Accepted
Out of State
Maybe 
I interviewed on the 17th.
I’ve heard that UMKC’s program is too fast to handle, and most people don’t enjoy college. Just what I’ve heard.
For those accepted, but not attending, where will you be going?
Accepted
In-state (St. Louis, MO)
After thoroughly investigating and talking with students, in different years, and listening to their personal experiences in the program, confirming a lot of what I had read on CC, SDN, and other websites about certain aspects of the program, I will not be attending.
bikergirl - I was accepted into the St Louis University Medical Scholars 4+4 program, so that is where I’m going instead.
Yeah, I’m from out of state (Texas) and I was completely rejected. 
Haha, but it’s okeydokey 'cause that’s more money in my pocket as I attend UT && I get an insane amount of research experience. It’s all for the better. 
Instate Rejected
33 ACT
4.0 GPA
I will be attending Mizzou
Best of luck to anyone attending
@bikergirl, I will be going to Washington University in St. Louis in the Fall. I am ecstatic!!
@IZahiri, that’s one of many problems. I would say the ~ UMKC 6-year BS/MD Program ~ thread has been pretty accurate in listing many of them with information.
Allstar2010 - You can not go wrong at WU. I was accepted there also, but received next to nothing for scholarship money. It’s just to hard to come up with the 50k a year price tag without some (or maybe a lot) of help. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great school and if money was not an issue, I would be joining you.
@whataboutumkc, no not at all, I fully understand where you’re coming from. For me, it would make no sense for me to move my stuff to live in a dorm room and buy a mandatory meal plan vs. living with my parents and have homecooked meals, as I happen to live in St. Louis now – that in itself cuts A LOT of the costs.
Thus, the only thing left is tuition and fees.
Wash U undergrad: $39,400 vs. SLU undergrad: $30,940.
I’ll have to check my updated financial aid package including any merit based scholarships I may have received.
I didn’t apply to the University Scholars Program in Medicine at WashU as it didn’t really seem to guarantee anything - you have to maintain a 3.8 GPA, complete an application to the School of Medicine, achieve a total score of at least 36 on the MCAT, and complete a successful interview (whatever successful means to them). There are Ivy League medical schools where students don’t even have that high of a GPA and MCAT stats.
Your decision with SLU is a good one. Even if you had gotten accepted at UMKC 6 year, I would still have told you to take SLU’s Med Scholar program. SLU and WashU are right near each other, and you have access to both medical schools and undergrads for research. Also, if you really want to, you have the option to apply out of the program to other medical schools, since you have to take the MCAT for that program anyways.
Just a little heads up, as a current student, the program has changed a lot since most of the posters went here. It’s actually a great program. Me and all of my friends love it here. Most of the people who usually struggle are those that weren’t 100% sure about becoming doctors, or who struggle socially. IF it’s any indicator, I had two siblings go through med scholars and both say they wished they had gone to UMKC. Sometimes it does suck here, but it’s like that at any other school. I can honestly say that as a 4th year, I have done less work/studying than my best friend who is pre-med at WASHU. It’s only around test time where it feels like you have no life, but after the test life goes back to normal. I feel like I have a normal college life. We tend to party just as much as any other school once tests are out of the way. You basically get everything handed to you here. Your life is pretty much planned out for 6-10 years. In my view, as long as you make a good group of friends, you are golden. In my opinion, the worst part of the program is also the best part of the program - the social life. The med school is like a huge family. Everyone knows each other and you get to know 100 people realllly well over 6 years. My friends at other schools can say they have more acquaintances, but I can say I have more best friends that i’ll keep the rest of my life. THe downside to this is that sometimes you get tired of seeing the same people all the time. You eat, sleep, study, and party with the same people. This also creates a surplus of gossip and drama. Also, the dorms that you live in your first year are verrry nice. KC isnt the funnest city, but once you turn 21, there’s a pretty nice bar/club scene. Until then you pretty much go to house parties/penthouse parties/find random stuff to do. In terms of the low board scores, most people who have done well in their classes do well on boards. Pretty much everyone gets matched where they want. THe board scores should start getting higher with my class, since they changed the med school curriculum for us. I’m studying for boards right now and I feel pretty prepared. There are research oppurtunities here, you just have to seek them out more than at any other school. The hospital exposure here is amazing. I was interviewing patients alone my 1st year, as well as doing small things such as suturing. My 2nd year, we started giving physicals. I’d say if you know you want to become a doctor then this is the way to go.
