She is considering go to Stony Brook BA/MD or USC regular with scholoship
@MOSTL1, congrats to Stony Brook. I would definitely choose that program over UMKC.
Congrats to all those who got in. Great jobs. Those who did not, never lose hope. I am sure you will hit more success in your future. Be +ve. One question to those who got in: How serious UMKC on this “17 core requirement”:“One unit of fine arts (visual arts, music, dance, or theater)”. OR Is it OK to have 16 out 17 requirements? My son has Spanish and English which I assume does not count in this category. Would appreciate your response. Thank you.
@perentofs, I had only 0.5 unit of fine arts. The admissions office can choose to waive the requirement based on rest of the application and high school transcript. We had contacted the undergrad admission office. You should call and discuss your situation.
@parentofs, I had only 0.5 unit of fine arts. The admissions office can choose to waive the requirement based on rest of the application and high school transcript. We had contacted the undergrad admission office. You should call and discuss your situation
Thank you docstudent.
Hi all. I got accepted to Boston University’s 7-year Accelerated Medical Program and University of Missouri Kansas City’s 6-year BA/MD program. I am considered out-of-state for both of these programs. My family plans to move with me wherever I go.
So, Boston University (BU) costs $60/65K per year (455K total), so the total tuition (when my family moves) doesn’t change because BU is a private university. University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) costs 60K for the first year, but then my tuition would go down to 30K—if my family moves and we’re considered in-state–(210K total). So there is a major cost difference.
However, UMKC is a tough program but there’s no MCAT requirement. It is also a less prestigious program compared to BU. However, BU is expensive, and I will also have to take the MCAT. I’ve also heard that the science classes are hard to get “good” grades in.
So, the question is, which program do I choose and why? Thank you for your help!
@hogwards, if you can afford it, BU is my choice. The opportunity for quality research and networking is much better in the Northeast and this is priceless. My daughter is in the BU program and she got herself research opportunity at Mass General. Yes, BU is well known for grade deflation.
Disclosure: my son is on the OOS wait list for UMKC.
@hogwards, First I think your numbers are slightly off, for example at UMKC the first year you would pay about $40K, not 60K: <a href=“http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/finance/”>http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/finance/</a>
Tuition at BU is $45,686/yr:
<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/costs-aid-scholarships/tuition-and-fees/”>http://www.bu.edu/admissions/apply/costs-aid-scholarships/tuition-and-fees/</a>
Tuition at BU’s med school is: $52,426/yr
<a href=“Tuition & Fees | Office of the University Registrar”>http://www.bu.edu/reg/registration/tuition-and-fees/tuition-and-fees-2013-2014/</a>
BU tuition (3+4)= 346,762
UMKC out-of-state all 6 yrs. = 328,612 (difference: $18,150)
UMKC 1 out-of-state + 5 in-state = $188,399 (difference: $158,363)
You might want to check and be sure that if you do buy a house to establish residency (which you would sell back after you graduate) that you are guaranteed to pay in-state tuition. It would suck to do all that, and then not be granted in-state tuition.
I think it depends what your eventual specialty goals are. BU has residencies in many of the competitive specialties if you happen to be interested in them, that UMKC just does not have: Rad Onc, Derm, Neurosurg, ENT, Urology, etc. If you’re going for something like IM/Peds/FM, these can easily be gotten by going to UMKC. Remember, you can still subspecialize after IM and Peds, with GI and Cards being the most competitive for IM. Coming from BU, you would still have the chance to match into high caliber institutions in IM and Peds.
BU also has a lot more name recognition and access to medical research at BU (Rank #32 in Research, #35 in Primary Care), but also at Tufts and Harvard, bc they’re in Boston as well. If you’re successful at BU, you won’t be geographically limited when it comes to interviews. UMKC is unranked in research, and unranked in primary care.
At BU, you do 3 years of undergrad (with summers off) and then you start from scratch when you enter medical school with the first 2 years of basic science being strict Pass/Fail. At UMKC, you do 6 years with your GPA calculated from Year 1 all the way to Year 6. All medical school Basic Sciences at UMKC are letter graded.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the grade deflation at BU during undergrad as a factor bc by the time you enter BU’s medical school and then apply for the residency match, your grades in undergrad won’t matter. I would still try to aim well - to get merit scholarships if you can. The average matriculating MCAT at BU is 34, you only have to get a 30.
It’s a hard decision, and I don’t know what your financial situation is, but I would go with BU based on the name recognition, opportunities for research all over Boston, and home residencies in competitive specialties.
