Rowan University and The Cooper Health System partnered in June 2009 to establish CMSRU to help address the physician shortage locally and nationally and to improve healthcare throughout the region. New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie spoke at the school's opening. Its charter class was admitted in May 2012 and a second class matriculated in the fall of 2013. By August 2015, CMSRU had matriculated all four years of students.
In November 2019 Cooper Medical School of Rowan University was awarded the Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Engagement from the American Association of Medical Colleges . The award is given for outstanding service in the community. This service includes CMSRU's service learning program and its pipeline program called Pre-Medical Urban Leaders Summer Enrichment Program (PULSE).[4]
In 2019, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University was voted one of the top ten most difficult medical schools to attain acceptance by incoming medical students in the US.[5][6]
In April 2019, CMSRU was named in U.S. News’ list of “10 Med Schools With the Lowest Acceptance Rates” [7]