Because MVC was not accredited, he could not gain admission to a medical school outside of Mississippi, and UMMC at the time did not accept Black students.
Determined to become a doctor, Oliver took additional science courses at the University of Dayton.
Next, he joined the army as a researcher at the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories in Fort Detrick, Maryland while simultaneously taking graduate night courses at the National Institute of Health.
Although he was accepted to Penn State, he chose to return to Mississippi to attend UMMC in September of 1968.
[3] He interned at Boston City Hospital on the Harvard Medical Service.