@Roentgen Thank you so much! Do you think the resilient aspect has to come from a school/academic related matter? What about family or personal loss?
@chocolatina1001, I think the resilient aspect can come from either one, although with the first one, it would very much depend on the particular circumstance/example. If, for example, your idea of how resilient you were, is how you bounced back from complete and & utter sadness & tears from getting a “B” in AP US History, you’re more likely to get this initial type of reaction: https://media.giphy.com/media/Fjr6v88OPk7U4/giphy.gif, because you risk some level of the person reading it thinking you have no real inner scale of perspective in the way you view things, and are quite a bit out-of-touch. Compare this to a person who is having such hard difficulty with a subject academically, who then maybe changes their study approach, starts reading ahead of class, asks for assignments ahead of time, goes to after school tutoring, takes personal responsibility (vs. expecting to be spoon-fed) for their education, etc. You can see the scenarios while similar are also quite different.
Family or personal loss in terms of resilience, how you dealt with it and came to terms with it, etc. is also perfectly fine as well, as those things happen and affect medical students too (since time/life doesn’t stop just because you’re in med school).
At some level, I think those reading it realize that we’re dealing with high school students here, so the expected variety/level of experiences will be quite different than maybe those being asked this question in the college-age population or non-traditional graduates who come from other careers to go to med school. I would find the example in your life that really resonated with you, as it’s so much easier then to write well about it, rather than choose the example that you think sounds good, but kind of feels forced when you’re writing/typing things out.
Hope that helps.
Thank you so much! @Roentgen
@Roentgen Hi, I am in a bit of a pickle now. I sent in my UMKC application, but I realized that one of the people that i put down for my recommendation accidentally gave me his email as .com instead of .net. So he will not receive the letter asking for him to write me the recommendation. Is there a way to change the email on the application, if not what is the way I should go about the situation? Thanks
Hey @sampil, I would contact the UMKC Med School Admissions office to see if they can change the email address for that specific evaluator thru the supplemental application portal on their end. My guess is that once you’ve submitted the BA/MD supplemental application, you yourself probably can’t go back to make any changes on YOUR end, including adding/modifying those evaluators thru the Recommendation Provider.
However, at least on their end, they can probably either modify the email address themselves in the portal to the correct one so the reference form can be received, or they can send a direct link for that person to click on, fill out, & submit. Just apologize for the inconvenience (even though your evaluator messed up) & just explain the situation. I’m sure by far you’re not the first person (nor will be the last person) this has happened to.
Roentgens: Thanks…I will call them to change it
@Roentgen Thank you so much for replying! i have another question though. I know the application requires a personal essay on which I am required to “consider the following prompts:”
What motivates you to pursue a career in medicine?
What would you like the UMKC School of Medicine to know about you that isn’t available in other parts of the application?
Do I have to write a 500 word essay that responds to only one of the prompts, or do I write the essay that responds to both of the prompts in one essay?
@littlemonster39, I would incorporate both if you can (http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/apply/) but with much more of a focus & emphasis on the 1st question for obvious reasons, in terms of your personal statement.
Realize with the 2nd question, this is more asking you about things that aren’t available or asked for in other parts of your application that they might normally be missed, but that you think is important for the Council on Selection to know: http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/apply/. I would make sure it can be somehow related or tied back to medicine in some way, if you have one. It’s a way for the Council on Selection to get to see another aspect of you that might be important (which only you would know), but isn’t directly asked for on the traditional application.
One example, is if you come from an economically disadvantaged area/zip code (as determined by census stats) and wanted to go back to practice with patients who are in underserved populations or to address health disparities.
@Roentgen Is it necessary that we directly answer the question “What would you like the UMKC School of Medicine to know about you that isn’t available in other parts of the application?” I sort of interwove my passion for medicine with details about the particular aspects of medicine that intrigue me. Would that be acceptable?
Hey @chocolatina1001, I don’t think it’s something you have to address directly in terms of a whole paragraph on its own, necessarily. Like you don’t have to make a paragraph right before your conclusion paragraph that says, “This is what is not available in my application that I think is important for you to know about me blah blah blah”, etc. It would disrupt the entire flow of your personal statement, IMHO, and would seem a little out of place. It’s more something that you can sort of interweave and integrate it into your personal statement to personalize it more to you, since every applicant will have very different personal traits & abilities, life stories, life experiences, that have greatly impacted them to pursue medicine.