@IMGDAD and @Roentgen, Thank you both for your quick responses. This information will definitely help
me make my final decision.
Be sure you can get instate at UMKC with a family move like that. For some reason, I remember UMKC had a form you had to sign agreeing to be locked to out of state tuition, but that was a few years ago.
If you are sure about medicine, I would do BU. If you are good enough to get in there, I am going to assume a 30 MCAT isn’t that big of a hurdle.
@Johnny H, yes, I was also going to say that I was almost 100% sure that UMKC makes out-of-state med students sign from the beginning a form saying that they agree to pay out-of-state tuition for the entire time they’re in the program (even if you extend), so you can’t claim in-state tuition later. @hogwards, you might want to check to make sure that this is no longer the case.
Has anybody in the program heard anything about transferring? I really wanted to join the 6 year program but I was rejected after interviewing. I know first year college students are welcome to apply, but has anybody heard anything about their success rate? Doing 1 year at a different university then transferring is essentially the same thing as doing the 7 year program there – plus the workload shouldn’t be terrible since I would have already taken a lot of the required courses.
Edit:
Also does anybody have any recommendations on how to strengthen my application? I have about 50 hours of shadowing at a trauma 1 ER and I have a few hundred hours of volunteering at a local hospital. I want to strengthen my application this summer.
As we have been researching this program, I have come across a lot of references to high drop out rate for UMKC BS/MS 6 program, but have not seen any statistics. Does any one have any stats around this ? I believe that they generally look to admit around 110 students.Of that, how many make it out of the program, and how many get residency matches (i.e. are there students who get no residency at all). Also, what is the average USMLE score for this school ? From looking at the match list, it appears that there are decent residency matches, albeit, most of them around the KC/Mo area.
- <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; (2007)
–“As might be expected, the attrition rate in this school is higher than those of traditional four-year medical schools. Of all 3,377 students admitted at year one from 1970 through 2005, 20.6% left the program without the MD degree.”
<a href=“http://www.umkc.edu/provost/student-retention/retreat/som.ppt”>http://www.umkc.edu/provost/student-retention/retreat/som.ppt</a> (2009)
–“The overall attrition rate is 21% (1970-2009); 15% when you eliminate Year 1 and 2 students.”
–“Year 3-6 attrition is 6-8%”
As comparison, the overall average attrition rate at 4 year U.S. med schools is 3 percent, according to the AAMC.
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Most medical schools will not release statistics on their students who fail to get any residency at all. There are students in medical school that only match into an internship are counted as being “matched”. Schools usually don’t keep track of where these students end up after they’ve graduated.
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I have no idea what their current average USMLE Step 1 score is or what their passage rate for first-time test takers is. This might be something you ask them directly and I would try to get it for more than just 1 year, maybe over the past 5 years. Hopefully you will get a direct answer, as this info. is sometimes hard to get from any medical school, unless the school voluntarily divulges or posts it (which some do).
@hogwards, If I were you, I would take the UMKC Option, below is why,
Docent: UMKC’s docent program is one of the best
Clinicals: UMKC’s clinicals are extremely thorough
Experience: They ensure that you have plenty of volunteer options and get to travel around Hospital Hill
MCAT: Lokk, the MCAT isn’t easy. Before I attained my MD degree, I spent hours on end studying for that MCAT. I spent so much time my grades slipped due to me focusing more on the test than my schoolwork. I dont regret it since I made an excellent score, and I was able to improve my grades
Price: ABOUT 20K CHEAPER
I would take UMKC,not BU. UMKC is cheaper, and has a thorough program
@Futurepower, I’m guessing you’re an MD-only student, as you said you took the MCAT? The reason I ask is that many of my friends who took the MCAT used MCAT books along with classes, which made learning the info. Not arguing with you, just bringing in different way of doing it.
Also the price isn’t exactly a selling point for everyone, depending on whether you’re classified as in-state, regional, or out-of-state. I do think it’s important to consider what medical specialty you’re aiming for too.
I think the pricing will be comparable since both will be out of state. The docent program is not worth touting. If you got into BU, your test taking ability should be good enough for the MCAT (assuming you learn the premed material). The people I know who did the BU program don’t have many complaints and are doing good residencies. That being said, it does matter specifically what you had in mind for residency and career options.
@Johnny H, yes, I was confused about that too. Only UMKC has the “docent” system. It’s not like you will be less clinically adept if you go to a med school not named UMKC.
Does anybody know anything about applying as a transfer? I was rejected this past year after the interview. Does anybody know of any current transfers at UMKC?