Oh BTW, be careful of what you see on these boards. Much of what i’ve seen is not realistic. Try to talk to a real umkc student if you can. It seems that many of these negative posts have alterior motives. I know one girl who admitted to posting negative things on here to free up spots on the waitlist.
I wish I picked SLU Med Scholars over UMKC. UMKC is much lower ranked medical school than SLU and it is a primary care mill. 25% students in the program drop out with only a junk BLA degree from UMKC because of the environment, lack of support, and practically no guidance. Only low level research available that gets you nowhere. It makes me very sad that I work as hard as I could and still will not get into a good residency that SLU med students will get. As an actual student at UMKC med program I can honestly say that I wish today I went to a better school like WashU, Northwestern, or SLU Med Scholars over UMKC med school. I regret my decision of coming to UMKC med program.
Has anybody been wait-listed? Do they say it in the letter that you got it, or by e-mail?
After coming to the UMKC BA/MD program I agree 100% with MD2B2012
post # 1987 and 1988:
"Well first off, congrats on getting in. As you know there are many BA/MD programs some better than others, all of them competitive. The fact that you got into a combined program, means you have the study skills it takes to get into a medical school period, so don’t take it as “I will never make it to med school if I don’t do this program.” There are tons of people who received an acceptance to UMKC who declined it and went somewhere else. Hence, why UMKC usually gives more acceptances than spots as many people are GUARANTEED to drop. Apparently my year, there were 160 acceptances given out, and first day of Year 1 we had 120 students.
I am glad that you are looking at this seriously, many people dive into the program not knowing how compressed it really is, and only look at the beginning of the roller coaster and end of the roller coaster without looking at the loopty-loops in between. I know people who left the program and did the normal premed route as well, and got into damn good med schools. One of my friends actually ended up at WashU AND didn’t lose any time either. However, she left after the first year with no academic hiccups. She just didn’t like the intense speed of the program (i.e. taking Medical School Physiology as a sophomore in college) as well as the cutting out of many of the prerequisites and jumping automatically into advanced upper-level course work (i.e. not having to take General Biology I and II and jumping into Cell Biology even though General Bio is a required prerequisite for all the undergraduate students.) You have to understand many of the prerequisites are cut out for medical students in the program so it fits into a six year program. It is assumed that you have a working knowledge of those subjects. Remember, many students have taken AP coursework, so you’re assumed to be a cream of the crop student. If you don’t have the prereqs, at least as a UMKC medical student you are expected to pick things up quickly.
I work with many residents who do the normal 4+4, and they wouldn’t trade their undergrad years for the world. They studied and had a great social life. Not that UMKC does not, but since UMKC is essentially a commuter campus, there is much less than other places, and the workload can be very intense esp. if you’re not coming in with testing credit about 20 hrs. at least of classes in the normal semester.
Just remember in this program you do not get your summers off, which may or may not be a deal-breaker for you. I know that may not seem like a big deal, but for some, it’s hard to always go to school without time to recharge your batteries or do community service in the summer or get a part-time job etc.
Remember the two benefits you are getting from the program are:
- You don’t have to take the MCAT (which really is replaced by taking the USMLE exams which all med students have to take to be licensed)
- You graduate in six years, assuming you don’t extend. If you do extend, it’s usually for 1 full year, which means ANOTHER year of out-of-state tuition.
I would say cost is definitely not a benefit in your case, as you are out-of-state, I haven’t calculated for in-state whether it really is a “deal” for them.
You are right the tuition is VERY HIGH esp. for out-of-state students. Out of state tuition for 2008-2009, is for Years 1 & 2 = $46,304 and Years 3-6 = $53,866. That’s certainly not chump change. In fact UMKC has one of the highest out-of-state tuitions in the country, 2nd only to Colorado which charges $60,000 but it is for 4 years of med school. For UMKC, that’s $308,072 (You could send 2 kids to med school with that money) and that’s without considering the annual tuition going up every year, which it inevitably does. The loans collected and the interest collected would be VERY HIGH, and that doesn’t even include books, living, etc. Just so you know, UMKC does not allow out-of-state students to get non-resident scholarships. The medical school at UMKC is not well funded by the state, and they get expenses paid esp. through out-of-state tuition.
