Entrance requirements were raised to three years of undergraduate college for admission to AOA-accredited schools in 1958. The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare recognized the AOA as the accrediting body for osteopathic medical education in 1952. Federal recognition had a profound effect on osteopathic medicine, spurring a second generation of schools and a dramatic increase in the number of osteopathic physicians. The big shift came in the move to state-supported schools, starting with Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in East Lansing, which graduated its first class in 1973. Today there are 19 Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine with an enrollment of nearly 10,000 students.
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