@Watang Yes.
@ElliotPiano Phew ok I’m not gonna lose hope
Has there been a Facebook group made yet?
@Watang: It will be made after May 1st (probably May 2nd), which is different from prior years when it was made while things were still in flux: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19456689/#Comment_19456689
[Part 1 of 2]
To those who were accepted, some things you might want to consider as you’re deciding among various options, including regular undergraduate programs:
- Ask if you can go back and take a tour of the UMKC medical school again. Unlike interview day, when you were probably tired from the very long day, and may not have been paying attention by that point w/a glazed look in your eyes, you now have the opportunity to really get a fresh look, take note, and understand the characteristics about the school, and get to see the school in a totally different mindset (interview day vs. now fact-finding). This time, you can might meet current med students along the way in which you can ask actual very real questions about the program one on one and get their honest and candid takes about the school. Or if they are relatively busy at that moment, you can maybe give them your email and phone number to talk with you later on in the week when they have time, after their work day – this is probably best as they can give you comprehensive answers then, rather than while a tour is going on. Remember, you’ve already gotten the acceptance at this point, that decision has been made. So now it’s just you finding out the nitty gritty about the school that you were either too afraid to ask on interview day for whatever reason, or I guess as some families did, decided they would put it off and wait until AFTER decisions were out to finally start asking questions – not exactly a great game plan, but if that’s you, you have a lot of work ahead of you to catch up. Remember with any combined program – you’re committing to 2 things at once as a high school senior – the undergraduate school and the attached medical school.
To those who will ask me whether as regional/out-of-state students is it worth it to do the tour again, I would say yes, on the condition, that you truly take advantage of asking current students your questions (so be prepared), especially those who are also regional/out-of-state, as their view will likely differ in significant ways from those who are in-state for a variety of reasons. UMKC med students are very friendly people (on average), so they’re more than happy to help those who are genuinely deciding whether to go the alternative route thru a combined program. Even for undergraduate institutions, people do “second looks” all the time, which happens also during the traditional medical school application process in which some have “second look” days, so this is not at all unusual.
- Financial Aid – your parents are probably looking very intently over these forms (some probably freaking out at the potential cost!). For those who are regional and out-of-state, you can find out from current regional/out-of-state students how likely it is that you’ll be able to get in-state tuition eventually, and if they know anyone who has been successful in doing so, whom you can also get in contact with or they can put you in contact with if you give them your email/number to find out what the requirements are. Ask what scholarships are available and how much it truly cuts at the total cost. If you’ve hired a financial analyst (as I recommended earlier in the thread), this will also be very helpful to navigate the financial aspect, with regards to what your total principal amount and total accrued interest thru the program would be, seeing when you’d have to start making student loan repayments and how much taking into account your budget and salary as a resident, calculating different life scenarios like eventually getting married or buying a house, student loan repayments based on certain govt. programs – PAYE, IBR, etc., what your loan repayments per month would be if, at a minimum, you matched into Family Medicine and did a 3 year residency with the median salary for that specialty, and of course, how long it would take you pay off your student loans, etc.
A book that was helpful to me: http://www.amazon.com/AMA-Physicians-Guide-Financial-Planning/dp/1579478751, although a little dated now, but the concepts are the same.
[Part 2 of 2]
- Please see my previous posts in asking questions about this program:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19349052/#Comment_19349052
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19349069#Comment_19349069
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19349070/#Comment_19349070
Besides the official Peer Mentors they have now, who I believe are current Year 1s (so they’ll be Year 2s in the fall), you can also get in contact with current UMKC Med students by messaging them through Facebook. Several suggestions – identify yourself - stating who you are, where you’re from, and that you’ve gotten an acceptance to the BA/MD program, but are still weighing all your options or wanting to know more about the program and would like their very honest and candid opinions, and would like to discuss the program with them more in depth, if that’s ok. You can either discuss thru Facebook, by email, or by phone. Phone is probably best since you’ll probably have quite a few questions. Just FYI, at this point, the best people to talk with are Year 5s (Class of 2017) and Year 6s (Class of 2016, who just recently matched), who have gone thru most, if not all of the program – they have a vantage point of being close to or at the top of the mountain, and see the program in its entirety. They’ve gone thru the basic science coursework, they’ve jumped thru the required hoops to take Step 1, they’ve gone thru the required Year 5 clerkships at UMKC’s affiliated hospitals, they’ve experienced Continuity Clinic and DoRo, they’ve done audition rotations at other institutions w/traditional students (Year 6), they’ve gone on residency interviews Year 6), they’ve taken Step 2 CK and CS (Year 6) under the new readiness policy, they know the resources and opportunities that are available and not available at the school in terms of board preparation, matching into certain specialties, research, they can tell you how helpful their faculty mentors were if they were going for a specific specialty that you might be interested in, they can tell you the positives and negatives of this route and any observations they had while going thru the program, whether they’d do the route again, etc.