The major I would choose for you since you are unsure about going to UMKC’s med school but ARE sure about going for medicine is the Biology BA degree. When I went to UMKC the only option was the Liberal Arts degree, along with Chemistry, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, but no science bachelors degrees unless you wanted to extend and take longer than six years. This was because there was a huge fight between the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) and the Medical school which you may hear about from people. Now, I think that scar has healed between the two and SBS is willing to accept Medical School science classes such as Human Biochemistry and Human Structure Function to fulfill requirements for the Biology degree.
As you know the first year of college, no matter where you go, you are doing general education courses: General Psych, General Sociology, Freshman English, Sophomore English, US History, etc. for your undergraduate degree and at the same time doing the premed requirements.
As you know you would probably do 1 year of General Bio and 1 year of General Chem your freshman year and 1 year of Organic Chemistry and 1 year of General Physics your sophomore year for your premed requirements.
Thus, by starting to do the first year of your Bachelor’s for Biology, you’re just doing freshman premed reqs and general ed requirements ONLY which everybody is required to do.
This is the key part though: Strive to do well in all of your courses as much as you can for the time being. At the same time, you have one year from the beginning of fall to end of spring to ask around and find out more about the program, ask Year 3’s (who are taking basic sciences) , Year 4s (who are preparing to take boards), year 5s (who are taking clinical rotations), and Year 6s (who are applying for residencies), how they feel about the program. Don’t ask administrators as you will get the obvious PC answer. Ask the people who are affected by it: the STUDENTS themselves.
Ask them these questions: AAMC: Applying to Medical School: Thirty-One Questions I Wish I Had Asked
Especially ask them how well did they feel their medical school courses prepared them for national board exams as well as how much they feel faculty and administration are helpful to students as a whole. You can ask Student Affairs for emails of students and they should be willing to give them to you, if not that should be a red flag to you. You will also meet medical students as well from student organizations and ask them for their candid opinions that you wouldn’t get at your interview, when everyone is on good behavior. Also, ask for the match lists in the past few years from Student Affairs and look them over and see how well people match in fields you may be interested in. Do people match at great programs, do they stay in the midwest or spread across the U.S.? What is the USMLE Step 1 average? How did the high scorers feel the curriculum helped in that regard? Those questions are very important. These would have been good to ask before you came to UMKC but just remember since you’re only there for the interview date, people will be glamorizing the program and telling you what you want to hear, not necessarily what you should hear. Write down what they feel so you remember but don’t rely on one opinion to heavily. The more people you ask, the more accurate your impression will be.
If you decide to stay great! You have no doubts and you can continue as the only extra sciences that the BA in Biology has in comparison to the Bachelor of Liberal Arts is General Bio I and II with Lab (which you’ve completed by now), and one semester of Physics. All other science courses required are exactly the same for both degrees (Anatomy, Micro, Genetics, Cell, etc). Your Science GPA will be better as you have a few more basic science courses to rely on than your classmates.
If you decide that it’s not worth the cost, or you’d rather get your Bachelors or MD degree from a more prestigious place, or the curriculum is too restricting, you don’t like being away from your family for long periods of time etc. then you’re ok. You’ve only done one year of general ed and premed reqs which you would have done at another school anyways. And you can transfer those credits somewhere else (Those credits will transfer as those courses are available at all universities). You can even decide to do another major as ONCE AGAIN you’ve only done general education and premed requirements. My friend that went to WashU for med school, for example changed her Bachelors to Business Administration when she transferred to another university, to finish her undergrad as she did not want to get her bachelors from UMKC and applied to med school in her fourth year of undergrad like she would have done if she had done 4+4.
If your only reason to go to UMKC is avoiding having to take the MCATs, please DO NOT COME HERE. It’s not worth being miserable at a place you don’t like to avoid one test, when it is replaced by two more tests: USMLE Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t skip licensing exams. There are commercial prep programs for the MCATs and with your established study ethic and motivation you will do great on the MCATs. How do I know? Because I looked at a practice MCAT after I finished my bachelor science classes and many of them I could answer quite easily (just not a few of the Physics questions as I didn’t have it in college, and I forgot what I learned in AP Physics in high school LOL).
