While some college-bound teens are wondering whether they've picked the right school, Hempfield Area High School senior Alexandria Cisowski has no such doubts.

"It was fate, I guess," she said about her acceptance into Seton Hill University's new pre-osteopathic medicine program.

The program, which will welcome its first 25 students in August, is a partnership with the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, or LECOM.

Based in Erie, the college is one of the nation's largest medical schools and has an additional location in Bradenton, Fla. Seton Hill students accepted to the new program will earn a four-year bachelor of science degree before going to four years of medical school, with all classes conducted at Seton Hill in Greensburg.

The pre-osteopathic medicine program also will offer students the option to enter LECOM's medical school after only three years of undergraduate work, if they qualify.

Alexandria, 17, said she is considering this accelerated option, called the Three Plus Four.

"Before I even found out about the new partnership with LECOM, I was going to attend Seton Hill for chemistry to prepare for medical school," she said. "This will get me to that goal even faster."

Medical students in the new program will do their clinical work at Excela Health facilities in Greensburg, Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown and at other LECOM-affiliated hospitals in the Greensburg area.

LECOM is hiring 14 full-time faculty members to teach courses in the new program and is renovating Lynch Hall and Reeves Memorial Library to accommodate the new students' needs.

Alexandria began considering Seton Hill last year, when she came to the campus to accept a Woman in Science 2008 Scholarship Award.

"I might never have thought about applying here if I hadn't visited," she said. "But the minute I saw it, it was so beautiful, I knew I would love it."

The scholarship also was a powerful motivator, she added. Totaling $60,000, it will cover half of her four-year tuition to Seton Hill.

Alexandria said that not long after accepting the scholarship, she heard about the new pre-osteopathic program, and her choice of Seton Hill for the first step on her way to medical school seemed an even wiser one.

What was especially attractive to her, she said, was the program offered an osteopathic, rather than allopathic, medical degree.

Allopathic medicine emphasizes treatment of specific illness through surgery and medication. It is the approach underlying the most common type of medical degree in the United States -- the M.D., or medical doctor.

Osteopathic medicine approaches illness more holistically, with an emphasis on preventive care and understanding how the body's systems are interconnected. Graduates of osteopathic programs earn a D.O., doctor of osteopathy.

Both types of doctors are licensed nationwide and can perform surgery and prescribe medication.

Alexandria said a medical degree focusing on wellness was more in keeping with her personal beliefs. She saw it as more useful in a society that is increasingly aware of the medical costs of ignoring preventive medicine.

"My parents instilled in me the importance of keeping healthy and helping others," she said, adding that her parents, Lowell and Debra Cisowski, work out every day.

Seton Hill's pre-osteopathic program is designed with yet another public health crisis in mind -- the shortage of family doctors in Pennsylvania. Representatives from Seton Hill and LECOM have predicted that physicians trained in the area will establish practices near where they went to medical school.

For more information about Seton Hill's pre-osteopathic cooperative degree program, e-mail admit@setonhill.edu, call 1-800-826-6234 or go to www.setonhill.edu.