@MedNerd260, I’ll speak as to my time during UMKC, I might be accidently repeating some stuff already mentioned previously by @blugrn6.
I don’t know if you’re applying this year or are already accepted to the program, but you can see the most current promotion rules here: http://med.umkc.edu/docs/coe/COE-Policy-Manual.pdf. There is no official curriculum handbook, but you can see their website here: http://med.umkc.edu/curriculum/. A lot of curriculum stuff is not decided by a specific policy necessarily – i.e. which months you’re taking certain Year 4 rotations, Year 5/6 rotation order, etc. That’s something you sign up for with your ETC (your advisor).
In my time, I don’t know of any policies in place that were either relaxed or made easier for students, even with legitimate concerns from students. It was always a tightening of an existing policy due to a real or perceived loophole in that policy, or an additional harder rule imposed. Student concern about curriculum or promotion policy is usually not of concern to them in drafting up new policies.
I think the school realizes the BA/MD program can be stressful, but I think they also feel that you knew what you signed up for or you wouldn’t do it (although, in all honesty, most 18 year olds, even the highest achieving, don’t know 100% what they are realistically getting into before starting this program). It’s probably the only program in which you don’t do only undergrad and then join a class of traditional students, like it is at every other BS/MD type program. It’s why during my (and other classmates’) interviews for this program, all of my interviewers asked me why I was choosing a combined 6 year program over the traditional route to go to med school. Remember, doing a BS/MD is just an alternate route.
To answer your question off the bat, residencies do not care if you graduated in 6 years. While it’s maybe something for you to brag about (if so, get a life, lol) or for your proud parents to brag about their child (my parents who aren’t physicians - love 'em both - still do to old friends who ask about me and what I do in terms of career), residency programs do not care if you finished your undergraduate and medical school in 6 years. There is no shock and awe in terms of residency advantage. If anything, it could possibly be perceived as negative. The usual questions or concerns by faculty at other places re: the 6 year aspect, are usually in terms of overall maturity and being well-rounded (has all this person been doing from high school to now is studying and being in med school mode).
I do think in a way that the 6 year combined program can be more stressful due to no summers off for 6 years and due to the relatively rigid structure of the curriculum itself to fit in requirements for the BA and the MD. It’s easier for 4 year medical schools to change their grading scales (Pass/Fail in the first 2 years) and basic science curriculum around to make things easier (i.e. learning things by each organ system rather than as separate science subjects) because there is no bachelor’s degree to worry about. I think also the major transitions in the program from Year 1 to Year 6 can end up being a lot bumpier than expected, because there are many undergraduate classes that we just don’t take and don’t have time to fit in. You jump right into the tough sciences in Year 2. The transition to Year 5 rotations can also be bumpy for students but due to different reasons.
The 7/8 year BS/MD programs (All the ones I know tend to give you your summers off during the undergrad and the first summer after the first year of med school) also tend to separate out the undergrad degree from the MD degree. In some of the 7/8 year programs and in a traditional 4 + 4 route, you can choose any undergrad major you want that the university offers, along with healthcare and non-healthcare backup careers (Engineering, Law, Business, Education, etc.) in case you change your mind.
If one of your main reasons for entering UMKC’s BA/MD program is because you’re too scared of the traditional premed route or the MCATs, you’re making a mistake. Contrary to what many people think, the hardest part of the entire journey is not just getting into medical school. The problems of premed will seem very small in comparison to those in medical school, but unlike others, you’ll experience it for 6 years rather than just 4.
If there is any possibility that you want to go for a specialty that is very competitive or isn’t offered as a home residency at UMKC, you will have a more difficult time matching compared to medical students coming from top-tier and middle-tier schools that have those resources and opportunities available to them (i.e. very well-funded student organizations, good basic science/clinical/translational research in those specialties, highly reputable affiliated hospitals to rotate at). Even for non-competitive specialties, going to a top-tier/middle-tier school will take you much farther in terms of the type of program you get interviews and match into than a low-tier medical school.
I think a lot of it is tradition – the medical school when it was built, started out on the basis of being a 6 year combined program in total, in a time when medicine was always 4 years of college + 4 years of medical school, although overall curriculum makeup of the program and requirements have changed and will continue to change. Many alumni from the UMKC program are 6-year BA/MDers themselves, as very few traditional students were taken, although that has changed very recently.
I also think a major part of it is that the 6 year aspect is a very good “selling” point to high school students and to their parents. Most stellar high school students interested in medical school wouldn’t go to UMKC on their own for 4 years, without the 6 year program in place. It’s a great moneymaker for the university even at the undergrad level (hence why you pay for all semesters in 6 years even if you have enough credit to skip a summer), and they are able to get high achieving high school graduates. Realize also many BA/MD students have parents who are physicians who have gone to med school in other countries where college and med school are traditionally combined in 6 years anyways, right from high school. On its face, it makes a lot of sense to an incoming student and his/her parents, when you look superficially at 6 years, no MCAT, no premed requirements, etc. to do the program. But as a student concerned about matching into your desired specialty, you have to look a little deeper, and the answer can be a lot more nuanced, depending on what your goal is.
So any changes or additions that are made are done with the 6 year time frame remaining intact, and that is not likely to ever change. The only other 6 year program left is NEOMED. The other combined programs that still exist have all converted to 7/8 year programs.