Hi everyone. I’m a graduating student in the BA/MD program. I was a regional applicant who was accepted off the waitlist. I just matched at a nationally top-ranked program in a competitive surgical specialty. I would describe myself as a very good student, having 99th percentile board scores, a near 4.0 GPA, and selection for an honor society. I want to give my thoughts on some of the discussion here, as I know how much I relied on this forum when I was applying. There is a lot of misinformation thrown around, simply because it’s hard to know what happens in the program unless you are in it. I would add that these feelings are generally pervasive among my fellow students.
Who should join this program? If you are someone in the midwest whose ultimate goal is primary care and/or a non-surgical specialty in your community, this program is GREAT for you. There are wonderful clinical opportunities to build your patient interaction skills and clinical decision -making. I would add that this is even better if you are not concerned about the tier of program you match into.
But, here is my top-liner, after six grueling years here: I would avoid this program like the plague. Why? I’ll give my list of reasons, which I can expand upon in the comment section if anyone wants me to.
Undergraduate coursework - The undergraduate coursework is designed to graduate you with a BLA as soon as possible. This can sound like a blessing to interested students, but trust me in saying that THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT. Despite what many say, there is value to an undergraduate education and exploring a major/area of interest that you genuinely care about.
Community - you are stuck with the same 100 people for six years. This gives you an opportunities to build friendships and relationships, but understand that these are your formative years. These are the years you are supposed to be exploring different social circles and building a network. Every student here is exhausted by the fourth year, in part because of the routine of seeing the same people in the same environment for so long. You are also stuck in Kansas City. It’s a great city, but can get exhausting/boring after a while. I don’t think it’s healthy to be in a situation like that, and it is the reason that most people here can’t wait to get out by the latter half of the program. If you do not build many friendships your first year, you are essentially out of luck.
Attrition - I think the attrition rate is a bit overstated, as many people like to say that >20% of the class drops out. It’s not anywhere near this rate, but there are a good amount of people that extend into the class below. Attrition only really happens in the first few years when students decide they did not want to do medicine. The problem here is that extending a year strongly diminishes your chance of matching into competitive specialties, and diminishes your chances of matching into top programs in non-competitive specialties.
Preclinical Coursework - the preclinical coursework is incredibly subpar. You will have to prepare for the board examinations on your own, without help from your lectures. It’s a reason most medical students at UMKC and across the country skip class. The school recently instituted mandatory attendance in several classes to compensate for this, which is just a drag on the students who would learn much better at home. You are taught by professors with no clinical experience and no understanding of what is important on the board examinations.
Faculty/Mentoring - is fine. The docent system is a highlight of the program. It gives you a strong mentor. The faculty themselves are variable. Some docents are excellent, while others appear like they don’t even want to be there.
Facilities - do not come here if you want a modern-appearing school. The entire medical school feels like a prison. The units have not been updated in decades. The exception is two units that are fully modernized, and these are the units they will advertise on tours, while not showing the other downtrodden units. There are no plans to update the other units.
Diversity - this is a small point not applicable to everyone, but it’s personal to me because I’m an underrepresented minority. The resources for diversity outreach and community-building is minimal, although the school does genuinely try. There is not much diversity in the student base or faculty themselves.
Clinicals - there is a big focus on IM training here, with four years of weekly clinic and six months of inpatient IM. This is great for my friends applying IM. If you don’t apply IM (like me), you are severely disadvantaged compared to other students around the country. There is no ability to substitute some of the extra IM rotations for rotations in your area of interest. This became a real problem my final year for myself and other students who were applying surgical specialties, but were unable to move our mandatory IM rotation, making it more difficult to acquire letters of recommendation. Other than IM, the training is pretty poor across the board. Surgical training is especially poor here.
Specialties - there are certain specialties that are very difficult to access from UMKC, for the reason that there is no home program here to advocate for you. This includes ENT, Plastic Surgery, Dermatology, Neurosurgery, and some other competitive specialties. This essentially places the onus on the student alone to do away rotations and find a department nationally to advocate for you. Most medical schools have these departments, which provides other students an edge immediately.
Reputation/Prestige - Contrary to what you are told, not all medical schools are the same. There is a rumor that circulates among pre-meds that any MD school can get you where you need to go. This is false. The name of your school matters quite a bit, and understand that if you come to UMKC, you are coming to the lowest-ranked (or near lowest-ranked) MD school in the country. This is a big deal when you are applying for residency, especially in non-IM specialties. Students from decently known schools immediately have an advantage in who receives interviews, and UMKC students often receive the leftover/waitlist spots. If you are applying a super competitive specialty, you oftentimes have to take 1-2 additional gap years to do research and buff your CV to compensate. This explains the subpar match list that seems to be getting worse and worse every year. There are simply many medical schools that are better known and have administrative infrastructure in place to reach out for students to secure interviews, which is not the case at UMKC. In order to access top programs from UMKC, you really have to be in the upper echelon of students (AOA) and vastly outperform your fellow residency interviewees in board scores/letters to secure the same interviews. Do people still match at great places? Yes, this year’s match list had very well-known and high-ranked programs on there in Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, EM, Ophthalmology, Anesthesiology, and Orthopedics. But, these students had to do MORE than their fellow applicants in other schools to create a level playing field.