Does the interviewer ask probing questions like “Why UMKC” and “What will you do if you’re not accepted” during the traditional station of the MMI, or should you speak about these things without being asked?
@ElliotPiano, if you have a traditional station, then it will work like the normal traditional medical school interview. To be fair, those are not really probing questions. You will definitely be asked why you are choosing UMKC’s 6 year combined program over doing the traditional route, as most medical students in the United States are traditional 4+4 students and don’t even do a combined 6/7/8 year program from high school. So u really have to have a coherent answer for that - why UMKC’s program and why a 6 year program. You may be asked what would you do if you’re not accepted - and that question is mainly to test your determination.
Looking back it’s a really pertinent question bc along with academics, college involves a lot of growth in maturity from 18 to 22 and with the program, you’re skipping out on that experience and that’s something you have to be ok with in this program. If you’re someone who might like Dentistry (UMKC has a fantastic dental school and actually used to have a 6 year BA/DDS program), Pharmacy (UMKC still has a 6 year BA/PharmD program, I think), Optometry, Nursing, Engineering, Business, etc. then the UMKC 6 year program is not really meant for that type of person.
Very few people know what it is like beforehand, before jumping into such a rigorous program, which is why this question gets asked.
I am having my interview tomorrow. I was offered an interview December 23rd, 2014. I did apply by the early notification deadline. Since my application, my desire to actually attend UMKC has dwindled, but I am still going to the interview to keep my options open.
Below are some of my stats, hopefully they might help:
ACT: 34 (2nd time)
GPA: 4.00 uw, 4.54 weighted
Class Rank: Top 6th percent
Some specific courses I’ve taken (besides the basic classes):
-AP Calc AB, Honors Pre-Calc
-AP Bio, Anatomy & Physiology
-APUSH, AP Euro, AP Gov, Sociology (2 sem.), Psychology
-AP Lit, AP Language, AP Spanish V/Honors 4, H. 3.5, H 2.5, 1.5
-AP Advanced Forensics, Advanced Debate
-Drawing I/II, Painting I/II, Independent Study, Graphic Design, Journalism
So rigorous classes but well rounded, I’d like to say.
Other Qualifications:
-National Merit Commended
-Honors State/University Scholar
-President of National Science Honors Society, Member of NAHS, SHNS, NHS
-Published in a Poetry Magazine, also had 2 photographs published in a Art Curation Magazine
-Piano player for 3 years, attended many recitals w/ high marks
-Awards for Forensics/Debate
-Tutored students in local library in many subjects, including debaters
-For 2 years, taught at Sunday School as a volunteer teacher for 2nd grade
-Work Experience: Summers and often weekends, I make excel forms for plugging in expenses and other simple tax material, website management, advertisement work. Basically the tech stuff for a local small business
-Volunteer at the library, school, small events, etc.
Health Oriented ECs:
-Volunteered at local free clinics
-Created a forum during SciNHS meetings at my school to discuss current scientific research, usually supported with ted talks and other visuals
-Attended STEM research seminars
-Hospital Volunteering Hours
-400+ hours of shadowing local doctors (thankfully, my friends’ parents were willing to let me shadow at their private practices)
-Organized two fundraisers (with my parents) for SK Cancer Hospital, a hospital that treats a majority of its patients for free
-Two AP Biology research projects that required extensive research outside of school/home
Arthritis Research and “The Effects of Procedural Music on Heart Rate/BP”
My strong suit is formal writing, so I believe my essays were interesting and eye catching.
That’s all I can think of right now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I just made an account, even though I’m done applying to colleges and whatnot 
got done with the UMKC mini medical interview…awesome xperience.- well organized…great hospitality… fantastic school ambience ! Approx 300 interviewed and 110 selected.
My question is for anyone who is already in the 6 year program… Since there are no cadavers(cant believe that!) in the anatomy classes at UMKC’s school of medicine, I was wondering how good the program is…how is the quality of the faculty …and isn’t it a bit premature to push 3rd year student to work in the outpatient wards…current/past students , your replies will be most appreciated.
@psatbob, congrats on your interview, hope it went well. I remember my interview, even when it was a traditional interview, and it’s always been pretty laid back in terms of the admissions process. You asked about the quality of the faculty are you talking about the undergraduate faculty, the medical school basic sciences faculty, or the clinical faculty?