If you are from California, find a current student from California. If you’re from Florida, find someone from Florida. If you’re from Illinois or Oklahoma, find someone from those states, as those people will understand even more where you’re coming from in terms of evaluating this program from that perspective.
One word of advice – word your questions properly, to get the right answers. Don’t ask students questions like “Are you happy?” Guess what, 9 times out of 10, you walk up to anyone and ask them if they’re happy, they’re going to say, yes!!! It’s a natural response. Most people aren’t going to come out and say, “No, I’m completely miserable right now.” Your questions need to be specific. For example, don’t ask – How did you feel about your boards? (a vague question that could be interpreted a myriad of ways, in which the answers won’t be useful to you). Ask instead, “How good of a job did you feel your courses prepared you for your boards?” or “How long do you think you needed after classes were over to study for boards?” or “What resources did the school offer to you when you were preparing for boards?” Another example: Don’t ask, “How are clinical rotations?”, ask, “What exactly do you do as a student on your Year 5 clinical rotations [or DoRo, or Continuity Clinic, or Year 1 & 2 Docent, whatever you wish to insert here]?” One more example: Don’t ask, “How is student life?”, ask “How involved are BA/MD students on campus and in what organizations?”
You can also do the same with UMKC Med alumni as I detail how to do that in the above links, although these people should be graduated alumni from the last decade and a half. So don’t be asking people who graduated in the 1970s/1980s as the combined program has changed tremendously since then.
Ask as many students/alumni as you can. The more viewpoints you get from different people, the more informed of a decision you can make. It will take some work to be this proactive, but it’s worth it.
And of course, at the end, thank the person for taking the time out of their day to go thru the intricacies of the program with you and answer your questions, to help in your decision-making process.
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You can, of course, ask questions to the Admissions Office, that has staff on hand to answer any and all of your questions, or at least connect you with someone in which you can get the answer you seek. Remember, again, you’ve already gotten the acceptance in hand, so don’t be afraid to ask the questions that are important and will be important to you later. They’re very understanding that this is an important decision for you and your family to be making and that you need all of the facts at your disposal to make a truly informed decision.
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And, of course, you can always continue to ask your questions here.
Have all notifications been sent? It seems like there are not many postings announcing acceptance/rejection.
@4beardolls, yes, all notifications for the UMKC BA/MD program have been sent regarding being admitted, placed on the alternate/wait list, or denied to the program. There was a slight uptick in posts on the thread all at once, like 20 yesterday, lol, which caught me by surprise.Those accepted have until May 2 to make their decision after which the alternate/wait lists will be looked at, if necessary, to fill the class to the specified number. My guess is many people are waiting for other Bachelor/MD program decisions that likely will come on April 1. I was incorrect in thinking that decisions would come out around the same time as last year, which was March 27th, I believe.
If we do a year of undergrad at UMKC and then reapply for the program, do they care about high school grades?
@Watang, you can definitely do a year of undergrad at UMKC (or other universities, for that matter - like at Mizzou) and then reapply (although you’d have the benefit of UMKC classes counting towards your GPA if you got in the program during freshman year). The deadline would be November 1st for those people, they don’t qualify for Early Notification. I’ve definitely known people who have done this. I’m not sure how much high school grades would factor in then, but most likely there would be much more of an emphasis on your Fall Semester grades, since you’d be taking many of the same undergraduate classes as BA/MD students (assuming you did it at UMKC). There is also the relatively new Medical Scholars Program that’s been created as well: http://med.umkc.edu/md/med_scholars_program/.
Just FYI, for those who will be applying this next year in the fall, I checked just now on the website, and it looks like they have taken away the Early Notification option (where the deadline date was October 15 and you found out about interviewing in December). It will now just only be one deadline of November 1, for everybody: http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/timeline/, the way it’s always been in the past.
The new application for both the General Application for Admission to UMKC and the School of Medicine Online Supplemental Application will be available in August.
Something that I think are worth mentioning: In order to attend the first orientation date (I’m unsure when this is, since I have not accepted the offer yet), you must submit the advance deposit by April 8 (just needs to be postmarked by then). From my understanding, the first orientation date is the most desirable since you can get “good” class time. I’m not sure how much leeway 6-year med students have in choosing their classes, but still.
@Roentgen I passed the Toledo Chemistry Exam. Do you think it is worth taking Chem 1 over the summer, so I can take Chem 2 in the fall and Orgo in the spring? I heard it is better to take Organic Chem in the spring because it is a challenging course. What is your insight about this matter?
Does anyone know when classes start in the fall and what time frame is move-in day usually?
