And oh my gosh you might fall in love … another thing to add to your juggling menu.
@Midhelper, the ultimate goal of all of this to to be happy and in my book, that requires a stable family. Otherwise, there is no point of all of this. I assure you that I do have a life and yes, this is one of my top priorities but I will still always make time in my life for important things like relationships. Everyone has certain things that keep them going and motivate them to keep pursuing their goal. The most important thing is to hold onto those motivational factors and continue pursuing the goal. A lot of things come down to time management. Once someone can become super efficient with their time, they can make room for a lot of other things in my life. I can say that right now I do have quite a large “juggling menu” filled with things other than just books and my medical journey. If I were to become a neurosurgeon but have nothing else in my life, that would be miserable. I would prefer to barely have a job somewhere and have the other things that are important in life (relationships/family/etc). In my opinion, education comes second to those things but there’s definitely room in life for both if those are the only two priorities. But no, I am not going to waste my time and brain cells drinking in college like a bunch of other people do. I think that by avoiding counterproductivity (drinking/excessive sleeping/etc), one can become very successful. Also, success is not defined by whether or not someone will become a doctor or neurosurgeon or whatever. Success is ultimately determined by individuals and their perceptions of themselves. Its all about what makes someone content and its not right for another person to try to make judgements on that.
Hey has anyone on here heard of the WashU ASPIRE program? Is it worth attending? If it was between doing research this summer in neurosciences at UMKC or doing the WashU ASPIRE program for the summer, which would be the better option?
University of Oklahoma Medical Humanities Scholar Program (BS/MD) vs UMKC BA/MD Medical program?
@docstudent, I presume you are from Oklahoma, therefore, you are Regional for UMKC? Therefore, I can provide my impression without risking being potentially accused of conflict of interest since my son is on the OOS wait list for UMKC. Unless you cannot wait and want to be a physician in six years, I would choose OU over UMKC because there are obviously a lot more research activities and subspecialties going on at OU and financially it is also a lot cheaper (?Full ride for UG in the Medical Humanities Scholar Program).
@IMGDAD, Thank you. I am regional candidate for UMKC. Cost for both programs is about the same as I am out of state for University of Oklahoma. Would that change your advice in any way?
@docstudent, I would not change my advice. OU, in my opinion, is still better than UMKC. If you really only take the financial side of the equation into consideration, going to UMKC is actually better since you will graduate two years earlier and hence you will make two more years of income in your life time.
@docstudent as you stated in your other thread, the Oklahoma option is cheaper, you can apply out to other schools, and you have residency programs in competitive specialties that UMKC just does not have. Oklahoma hands down.
@Midhelper. I don’t know, @PursuitToExcel is so busy preparing for the USMLE from Year 1, falling in love may not be possible to fit it in the schedule. ROFLMAO!!
When someone says things like, “I know its hard to believe that I am 18 and I have this all figured out, but I do have a plan and things have gone the way I have planned so far” and “I plan to have read and studied at least <em>two</em> review books for each board subject before the 3-4 month period before boards,” it tells me the person is heavily lacking in insight (to fair this is expected at 18 yrs.) and is at risk of true exhaustion and burnout. The phrase “less is more” truly applies in this case. It’s very hard to change the mind to the reality of someone whose mind is already made up.
That’s what happens when you plan too far and too much in advance, and are ok with “willing to sacrifice a lot of ‘fun’ years of my life to get where I want to get.” None of what @PursuitToExcel’s plan is novel. Esp. at the Year 3 level, as everyone will be doing what he/she is doing (+ or - research, depending on the person’s chosen specialty)
@PursuitToExcel can look back at his posts in six years and see his how much his outlook has changed and he will end up laughing at what he posted in retrospect, esp. the “avoiding counterproductivity (drinking/excessive sleeping/etc)” part. LOL!
@Roentgen in general what you are saying may be true “generally” but I also have dealt with enough students to know that there are exceptions to every rule and some students are just that quick. So in this situation it does me no good to try to determine what the case may be as PursuitToExcel will just figure it out on his own and he may or may not be on track.
My mentioning of falling in love was because it is usually an uncontrollable factor in people’s lives and it may or may not help a student. Some may choose to avoid it and sacrifice having that relationship but some people do have fun investing in their careers and doing their job too. To each his own.
I think enough information has been provided to students on this thread to make their own decisions - at this point I think you and other posters here should feel good about their contributions and just let them live it out as it is their lives.
Agree with @Midhelper. As parents or senior, rather than discouraging the students once the decision has been made, it is my belief that we should be encouraging them. You want them to go into the program with a positive frame of mind. It is true that there is no guarantee the student will achieve his/her goal by just working hard or be different. But, without those qualities, the student will definitely fail!
Trust me everyone, Don’t attempt to get into UMKC just because you think you can show off with a 33 or the best GPA, or valedictorian UMKC wants to see that you actually have experience in the medical field and know that you are capable of doing great things. I should know, I got a 25 on my ACT and graduated 100 in my class, but I got in with a scholarship that paid for most. I am currently in the fourth year and plan on choosing pediatrics. My advice, find some volunteer work in a hospital or attend a seminar on medical breakthroughs, don’t expect to get in just because you have good grades and and a high ACT score.
So there isn’t a minimum ACT score required to apply?
@Midhelper, From UMKC web site:
Admission Requirements
Fully admissible to UMKC (17 core requirements)
Missouri residents: top 20 percent of class; ACT of 26 or above
Non-Missouri residents: top 10 percent of class; ACT of 28 or above OR SAT composite of 1200 (critical reading and math)
Must be U.S. citizens or awarded permanent resident visa status by application deadline
Students under serious consideration are invited to interview
Those are the minimum requirements to even be considered, which is very different than matriculant statistics.
@Roentgen, Correct. The average ACT score for a student admitted to the B.A./M.D. program is a 31 (SAT 1380). The average unweighted high school GPA for a student admitted to the B.A./M.D. program is 3.80.
Wow those are averages which means there are some who got lower than that. Good option for some students.
@Midhelper, UMKC takes large percentage of their students from in-state student pool. ACT and GPA average for in-state students is significantly lower than regional and out of state student pools
Do those students with the lower stats still perform ok? What percent actually make it through?
@Midhelper, I don’t think that UMKC has any released statistics regarding the chances of one being able to make it through the curriculum, based on high school GPA and ACT/SAT scores. It would make for a great analysis though.
According to the article (this is from 2007), the attrition rate in the program is 20.6% (people who leave the program without getting their MD). This number of course doesn’t count people who extend within the program and go for 7/8 years and end up graduating with their MD
<a href=“The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine: T... : Academic Medicine”>The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine: T... : Academic Medicine;
(Click on “Article as PDF”)