I graduated in 2009 so I’m a “past” student, so here’s my take. I think if you ask different students, you’ll get varied responses as to whether they thought the med program is good or was worth it. A lot of factors can go into that – how far away from home you are, if you’re going for primary care, how much tuition you’re paying, if you will only be happy being a physician versus something else. Medicine is a huge calling, and many times it’s difficult to understand the sacrifices you will be undertaking when you enter the program at 18. Most people understand the immense book studying involved, but not the other stuff that makes medicine difficult. It’s hard for people to know that when you’re just in high school and you have very little life experience.
You’ll see at UMKC’s med school that a lot of things are done more because of tradition, not necessarily bc it’s the best way to do things: http://med2.umkc.edu/40/began.shtml. For example, since the opening of the school, the program has always been a 6 year combined program. It opened up at a time around when we needed a lot of doctors and quickly, including primary care physicians. So now even though people bring up concerns about the curriculum, the total length never really changes, bc everyone is so used to it being a 6 year program. It’s really difficult to change the arrangement of courses in the UMKC med program bc you’re getting a bachelor and MD degree at the same time.
Same for cadavers, on one of my Year 5 rotations, a UMKC alum attending told me the reason they don’t have cadaver dissection in Anatomy at UMKC is because the founder of the med school did not want students’ first encounter with a patient to be a dead body, vs. interacting with a living patient. That’s probably more a historical factoid, but even now students do not dissect in the Human Structure Function course. All the Structure Function lab sessions involve cadavers that have already been prosected by the faculty - Dr. Rinaldi and Dr. Cole. There are now available dissection 1-month electives you can take – I think one is called Thorax and Abdomen, and the second is called Head and Neck, but you have to have room in your schedule to take those, assuming by then you even want to do it. Personally, I think I would have learned better if I got to dissect. I’m a visual person when it came to learning Anatomy, so I thought it was difficult to appreciate certain concepts when I couldn’t see it myself on a cadaver. Others felt it didn’t matter whether they dissected or not when it came to learning so there isn’t just one answer.
About the outpatient clinics, going thru the program, I felt like you did initially and wondered why clinics weren’t done after basic sciences, because during Year 3 and part of Year 4 - you take Microbiology, Neuroscience, Pathology, and Pharmacology. But the truth is there never really is a perfect time to take it. A lot of things in clinic are things you don’t learn in classes. When you start Year 3, you enter an outpatient Internal Medicine clinic along with other students in your group who are from Year 3 to Year 6. You are usually paired with a Year 5 senior partner student who mentors you in Year 3, and then as a Year 6 when you’re a Year 4 so you slowly gain proficiency in seeing and evaluating patients during these clinics as well as during your inpatient Docent Rotation. Docent Rotation is your typical inpatient Internal Medicine rotation that all medical students do. You do this in Year 4, 5, and 6. Unlike other medical schools, everyone at UMKC does a lot of Internal Medicine required stuff whether they want to or not. By the time we graduated some of us liked it, and others were sick of it. I do think that your Docent you are assigned to in Years 3-6 can really affect how much you like and learn from the experience. Unless things have changed, if you feel like you and your Docent don’t click, you do get one and only one change to another Docent.
@Roentgen First thank you for your information and advice. My S is determined to have a career in medicine and UMKC may be the only BA/MD program he would be accepted (he had his interview a couple of days ago). No to take the cost into consideration, should he go if accepted? There is no guarantee to get into med school after undergrad. UMKC may not be the top medical school in the country but at leas my son will have a career in medicine. I know that this is a difficult question but would appreciate your thought. As his parents, we don’t know what advice to iHow do you like to be a doctor now that you finished the program five years ago.
Are they still interviewing? what could be selecction process after interview ?
@popsys, according to the website - all interviews take place in February: http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/timeline/. So if interviews are going on, today is the last day. So after this the Council on Selection comes together to make decisions.
@efr009, I’ll try to answer each of your questions, but I would say first off, I think cost is something you should take into consideration. It’s a factor just like any other decision. You don’t want to go to a school where you feel like you’re paying more for a crappy school. What specialties is your son considering? I’m assuming based on your past posts that you guys would qualify for regional tuition, which is half-way between in-state and out-of-state tuition.