So in terms of orientation, I will say this. There will be several orientation dates available (April 23, June 10, June 17, June 18, June 25, July 22, July 23, and July 30), but the School of Medicine will only be present at particular dates (so only those specific ones will be available to you): http://www.umkc.edu/orientation/freshman.cfm. First Day of classes will be August 22. Move in Day will be a few days before that, August 17th: http://info.umkc.edu/housing/student-resources/moving-in/. When it comes to advising, it will be done thru the Year 1 & 2 ETCs, not advisors from the College of Arts and Sciences or the School of Biological Sciences (unless you elect to do the Guaranteed Admissions Baccalaureate/M.D. Program). Until you complete Orientation, your Pathway account will have an active hold on it, which can only be released during orientation so you can sign up for classes.
I think it’s kind of silly to have an April Orientation date, as students are still enrolled in school and not everyone can just jet/drive off to KC (although it is on Saturday), but I don’t make the rules. I honestly don’t think it will make a difference, since the next one is not until June 10 and then throughout the summer.
Certain classes you will have to be placed in regardless, because you are a Year 1 BA/MD student — Year 1 Docent, LBMS, Med Terminology, Anatomy 119 (or I guess the number has now been changed to 219), Anatomy 119L (now 219L, or 218L if you’re doing the Biology BA). These are BA/MD specific courses/sections, regardless of what the enrollment numbers are, you WILL be placed in these courses. Everything else you take is an undergraduate course and you are now credit limited to 22 or 23 hours in the Fall/Spring semesters. There are usually several sections of certain courses – Soc 101, Psych 210, this Anchor/Discourse stuff, etc. so that’s usually not a problem. During the first week of classes, people are adding and dropping all the time, so you can add it on Pathway then, or take an add slip to the professor to sign and have it forced in by the registrar’s office in the Administrative Center.
In terms of the Chemistries, I do recommend that you come in with some type of General Chemistry + Lab credit. This can be through AP credit (you now have to have at least a “4” to get one semester’s worth of credit, a “5” for two semesters worth of credit), IB credit, or thru transfer by taking it at a local college or university. If you decide to take it in the UM System over the summer (at UMKC, UM-St.Louis, Mizzou, Missouri S&T in Rolla), then you get grade points for it towards your GPA. If you take it outside of the UM-system then you will only get credit for it, when it’s transferred to UMKC (although if for some reason you were to decide later to go the traditional route, and do the AMCAS application process, it will count towards that AMCAS GPA).
If you got provisional admission, then I believe you have to get a B or better (not B-, so don’t tempt fate), in BOTH the Lecture and the Lab courses. If you’ve taken AP Chemistry (but just not taken the exam), General Chemistry will be a retread of this. There are some colleges in the KC area and in St. Louis as well as in other states, based on how they schedule things, have General Chem I + Lab the first half of the summer, and General Chem II + Lab in the second half of the summer. So if you took both, you’d get credit for both. It would be like you took the AP Chemistry test and got a “5”: http://www.umkc.edu/registrar/transfer-credit/default.asp#anchor-2
Organic Chemistry, as a subject, is quite different than General Chemistry (AP Chemistry). Organic Chemistry is much more problem solving based and concept based. It’s not really a memorization or a regurgitation type of science, although there will definitely be some memorization involved in terms of mechanisms. It’s also more visuospatial in terms of seeing reaction mechanisms in 3D. The way you learn Organic Chem is by doing problems. What I’ve heard from students is that the professor who now teaches Chem 320 in the Spring is harder (whatever that means - as that could also be very well referring to the subject matter itself, since it’s quite different from what people are used to in General Chem), while the one who teaches it in the summer is more reasonable/easier (Dr. Gounev). You will have to ask Year 1 students themselves for their take on this. I will say the one who teaches it in the Spring now, seems to get good RateMyProfessor ratings (although some are dated): http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=635453.
In the Spring, Chem 320 is twice a week and Chem 320 Lab is once a week. In the Summer, because you only get 8 weeks of time to cover a semester’s worth of material, they have to go at double the speed. So Chem 320 meets 4 times a week, and Chem 320 Lab meets twice a week. You can see the syllabus here from last year: http://g.web.umkc.edu/gounevt/Orgo320/syllab320j.htm, and you can see the tests are pretty close together in terms of # of days.
