Frequently Asked Questions about

MSUCOM’s Expansion to Southeast Michigan

Q: Won’t MSUCOM’s expansion to the Detroit Medical Center negatively impact Wayne State University School of Medicine?

A: Very few of the MSUCOM first- and second-year students in southeast Michigan will end up in DMC hospitals, and Wayne State faculty will not have our students in their classrooms and rounds.  Suffice it say, these students will be distributed among MSUCOM’s base hospitals (there are currently 20) when they reach their third year, and they will be taught by MSUCOM clinical faculty – currently nearly 2,000 strong.

Q: Won’t expanding the class mean that MSUCOM will have to accept students of lower quality?

A: We are not lowering our standards to attract more students. At present, every year we turn away several hundred applicants who are not only qualified, but highly qualified, to be successful physicians.  In fact, the grade point averages and MCATs of our entering classes have risen since we first began expansion to 205 in East Lansing with the Class of 2009.

Q: How can MSUCOM expand without depleting resources from the East Lansing campus?

A: Expansion to southeast Michigan will not draw faculty, students, or resources away from our programs in East Lansing. It is our firm belief that the best way to ensure the quality of our program on campus is to expand, generating additional income to decrease our reliance on state funding, which is tenuous at best.

Q: Wouldn’t educating our students in a traditionally allopathic setting weaken their commitment to osteopathic medicine?

A: As always, we will continue to value, protect and enhance our osteopathic identity.  An expanded presence of MSUCOM in southeastern Michigan will not weaken our college, but will strengthen the presence of the osteopathic profession in this most populous part of the state.

Q: Won’t the quality of education be poorer at the satellite campuses?

A: This is an expansion of our East Lansing programs, with the same curriculum, schedule, examinations, and academic resources available to southeastern Michigan students. This is not the development of “satellite” or independent campuses. For example, all faculty in southeastern Michigan will be part of MSUCOM departments, hired and supervised by departmental chairpersons, and provided sufficient funds to implement their parts of the curriculum at three sites.

Q: Why would a medical school align itself with a community college?

A: We are not in any way “diminished” by our presence on the campus of this community college.  With more than 21,000 students, MCC is far more than its name might indicate.  Its University Center supports no fewer than 52 bachelor’s, master’s and postgraduate degree programs, many of them medically related, from institutions such as Oakland University, Wayne State University and University of Detroit Mercy. It’s an innovative institution and a highly appropriate place to educate our students.

If you have further questions, please complete the Web form at http://www.com.msu.edu/pub-rel/questions.html or email your question to pub-rel@com.msu.edu.  We’ll be adding to this list of questions as they come in. For more information, please see the news release, op-ed and fact sheet on our expansion at www.com.msu.edu.