I think it’s great as parents that you are helping your son with this decision. I think the key is to advise him and not to pressure or force your decision on him. Each of his choices has a list of pros and cons that only he can be ok with, and I think regardless of his decision you should support him 100% with no voicing of hindsight regrets. I would also tell him to make sure he has thought things out thoroughly regarding medicine and ask him to explain how he was able to reach that conclusion. This is more important with health care reform, so called “Obamacare” when a lot of medicine will be changing. Even in medicine, there are alternate occupations such as Nurse Practitioner (NP) and Physician Assistant (PA) as well which are less taxing and not as huge of a sacrifice as medical school. Contrary to what you may think, NP and PA school isn’t just for people who couldn’t make it to med school.
You’re correct, there is no guarantee of getting into medical school after undergrad but there is also no guarantee of getting thru the medical program, or a guarantee of getting into a residency either. Then what? Without a residency, your MD is pretty much useless. Much different from other careers in healthcare that don’t require a residency. Contrary to what a lot of people think, the hardest part of medical school isn’t always just getting in. It’s also doing well enough in medical school to get a residency, especially if you want to do a specialty in something that is not primary care. In all honesty, if premed is what is scaring someone from entering medical school in the first place, then really, this is the wrong field for you, bc classes, licensing exams, and rotations in med school will make that look like a walk in the park.
Don’t get me wrong - I was ecstatic to get in the program initially. It was also the only combined program I applied to as well. I think I almost felt pressured, not from my parents, but bc I also felt like this was my only chance to get into med school and there would be no way I could do it the normal way. That’s just not true. The truth is that a lot of us as Year 1s entered with the assumption that getting into medical school was difficult and/or impossible for us and that you have to have a perfect GPA, etc. to get in the normal way. I think one of the articles that @PinkPrincess2014 pasted mentioned a UMKC BA/MD student who said this, which is patently ridiculous. That’s really not the case in reality if you talk to those who have gone the normal route many of whom were my co-residents.
Unless you think you’re all of a sudden going to be lazy and not care at all in college, I think it’s a mistake to think that the UMKC program is the solution. The rat race doesn’t just stop upon entering medical school. It continues in med school for residency, and then again for fellowship. If anything going the normal route prepares you for working hard, doing well, taking standardized tests, which you’ll keep taking throughout med school, residency, fellowship, and even as an attending. It also allows you to be more well rounded in terms of growing up, knowing that only being a physician will satisfy you, learning about things that are not just sciences, which contributes to you being a more well-rounded doctor.
You’re right - UMKC is not the top med school in the country, but I don’t think getting into a top medical school is the issue for most people. Very few people in the U.S. will be getting into the top 10 medical schools in the country. The rest go to very great and well-funded public state medical schools. Depending on the state you live in, there are really good places that aren’t top 10 med schools, but are ranked higher than UMKC’s program. In terms of medical school rankings, UMKC, as a medical school, is ranked in the bottom tier of medical schools, and its placement of graduates are mainly in the midwest
I like what I am doing now - I am an anesthesiologist and I did a fellowship, but how I feel is irrelevant for your son, bc medicine isn’t a one size fits all thing for people. I didn’t explore other fields - could I have been just as happy going into Dentistry, Optometry, or Pharmacy? or becoming an NP or PA? I don’t know bc I never shadowed those careers to see if it was a better deal. I knew I liked science and I knew I wanted to do some type of healthcare. There are so many choices - not just MD (physician) or RN (nurse). Even in Anesthesiology, we have CRNAs (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) and AAs (Anesthesiology Assistants) as well who make quite a good living. Going thru medical school and becoming a physician has positives and negatives like every other career choice. It isn’t all positives, like many students and some parents think it is. Physicians have to be on call in the hospital depending on the specialty, and while that is fun initially, it does get old and sometimes get in the way of family life. Also, with healthcare reform, sometimes called “Obamacare”, medicine will be changing a lot in terms of reimbursement, salaries of physicians, etc. which is all the more reason to kind of know what you’re getting into.
@popsys, All interviews took place from Feb. 23-26. So yes, interviews are done.
what do you guys think , Pretty good stats and decent interview should be ok to get seat.Wooried right now …
@psatbob, I pretty much agree with all of what Roentgen said. I would also add that the Docent (pronounced “Dough-cent”) system worked well for some people, others hated it for different reasons. There are some fantastic Docents who go out of their way to teach students. Other Docents pretty much leave teaching up to the Senior Partners to teach which can vary a lot and expect you to learn and pick things up on your own. Being a Docent at UMKC is a real hard job, so looking back, I can see why it was hard for some Docents to do well. Docents come and go, but there are those who stay and are well-known.