For example, maybe you’re a first chair flautist (someone who plays the flute), and you used that ability to play a concert at a senior citizens’ center which made you appreciate the therapeutic value of music and thus piqued your interest in medicine: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brick-brick/201402/does-music-have-healing-powers. In addition to particular aspects of medicine that intrigued you is also how particular healthcare ECs (or even your school ECs) made you realize that becoming a physician was for you. If I have your application in front of me, I can easily see all that you have have done in terms of a laundry list of activities. What I can’t see is what kind of impact it had on you and HOW this impacted you. How did it change/impact your thinking? Your job of your personal statement is to show me what I can’t see just by reading a list on a typed up CV. Just think of it as sort of you’re explaining to someone from scratch your actual thought process, in terms of how you came to choose this specific career path. Hope that makes sense.
I sort of think of that second question prompt in the personal statement as sort of the last concluding question asked in a one-on-one job interview. “Is there anything else you would like us to know about you?” (that is pertinent to the job at hand of course), that let’s you have your say in terms of things you want to point out that they might want to take into consideration.
Last year, they still had “What attracted you to the UMKC six-year medical program versus a more traditional eight-year program?” as part of the Personal Statement prompt, which I thought was actually a pretty good one to have, but they took it out this year for some reason. Since it’s not part of the prompt this year, don’t include that.
@Roentgen Thank you! So we should not really be mentioning why we want to attend UMKC’s School of Medicine?
@chocolatina1001, normally I would tell you to put like a sentence or two max, about why the UMKC 6 year BA/MD program/medical school, but since it’s not part of the PS prompt anymore (it was in the last 2 application cycles, and has been previous to that as far as I can remember, but it was taken out for this one), I wouldn’t address it. Better to probably just play it safe (and show you can follow directions) and just address the prompts as stated.
My guess is they might have seen it as inherently unfair, since there will be some students who know the program inside and out (maybe they live closer to KC, or have a brother/sister/friend in the program, etc.) vs. someone who doesn’t have that first/second-hand knowledge at their disposal and can only go by the website. It’s much easier for the school to try to impart that knowledge of the school on interview day. I think they’d rather have students to just go into greater detail as to why they choose going into medicine, thru the physician route.
@Roentgen Thank you! I will make the change.
What is Pathway and who gets it?
@sampil it is this: https://umkc.umsystem.edu/psp/prd/?cmd=login.
It is used to see courses offered, sign up for classes, pay your tuition bill, etc.
Thanks @Roentgen: You get this when you are admitted to UMKC?
@sampil, yes definitely when you matriculate, but Pathway seems to also be used in the admissions process where you can check that your test scores and transcripts have been received: http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/apply/
I tried accessing Pathway, however it looks like it requires a umkc user id, which I don’t know if we can have at this stage. Don’t know how to check if UMKC has received test scores and transcripts.
@hoping2017, the username and password is most likely what you entered when signing up to complete the UMKC General application here: https://umkc.umsystem.edu/psp/prdpr/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/UM_ADMISSIONS.UM_WEB_APP_LOGIN.GBL?AITS_HDR_CODE=3&IsFolder=false&campus=STNKCITY
You can also, of course, call the main university to see that your high school transcript and ACT/SAT scores have been received.
Hey guys (and gals), you have exactly 2 weeks from today to submit the UMKC BA/MD supplemental application on November 1st (although don’t wait all the way till that date). All of these should be RECEIVED by that date:
a completed UMKC General App
a completed UMKC BA/MD Supplemental App
a High School Transcript
an official ACT/SAT score report
at least 3 completed Reference Forms
If you have evaluators who haven’t filled out the reference form online yet, remind them that it’s getting very close to your deadline and that you need it completed in order for your application to be considered complete and on time.
Same with transcript & testing score report - make sure they have been received by the university. You can either check inside Pathway or just call the main university admissions directly here: http://www.umkc.edu/admissions/contact_us.cfm, to check that both have been received.