Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine ranks among top medical schools in primary care graduate percentage, underserved care

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine is among the nation’s top medical schools for producing primary care physicians and also joins leading programs in caring for underserved and rural communities, according to last month’s U.S. News & World Report medical school assessment. The report surveyed 203 fully accredited medical and osteopathic schools.

LUCOM ranked third nationally for the percentage of graduates practicing in primary care — 45.1% — which demonstrates the program’s emphasis on preparing physicians for front-line care as osteopathic physicians. In LUCOM’s Class of 2026, 61% of the graduates are entering a primary care specialty.

The rankings include medical schools awarding both MD (Doctor of Medicine) and DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) degrees. U.S. News & World Report worked with the Robert Graham Center, a division of the American Academy of Family Physicians, as the data provider.

LUCOM also ranked No. 14 for percentage of graduates practicing in medically underserved areas (61.4%) and No. 25 for graduates serving in rural communities (9.5%). The founding of the medical school itself is based in helping struggling communities, as a $20.5 million grant from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission in 2011 funded the construction of LUCOM’s facilities with the purpose of training medical professionals who would serve underserved areas in southside Virginia.

In six of the last seven years, LUCOM has produced a Match placement rate of 98 percent or higher, including a 99.3 percent placement rate this spring that sent 141 student-doctors into 17 different specialties across 35 different states.

“At the heart of osteopathic medicine lies a profound truth: healing is not merely a technical skill but a compassionate vocation,” said LUCOM Dean Dr. Joseph Johnson. “We are deeply moved to see our graduates answering the call to primary care, rural communities, and medically underserved areas, where the need is greatest and the human stakes are highest. To our students, I say this: you have chosen not the easiest path but the most meaningful one — carrying the dual burden of rigorous scientific excellence and genuine empathy into places that have long gone without adequate care with a Christian emphasis for body, mind, and spirit. This ranking is not an endpoint, but a testament to lives that will be touched, families strengthened, and futures restored through the hands of physicians formed here in both knowledge and heart.”