It gets to be more of a pain when it comes to having to miss class like Pharmacology or for doing things out of town – for example, if you wanted to take a Kaplan course in another city, out-of-town electives at other medical schools, etc. bc UMKC wants you to be in clinic for a certain number of months each year or bc too few students would be in clinic certain months - although the last thing doesn’t happen as often, usually.
The Docent system: Year 1 & 2, but much more in Years 3-6 with clinic and Docent Rotation are what set it apart from other traditional medical schools. What’s debatable I think is how much of a difference the Docent system makes when it comes to residency program perceptions of UMKC graduates when it comes to getting interviews for residency and with different specialties. Those questions are best to ask graduating Year 6 students who are going thru the match as well as those who have graduated recently.
You might read here for someone who was deciding between the 6 year program at UMKC vs. the 6 year program at Jefferson, as they talk about it the Docent system:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/143289-umkc-vs-jmc-p1.html
If you want to find out more about how the Docent system works I would read here: http://med.umkc.edu/docs/SOM/AcademicPlan.pdf
Hi.
Re “Interviews” you may wonder their impact? I thought they were super important, but I spoke to Asst Dean Alice Arredondo in room 421 during a quiet time on interview day - so this is direct from the Assistant Dean of Admissions! She said that interviews carried a lot of weight, to which I asked, “How much, are they 50% or 75%?” She said they decide with a holistic system, so I repeated my question very nicely - her reply was:
" (1) the cognitive meaning grades, difficulty of courses taken, and ACT scores count for 50%, the interviews have no impact on that portion of the factors.
(2) the interviews are graded with a number for each of the 10 stations, and you are only scored for what the station is seeking. So if the prompt seeks to test your cooperativeness, then the fact you show great honesty and intelligence is not reflected in your score for that station. All scores from all 10 stations are then added, as well as any comments that the interviewer wrote.
(3) The interview score from step #2 above is added to the non-cognitive portion of your application - which are you medical activities, non-medical activities, leadership, and essays. She would not sat “how much the interview counted in this non- cognitive portion, but when I press was it > 50%, she said it was great, but not that much.”
So in summary, I learned from the Asst Dean of admissions that the admission decision is holistic - which I have learned by pressing her means that 50% of the decision is on an applicant’s cognitive information and the other 50% is on the non-cog, and that the interviews are less than 50% of the non-cog. Therefore the interviews are less than 25% (and may even be as low as 12.5%) of the admission criteria for decision by the committee.
So if you have good GPA, ACT, and difficult courses (like IB or AP) and you wrote good essays as well as had good SC then the interview would probably not impact your admission decision even if you bombed. Similarly, if you have a poor GPA for your status (eh MO resident, regional or out of state) and so-so essays and weak EC, then even with a fantastic perfect interview score you will not really improve your admission chances by much. Do the math, give yourself a 1 to 10 on cognitive, and then do your non-cog as follows: 1 to 10 on your essays, 1 to 10 on your EC, leadership, etc, 1 to 10 on how you think you did on the interviews and then add those 3 scores and divide the sum by 3, then add that number to your cog score and divide by 2, that will be your best guess chance for admission! If you play with it, you will see how the interviews are a factor, and in close cases there ma be an impact, but that would be only when you got all 10 perfect or bombed all 10 interviews. Bottomli8ne is the interviews have a small impact. And unlike other me school interviews, these interviews were graded numerically, not subjective and were looking for one a certain trait, so the fact that you had the personality of Bill Clinton and had everyone in the interview ready to vote for you has no real impact.
Oh, one final thing. The Asst Dean also said one station, she would not tell me which one, and I have no clue rom the ones who interviewed me, but one interviewer was a member of the admissions committee. So besides the numerical score, I assume if you mooned that person you would be denied admission, lol. Seriously, if you showed a desire for $ or such with that person, then the interview could probably have an indirect major impact on your admission, just as if you were like Mother Theresa then there would probably be a major positive impact about you with a voting committee member. But I doubt that the prompts gave little chance for such impact.
So if you got an otherwise great application - and you should have talked with some of the 80 other kids there each day to get a sense of were you stood, then you got a great chance for admissions regardless of your interview. Interviews are weighted much lower than I thought, so relax everyone!
