Wake Forest makes history by selecting first class for new Charlotte medical school
Nearly 50 medical students recently received good news from Wake Forest University for their new journey in Charlotte.
They will be making history by becoming the inaugural class for Charlotte’s new four-year medical school, which opens this summer. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine — Charlotte accepted 48 students who will start July 7.
A medical school of this scale is a first for the region. For years, Charlotte remained the biggest city in the country without a four-year medical school.
Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology partnered with Wake Forest University to build the school. The medical school will be operated by Wake Forest and it’s part of a $1.5 billion Pearl District innovation complex with shops and, apartments and medical offices.
Atrium did not provide additional information about the incoming class. Wake Forest did not provide additional information on the incoming class as of Thursday.
But Collin Lane, Atrium Health’s senior vice president of facilities management, spoke about the upcoming class during a presentation for the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners on March 11.
Over the next five years, Wake Forest will gradually increase each incoming class of students at the Charlotte campus to around 100 students, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. Wake Forest is planning to train close to 1,000 medical students across both campuses.
Wake Forest accepts applications to its medical school, without specifying a campus. The school has had third- and fourth-year medical students in Charlotte for several years at Atrium Health locations.
This summer will be the first time students will start their education in Charlotte.
Learning in The Pearl District
The Charlotte school creates a second campus in midtown for the Winston-Salem-based institution. It will be on 20-acres at the corner of South McDowell and Baxter streets in The Pearl District.
Plans for the district also include retail, offices, hotels, apartments and an outdoor plaza. Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology partnered together to build the district. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2023.
The medical school will anchor the Howard R. Levine Center for Education. The Levine foundation provided a $25 million gift to name the 14-story building.
Wake Forest’s School of Business and School for Professional Studies will also be in the same education building. The Carolinas College of Health Science, with close to 800 students will be there too, according to Lane.
The Pearl is being built in the Brooklyn neighborhood. It was once home to Charlotte’s largest Black community, featuring businesses, schools, and churches, before city leaders decimated it in the late 1960s under the guise of urban renewal.
Pearl Street Park is a remaining landmark.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 12:32 PM.