Just remember, being that you applied to a combined BA/MD program, when many don’t know about them, makes it likely that you are motivated, focused, and enthusiastic to do well not matter where you go. That’s the formula to getting into medical school in the first place. A combined BA/MD program is just a different way, not the ONLY way, to reach the same destination.
I just happened to visit the Facebook group for the UMKC Class of 2015 and I wanted to comment as someone there had mentioned the MCAT, which I think is an important issue to bring up.
The person said:
“Personally, I think it’s a no-brainer even if you’re out of state. I am in state, a 4 hour drive from St. Louis, but the benefit of not taking an MCAT is something you may not fully understand now but will once you graduate and you have other friends who take an entire year off from school just to study for an MCAT, that you don’t have to take at UMKC.”
First off, I fully disagree with the first sentence. 48K/56K (or even regional tuition) annually is A LOT of debt for someone to take for 6, if not longer, years, not to mention the interest that will be racked up after 6 years (or longer) + after residency (as you definitely wouldn’t be able to make payments on a resident salary), after which then you will FINALLY be able to make payments. That’s A LOT of interest that will be racked up. Calculate it using the AAMC Monetary Decisions website HappytoGraduate posted.
Most of the out-of-state students were A LOT more stressed out and hypercompetitive than their in-state counterparts, bc for them, they were forking out an arm and a leg each semester. So while you may think one stress is being alleviated, it’s taken over by something else - huge crushing debt. Not to mention quite a few were from states that were not in reasonable driving distances (i.e. California) and they were very homesick and couldn’t go home as often as the rest of us who lived in Missouri, who could drive home even every weekend if we wanted to. For many out-of-staters, the culture shock of living in Missouri, esp. KC is one that many really don’t adjust to, if you come from a major city.
Just ask anyone who is in medical school or a doctor and see whether owing $243K or $321 K (for tuition & fees only, without the accrued interest) from a relatively unknown, unranked Midwest public medical school is the norm, in which a GPA is calculated from Year 1 all the way to end of Year 6, not just the medical school part. At least at most schools, basic sciences are some version of Pass/Fail (P/F, H/P/F, H/HP/P/F, etc.) and aren’t letter graded to calculate a GPA like in undergraduate courses.
Also as someone who was in the UMKC program and ended up taking the MCAT (post 1550) - it’s real annoying when people drive this test into hysteria mode. If you study for the MCAT with prep books AS you are taking your classes it’s a lot easier than when you start MCAT prep after you’ve finished everything. Besides, using books alongside, I did practice tests in the summer both from the AAMC and prep books. I don’t know one person that has had to “take a year off” to study for the MCAT, so that is ludicrous. Most students take Bio and Chem freshman year, and finish with Physics and Organic sophomore year and take the MCAT anywhere in Junior and even maybe first half of senior year. Most of the sciences on the MCAT are things you’ve done in AP classes: AP Chem, Bio, Physics (leaving only Organic which isn’t AP obviously). Not to mention the MCAT is only one part of numerous parts of an application. Also, if you are this scared of the MCAT, what will you do when you have to take the USMLEs that EVERYONE has to take?? This same thing happened to me my senior year of high school, you hear so many hysteria stories, that you’re tempted to take any avenue that you think cuts out one of those roadblocks, but there are 50 more in its place just as sizable if not more. Medicine is filled with standardized exams which you take your entire life: MCAT, Step USMLEs 1, 2CS, 2CK, 3; certification exams, recertification every 10 years, etc. so in seeing it this way, skipping the MCAT is not the lake of fire most high schoolers think it is.
You should be going to a medical school based on the quality and opportunities that it can provide to you to achieve your goals (you pay very good money, so you deserve it): to give you a good medical education (basic science & clinical), prepare you very well for the boards, as well as adequately be able to build up your application for the upcoming residency match in a field you may be interested in, esp. if you’re considering a competitive specialty (research and publication opportunities, for example, or big name letter writers).