PS I thought the summer even was better organized, the interview day seemed very disorganized, and there was no final wrap up like during the summer. I am not complaining, just an observation. I did meet a lot of nice people - both UMKC people and applicants.
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
@HopingMD, here is a list of Council on Selection members: http://med2.umkc.edu/councils/cos.shtml. I don’t know if it changes year to year. Did you recognize any of the names here?
your post very consoling here. hope this is true, ACT and difficult courses play good role. being regional, we were quite impressed with this school.
I read those names, but I do not recognize any of them. Re my interviews - I thought that I did a good job, and I know the interviewers all acted nice regardless, I would not say 100, but I really think I was a 90 something, HOWEVER, since I have no clue, I gave myself a total score of 7.5 (75%) for all 10 interviews total, which is very low ball - but I have no rubric so that was my low ball guess of my worst possible guess. I know that I did not bomb it, I found the prompts fair, reasonable and easy to understand, so I could not get worse. Or could I? Arrogance is a negative and that 75% minimum sounds arrogant, so I lowered my score to 60%. Still with my Cog and my other non-cog factors, a 60% on the interview had no impact unless a fellow applicant was otherwise equally tied with me and he/she got a 99% on the interview.
Sorry I do not recognize any of those names, it was a whirlwind of a day.
What did you think of the Toledo? I thought it was super easy, I hope their chemistry classes are more difficult.
Regional has a GREAT chance, the 2014 data that was given to us on interview day showed regional have almost as many slots as resident!
As an oos, I wanted to know how to factor in the interview, I know my other stats are good - although my essays are subjectively graded by me as a 6, even though I thought they were great, as did those who reviewed them, So I was concerned about how to factor in the interview, that is why I pestered Asst Dean Arredondo. I hope I did not upset her, she seemed nice and we also talked about other things. I felt like I did very well on the interviews, even though I score myself only a 60%, so I really wish they counted as more.
So @popsys if you have good grades, good ACT and some medical/leadership experience, you should be doing well as long as you did not moon each interviewer!!!
@HopingMD, Yes, the Toledo Chemistry Test was definitely easy for me. I googled the practice questions and found them to be relatively easy. It’s used as a placement test for Chemistry and made by the American Chemical Society, not UMKC. If you’ve taken AP Chemistry (I’m taking it now) then it’s super easy. Did you interview at any other BS/MD programs?
To help people next year who will be applying:
The exam:
http://rheum4us.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Toledo_Chemistry_Placement_Exam.pdf
http://www.utoledo.edu/nsm/chemistry/undergrad/placementtest.html
Sample questions I found from Googling:
http://homepages.utoledo.edu/ajorgen/practicequiz.asp
https://www.deanza.edu/admissions/placement/chem.pdf
http://www.csn.edu/PDFFiles/Testing%20Center/CHEMPlacementPracticeLink.pdf
http://www.chemistry.sfsu.edu/placement_chem115/chem115-sample-placement.pdf
@popsys, the website says:
The incoming class will be 110 – 115 students
—> 60-65 students admitted from the state of Missouri
—> 30-35 students admitted from the regional states (Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska or Oklahoma)
—> 10-15 students admitted from out-of-state.
So I think you have a really good chance at making it in since you’re regional.
@PinkPrincess2014
I interviewed at GW, Commonwealth, and Brown, those are the only three other accelerated programs that I interviewed at, their interviews were much more in depth and weight much more.interviewed at. I also interviewed at MIT for bioengineering, that will be a killer program if I get in, the students their are a cross of Newton, Einstein, and a computer, extremely dedicated super intelligent students. I never have been frightened of competition before, but they are not human at MIT, they are way beyond a mere mortal like me.
How about you, @PinkPrincess2014 what other accelerated MD programs did you interview at?
Thanks for posting about the Toledo. I knew about it and asked Brian during the summer presentation, no one else there had an idea what I was talking about. On my interview day, one student did not have a calculator, he did not even know there would be a chemistry test, A nice guy, I had a spare and let him borrow it (I always carry a back up, in case one breaks or gets lost by absent-minded me). But, I was amazed her did not know when the interview letter made that very clear. Another student did not know there was MMI format, he thought it was one regular interview. Again, my interview letter made that very clear and @UMKCRoosMD gave a lot of good prep information on that. I guess some people do not read the entire email from the school.
Also, how are your “vibes” on the school? I really was excited this summer, but I am beginning to have some reservations if I get accepted. But, that is a big IF, lol.