California Baptist University (CBU) recently created a program with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), the nation’s largest medical school that’s headquartered in Erie, Penn. The program gives qualified CBU students early acceptance into LECOM’s medical, pharmacy or dental school.
“We have found that institutions with a religious affiliation often have mission statements and a philosophy that parallels LECOM’s commitment to professionalism, a strong work ethic and moral principles,” said John Wojtkielewicz, LECOM’s institutional director of undergraduate affiliations, in a statement. “These schools also have strong academic standards that generally lead to their students being successful in our programs. Therefore, we reached out to California Baptist.”
Once the program launches this fall, incoming freshman and sophomores can begin to apply. For incoming freshman who apply for provisional acceptance, high school grades are used in combination with ACT or SAT scores to create an academic index score (AIS).
To qualify for provisional acceptance, CBU students must have:
- A minimum ACT score of 26 or a SAT score of 1170
- A minimum un-weighted GPA of 3.5 or higher
- A minimum AIS score of 117
Students apply for the program online and maneuver through an interview process. After the student receives their provisional acceptance, he or she must maintain a semester GPA of 3.0 and graduate from CBU with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and a science GPA of 3.4.
As part of the program, LECOM has guaranteed CBU students five seats per year.