncology, and dermatology.

Students at VCU begin hands-on learning as early as their first month of medical school. During the first 18 months of the program, students take a course called Practice of Clinical Medicine (PCM). Through small groups of about 10, students learn medical interviewing, physical diagnosis, professionalism, and clinical reasoning skills. Each group is led by a physician or fourth-year medical student.

The School of Medicine has a rich history dating to 1838. It existed as the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) before merging with the Richmond Professional Institute in 1968 to form VCU. Admission is selective, and from over 8,000 applicants, the school matriculates slightly fewer than 200 MD students each year.

of 04

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

If you haven't heard of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, it may be because it didn't exist until recently; the first class graduated in 2014. The school did not become an official college of Virginia Tech until 2018. Located in Blacksburg, the school of medicine is a partnership between Virginia Tech and the Carilion Clinic with its 750 physicians representing 60 areas of medical specialization.

At the heart of the school's curriculum are four "value domains": basic science, clinical science, research, and interprofessionalism. By the end of year four, all students will have conducted over 1,200 hours of research, given several oral presentations, and presented a poster at the VTCSOM Student Research Symposium. Students begin interacting with real patients in their first week of school, and in the second year, all students complete numerous simulation and shadowing experiences.

Like most fully accredited medical schools, VTCSOM has selective admissions. For the class of 2021, 4,403 students applied, 307 were interviewed, and 42 students matriculated. The mean MCAT score for enrolled students was a 512.