Cooper Medical School of Rowan University

Region: New Jersey Country: USA

Welcome to the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University!
As one of the newest medical schools in the country, we believe our students will help set the standards of medical care for the next generation.

The faculty, staff and administration of CMSRU are fully committed to our students and our community. Our curriculum is designed not just to prepare our students for a career in medicine, but also to foster their own personal growth and development. Our mission truly reflects that which we hold most dear - it guides all that we do and we urge our students to embrace it and live it.

Our recent accreditation by the LCME allows us to begin recruiting our first class that will start their medical education in the fall of 2012. The students who will be accepted into this class must not only excel academically, but show a commitment to community, understand and embrace cultural diversity, and have strong interpersonal and leadership skills. We at CMSRU have an enormous responsibility and obligation to give back to the community that has given birth to our school - we seek for students who understand that commitment and are inspired to live it with us.

This is a tremendously exciting time for all of us here. Please explore the pages of our website and learn about who we are, what we do, and what makes CMSRU different. And if you are a potential student, we hope you will find that our mission resonates with you and that you will discover your new home with us in Camden.

On behalf of all of us at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, I welcome you to our school. A great journey awaits you.

History
Historical photograph of life sciences class being taught at Rowan, circa 1959-60 Course Catalog.In June of 2009, then New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed an executive reorganization order that called for Rowan University and The Cooper Health System to partner and create a new four-year allopathic medical school in Camden. This partnership has brought together two longstanding southern New Jersey institutions with national reputations and historic commitment to the City of Camden and to the region.

Cooper's legacy in Camden dates back to 1887, when the hospital opened as a provider of care to all patients, regardless of ability to pay. For three decades, Cooper has served as the primary clinical campus for UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, a program that included the entire third and fourth years of medical school. The clinical faculty at Cooper are recognized educators in medical education, and are committed to bringing the innovative CMSRU curriculum to life

Rowan, founded in 1923, has served Camden since 1969, when the Camden Urban Center was opened as a site for teacher preparation classes and community meetings. Rowan's long history of training educators, as well as its other academic programs and its successful track record of instituting new programs - such as the College of Engineering - make the development of a medical school a natural and strategic fit.

At a time when there is a physician shortage nationally and in the State of New Jersey, the evolution into a four-year medical school is a natural progression-and an economically wise decision. The advent of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University strengthens the commitment of Rowan University and The Cooper Health System to not only the City of Camden and its residents, but to the entire region, providing a place for us to work and learn, but also a community in which together we will thrive.

We have designed our new Medical Education Building around the innovative CMSRU curriculum, filled with spaces and technologies to support our faculty and students in this process. This is a six-story, 200,000 square foot building, with an exterior designed to reflect the historic nature of the community while looking forward into the future. Inside the building are 25 Active Learning Rooms - rooms designed to be the home for eight students for their first two years of medical school. In these rooms, our students will spend more than three-quarters of their formal class time, focusing on small group discussions and presentations, facilitated and self-directed individual and group learning.

Our New Home
In addition to the Active Learning Rooms, the building houses an auditorium seating 250 people, a large multipurpose room seating 140, a Learning Commons and satellite Medical Library, where students can meet in a casual and comfortable setting, with CMSRU's faculty and each other.

Our Clinical Simulation Center is also in this building, providing students with space to learn interviewing and clinical skills even before they see their first patient. Medical school administrative offices, including the dean's office, student services and financial aid are here as well. Finally, we have constructed several floors of research and teaching labs, to be used by both students and faculty.

Construction on the building was completed in the summer of 2012, prior to our inaugural class arrival in August.

Office of Admissions
Welcome from the CMSRU Office of Admissions! As one of the newest medical schools in the nation, we embrace the opportunity to merge Cooper University Hospital's decades of clinical expertise with the vigor of innovative teaching approaches. Our Office of Admissions welcomes you to explore our curriculum, our new Medical Education Building, our unique Advisory Colleges, and the many opportunities for our students to work with patients from their first weeks of medical school. Although we are a new entity, our faculty bring years of clinical knowledge together with the enthusiasm of creating a new institution from the ground up. As we bring together our first class, we invite you to join us in our journey.

Please feel free to contact us at any time. We are happy to answer your questions.