Students gather outside the Idaho State University Health Sciences building at the Meridian campus. Idaho’s new for-profit medical school will be based on the campus. (Photo courtesy of Idaho State University)
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A proposed for-profit osteopathic medical school in Idaho can begin construction after receiving the necessary approval from a national accreditation agency.
Officials announced Thursday that the proposed Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine had received its pre-accreditation status. This allows the school plans to break ground May 17 and open its doors to students in fall 2018.
Earlier this year, school officials had said that if that if work did not get underway by the end of April, the opening would be pushed to 2019.
When it opens, the school aims to admit as many as 150 students in its first year, charging around $40,000 in annual tuition. Doctors of osteopathic medicine are licensed physicians who provide a range of services, such as prescribing drugs and performing surgery.
Critics have raised concerns that the region lacks enough residencies to accommodate all those would-be doctors when the first class graduates in 2022.