So for Spring 2016, which you can see in Pathway here (everyone can access the public schedule, you just won’t be able to sign up for anything because of the hold): https://umkc.umsystem.edu/psp/prdpa/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/COMMUNITY_ACCESS.CLASS_SEARCH.GBL?AITS_HDR_CODE=2
Chem 320 is TuTh 3:00PM - 4:40PM
Chem 320 Lab is one day a week (Mo, We, or Fr depending on the section) from 9:00AM - 11:50AM
In the Summer, you can see:
Chem 320 is MoTuWeTh 11:45AM - 1:30PM
Chem 320 Lab is now two days a week (MoWe or TuTh) from 8:00AM - 10:50AM (when doing it one day a week is already a huge pain in the behind)
What makes the summer semester even more difficult is that you’ll also be taking Cell Biology in the summer, MoTuWeTh 2:00PM - 3:15PM, which will also be going double the speed, because you’re doing 16 weeks of material in 8 weeks, assuming you don’t take Cell Bio in the Fall, as there have been some students who have taken it in the Fall, because they got credit for both semesters of General Chemistry + Labs. I don’t know if that really is allowed now, as I’m sure they’ll be some unwritten rule as to why students can’t do it anymore.
Hey everyone,
This is my first post but I’ve been long time lurker on here !!! I was accepted to UMKC’s BA/MD program yesterday. I’m soo excited and looking forward to meeting you all. UMKC was my only combined program interview so I’ll definitely be accepting 
Also, having gone through the process now, I’m happy to answer questions for those that were unsuccessful or for future applicants!
@mscrystal, this has been pasted a million times before, but so you can see the degree plans that are in place (they don’t have the ones from 2016-2017, but they’ll be about the same)
Liberal Arts: http://www.umkc.edu/majormaps/maps/2015-2016/SOM_BLA_MD_2015_2016.pdf
Biology: http://www.umkc.edu/majormaps/maps/2015-2016/SOM_BA_MD_Bio_2015_2016.pdf
Chemistry: http://www.umkc.edu/majormaps/maps/2015-2016/SOM_BA_MD_Chem_2015_2016.pdf
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To see colleges/universities you can transfer credit from to UMKC: http://www.umkc.edu/registrar/transfer-credit/default.asp#anchor-1
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Transferology: https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/school/umkc
Also, please double check any of this information with your ETC by email just to make sure that you will indeed receive credit. I knew an upperclassman who for some reason or another, after having gotten credit for Chem II + Lab and Organic Chem 320 + Lab at UMKC, was told before Year 2 summer that her Chem I + Lab transfer credit wherever she took it, didn’t count at UMKC (this was found out suddenly in May at the end of Year 1), so they made the person take Chem I + Lab in the summer again, if you can believe that. So please make sure everything checks out.
So I forgot that besides the UMKC program, Mizzou Bryant Scholars Program, and Wash U University Scholars Program in Medicine, there is obviously also the SLU Medical Scholars program as well. Since there aren’t active separate threads for each of these programs, and many of you are deciding among some of these 4 in Missouri, as well as others in the nation within this next month, I’ve now also included SLU’s match lists as far back as I could Google, so that people can use them to look at in their decision making. Their 2016 list hasn’t come out yet, but I’m sure that will come out soon, as it will for the other schools.
UMKC:
2003-2014: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17808190/#Comment_17808190
2014: http://med.umkc.edu/sa/match-day-2014/
2015: http://med.umkc.edu/sa/match-day-2015/
2016: http://med.umkc.edu/sa/match-day-2016/
Mizzou:
http://medicine.missouri.edu/students/match-lists.html
Wash U in St. Louis:
https://residency.wustl.edu/Residencies/WUSMMatch/Pages/Home.aspx
Saint Louis University:
2009: http://docslide.us/documents/grand-rounds-magazine-spring-2009.html
2010: http://www.slu.edu/Documents/medicine/alumni/Grand%20Rounds/spring_2010_gr.pdf
2011: http://www.slu.edu/Documents/medicine/alumni/Grand%20Rounds/GrRd%20Spring2011.pdf
2012: http://www.slu.edu/Documents/medicine/alumni/Grand%20Rounds/12.083%20Whole%20v6.pdf
2013: http://www.slu.edu/medicine/admissions/match-list-2013
2014: http://www.slu.edu/medicine/admissions/match-list-2014
2015: http://www.slu.edu/medicine/admissions/match-list-2015
@Roentgen Wow thank you for all the information! All of this helps a lot! I will post more useful information if I find out any. Your insight and resourcefulness have definitely helped in guiding and making this stressful process a little easier. Thank you for all your help!!
No problem!! Those were actually really great questions, since students now are probably starting to sign up for AP exams and IB exams, and can also take CLEP exams anytime to knock out quite a bit of credits as well. You are limited to a max of 30 testing credit hours towards your degree, but no limit on transfer credit hours. Good luck to you guys if you’re taking any of those exams. Just FYI, AP Biology gives you nothing at UMKC that is useful towards your degree. UMKC only allows you to either take it somewhere else and transfer it in, or to actually take it in-house at UMKC. If you have any other questions, feel free to post here, or if you find any other useful information for those who might be matriculating or those who are still deciding.