Admissions
The University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) was established in 1946. It was the 76th medical school in the country and the first one after World War II. An outstanding faculty was recruited by Dr. Edward Turner, the founding dean, “to test new concepts at a school that was not yet mired in tradition”.
The school has experienced phenomenal growth so that now it is the medical school for 5 states, called the WWAMI region. WWAMI is an acronym for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. This region comprises 27 percent of the total land mass of the United States. The UW School of Medicine has a full time faculty of about 1,800 and a volunteer faculty of approximately 4,400. For 14 years it has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 school for teaching primary-care physicians and currently is ranked sixth in the country among research-oriented medical schools. The school is second only to Harvard in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding.
In 2006, the UWSOM adopted a new mission statement that underscores the commitment to regional, rural and underserved populations and their healthcare needs in the five-state WWAMI region. In addition to being a national leader in biomedical research and the advancement of knowledge in academic medicine and science, specific wording was incorporated that recognizes the important of primary care and providing service to the underserved populations.
The Idaho Legislature currently reserves 20 seats in the UWSOM for its residents. Idaho students admitted to the UWSOM spend their first year at the University of Idaho WWAMI site in Moscow, Idaho together with 20 students from the Washington State University WWAMI site for a combined class of 40. Classes are taught on both campuses with faculty from both UI and WSU. Students study the same medical courses offered at the UW School of Medicine but the smaller class size at UI/WSU enables professors to give additional assistance and attention to students.