ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – LECOM, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, held its Accepted Student Day on Friday in Elmira. The college’s 4th class of 129 incoming students got fitted for their lab coats and took their ID photos. They also met with several vendors who offered help with finding a place to live and setting up a bank account at a local financial institution. 74 of the 129 students are from New York State. The school says the rest are from all over the country.

LECOM says about 1,100 students were interviewed. That’s an acceptance rate of just over 11%.

“Knowing that I wanted to become a doctor and go to medical school and now it’s finally happening and this is the first step in that direction. it’s ecstatic,” said incoming student Julia Horowitz.

“It was exciting to see the new batch of new recruits coming in,” said Professor Constantino Lambroussis. “Certainly they’re on there the start of their quest to becoming physicians and basically helping society at large. You have more doctors, you’re able to take care of more people and lessen that physician shortage that we’re experiencing.”

Dean Richard Terry offered incoming students this advice:

“Be prepared. Be ready for the tsunami of information you are about to absorb. You can do this. Medical school is ten times harder than any college curriculum you may have been through. Believe in yourself, discipline yourself. You can survive this, you’ll get through this.”

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