That’s hard to have when the state funding is one of the lowest that they depend on students to foot the majority of their budget (the state only pays 6 million of a 40 million dollar budget for the med school):
UMKC wants cash infusion for med school - Kansas City Business Journal:
When medical school starts getting tough and harder to deal with, to get through, you will always revert back in your mind as to why you decided to go for medical school in the first place and why you decided on your chosen school. This will be very difficult if your only reasons to be at UMKC were 1. It’s six years (assuming you haven’t extended by then) and 2. I didn’t have to take the MCAT. You’ll be kicking yourself for years to come.
I will repeat this again, but it will probably fall on deaf ears (after all you guys are 18 so you guys are still enthusiastic and dare I say naive) to where you’ll take any early acceptance/conditional offer no matter how bad it may end up being, also as even HappytoGraduate (an alum), The Scunyon (who’s in the program now), etc. have said: If your main reasons for going to this program are to skip the MCAT and bc it’s six years, you will be very miserable at UMKC, especially since you will never get a summer off once you start the program. I know TONS of people who left broken financially and in broken spirits bc of realizing very little of what they were jumping into or not being adequately prepared for upper level coursework due to the many shortcuts taken by the program. "
Thank you HighHope, although, actually the correct attribution to Post 1987 is actually HappytoGraduate from Post 1544 (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060598183-post1544.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060598183-post1544.html</a>), not me. I only recopied his/her post again for people to see at that time as I thought it was good advice. If you could please correct that so CC’ers don’t get confused - just click on “Report Problem Post” on the message and they should let you correct it.
So it’s easier to see for people:
Post 1987 - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062253197-post1987.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062253197-post1987.html</a>
Post 1988 - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062268190-post1988.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062268190-post1988.html</a>
Let’s see Pumpkinseed88, who only in April 2010 (probably yesterday) signed up for CC to cheerlead for his school, when he’s been in the program for 4 years vs. HighHope who has been on CC since Dec 2004, as well as other alums - HappytoGraduate, Roentgen, etc. People have told the truth about aspects of this program on this CC thread. I’ve asked people who actually attend the school - and not on interview day when everyone is on good behavior.
The criticisms of the program on this board are not just after April 1st, when people on the waitlist are trying to get off. Try actually reading the posts from the beginning.
“Most of the people who usually struggle are those that weren’t 100% sure about becoming doctors, or who struggle socially.” ---- Wow, this is complete arrogance at its finest.
“In my opinion, the worst part of the program is also the best part of the program - the social life.” ---- That doesn’t make any sense.
“KC isnt the funnest city. You eat, sleep, study, and party with the same people. This also creates a surplus of gossip and drama.” ---- Well sign me up!!
“THe board scores should start getting higher with my class, since they changed the med school curriculum for us.” — Have you even taken boards yet? How do you know your group’s scores will be higher? Please tell us what part of the med school curriculum was changed for you.
“I’m studying for boards right now and I feel pretty prepared.” ---- Your score will tell you how “prepared” you were.
“The hospital exposure here is amazing. I was interviewing patients alone my 1st year, as well as doing small things such as suturing. My 2nd year, we started giving physicals.” ---- All medical schools now have clinical exposure in the first 2 years of medical school, UMKC is no longer special in that regard.
Accepted! (it’s conditional though, I have to take chemistry over the summer)
Out of state (Illinois)
Attending…although the posts before this are making me a bit nervous about the program…
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Azka925, why are you required to take General Chemistry I over the summer? Was your Toledo Chemistry exam score that low? Usually the Toledo Exam tests very basic high school chemistry and basic college algebra skills: <a href=“New Student Orientation | New Student Orientation”>New Student Orientation | New Student Orientation;
Regardless, you should probably thoroughly research on your own about the 6 year BA/MD program at UMKC and see whether you, personally, will be able to handle the highly condensed and fast nature of the program vs. a more spread out, traditional, 4+4 route, esp. in light of your needing remediation from the Toledo Exam. Being from Illinois, as you know, you’d pay the regional tuition rate, not full out-of-state tuition. Also you’ll have to find out whether the school has the resources when it comes to your specific goals (like if you may be interested in a very competitive medical specialty).
Good luck!
Accepted
Instate
Attending
For those accepted to the program, talk to real people in the program, don’t just read these posts by users. What another user was saying about ulterior motives is right…as much as others don’t want to admit it. The program is phenomenal and if you can stick with it it will definitely provide you with a vast amount of benefits. It would be a shame to turn down such an offer because you read something on these threads, from someone who has no credentials.