UMKC 6-year BS/MD Program

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
6201

Does anyone know what the odds are of being accepted the 2nd time around as a college freshman? UMKC does not post any statistics for this.

Unfortunately, my DC was not accepted to UMKC’s BA/MD program. We were initially going to pay for a coach, but then DC’s HSC suggested we just work with them and save the money. This has been a mistake and we believe costed us a seat in the program.

We are thinking of using a coach this time around if the odds are decent. Sorry for double posting but this seems to be a much more active discussion thread. thanks.

6202

what is pay for a coach means?

6203

Did anybody receive offers today?In-state,Regional or out-of-state to begin with?

6204

@Mmom2018 - Yes, It happened to one of our friend’s neighbor son who in 2013 (from Illinois) didn’t get into UMKC so went to Urbana for Pre-med and in 2014 applied to UMKC and got admitted (but UMKC told him he needs to do all the 6 years - in other words, he lost one year at Urbana). Of course, he is at UMKC now! Good luck.

6205

@WGSK88 Thank you for sharing.

@missourigrad it means hiring someone to support my DC through the application process successfully.

6206

what is the probability of getting off waitlisted in June ?Did anybody receive acceptance in this week?

6207

@pkasu1, have you received any good news last week?

6208

Hello,
I have just finished my Junior yr and started looking into BS/MD colleges. I am in IL and planning to apply for UMKC.
First of all congratulations to those who got accepted to this school. I am hoping to get good advice from all you.

6209

Here is what I have accomplished so far. Any advice on what else is missing for me to become a strong candidate for UMKC? How can I write an effective essay to get their attention and get invited for an interview?

Education:
Junior in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Academy at Bartlett High School.
Cumulative GPA (weighted): 4.86
Rank: 8 of 603 (top 2%)
ACT score: 34; 35 (superscore)
SAT score: 1590 out of 1600
SAT Math11: 800
SAT Bio and Chem: waiting for the score
AP total: 9 after senior yr.

Health classes:

  1. Human Anatomy: Human anatomy and physiology, including terminology, homeostasis, tissues, integumentary, musculoskeletal, endocrine, lymphatic, cardiopulmonary, and digestive systems including an online review of basic cell biology and biological chemistry.
  2. Principles of Biomedical Science: the activities and projects in PBS introduced me to human physiology, basic biology, medicine, and research processes which have allowed me to design experiments in order to solve problems.
    a. Murder Investigation: Forensic science analysis; DNA Analysis,
    b. Diabetes: cause, symptoms, treatments and side effects of diabetes.
    c. Sickle Cell Disease: Blood cell analysis, DNA codes for protein analysis, explore the relation between DNA, genes, and Chromosomes.
    d. Heart Disease: Study heart structure and function, Heart Dysfunction, Heart intervention.
    e. Infectious Diseases
    f. Post Mortem

Experience:
Research assistant at Rush medical center- full time Intern/volunteer From May 2017 to Present
Working in the lab as a research assistant with Dr.xxx at Rush Medical Center.
• Started doing PCR of cell samples of different cancer patients.
• Shadow Dr.xxx for her weekly round table meetings with Residents and participate in discussions.
• Will assist her in her bio-medial summer class at Rush Medical university.

Physical therapist assistant- Part time volunteer From May 2015 to Present

• Instructed patients in the proper use of equipment prescribed for their treatment.
• Performed modalities such as ultrasound, ice, heat, and electrical stimulation.
• Instructed patients in performing their exercises correctly and efficiently

Math online class instructor From September 2016 to Present

• Instructed elementary students for North South Foundations to give children a firm foundation in mathematics
• Created, distributed, and graded weekly homework and class tests.

Other Interests:
• Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA)
Volunteered at medicine related activities such as blood drives. Competed at the State competition for multiple events. Won top ten in state for 2 of 3 categories. 2 consecutive years. Barbara James service award recipient.

• Technology Student Association (TSA)
Competed and won at State level for multiple technology events. 3 consecutive years.

• Mathletes
Competed and Won State Math Competitions and helped train underclassmen for competition for 3 consecutive years.

Honors, Awards, and Memberships:
• National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists Award of Accelarance by Harvard University
• National Honor Society Member
• Vice president of National Math Honors Society.
• Spanish Honors Society Member
• Won at regional and state competition. Competed in the 2016 VEX Robotics World Championship
• Vice president of VEX Robotics-present
• Middle School Outreach Chair of TSA-present

6210

@vexgrl - Apply for the Mini Medical School (i think it’s little late for you - Dr. Ira Rubin in Naperville). You can probably attend the shortened summer program. June is filled up already. In July they might have vacancy. I understand you do have good other Medical exposure and this will add another experience/medical interest to your resume. Dr. Rubin told me quite a few students from his Mini Medical school are going to UMKC this year (including my daughter who did his full program in her Junior year) as well as prior years.

I see your SAT score seems good compared to your ACT. I was told for UMKC any thing at or above 34 in ACT should suffice for Regional candidates. But if your ethnicity is Indian, I would suggest upping it to 35 to 36 (or use your SAT score instead).

Overall you seem to have good medical research and background with Good GPA.

Also, get good references (UMKC needs at least 3 by Nov 1st deadline - no exception made here). In fact they recommend asking as many you can so that 3 gets in by Nov 1st.

Plan to visit the School - they have dedicated BA/MD (5 hours) well rounded tour if you have not been there before.

With your record, I don’t see any reason why would you not receive an interview?

Good luck.

6211

Thanks for your response. I am sorry about my SAT score which is a typo. I got only 1490 because I never planned on taking that exam and I had to take it at school according to the new standard.

I was hoping to use my ACT score and I am an Indian so if that takes away my changes at UMKC, it’s kind of not fair!!!

I will be shadowing my Researcher during her summer medical class and participating in most of the class activities. Also, I will be joining her once a wk for residents’ round table discussions/presentations since she is a chairperson at Rush Medical research center.
Looking at all of these opportunities, I decided to go there full time throughout this summer rather than joining Mini Medical school.

One question for you, did you get an expert help for your daughter’s application/essay submission?

1 Like
6212

@vexgrl - I am not an authority on how UMKC selects based on scores of ACT/SAT. But based what I saw (may be it’s not the full view of the scope) that was my recommendation. Since you have other merits your ACT score of 34 (even without super score - I am not sure UMKC does super scoring which they might).

I saw ACT 35 was not invited by UIC GPPA this year of Indian Origin.

On the other hand my daughter who was called in the first list by UIC GPPA on Jan 10 was not selected (though she had almost 50% in merit awards from UIC Honors college!). We saw other candidates got selected with less score than her and no merit awards. Go Figure! I guess luck also plays a role and with the Holistic process you never know. Good luck.

No we didn’t pay any one to write essays or for that matter selecting college. My daughter wrote the essays herself only reviewed by her AP Eng lit. teacher as she was taking this course in the senior year. She only applied for BS/MD programs (4 of them - 2 of them didn’t select her for interview itself and 2 did and UMKC accepted her.)

6213

will there be another round of acceptance letters send to waitlisted students or all positions has been filled?. We are still waiting,In-state! Any thoughts??

6214

We have not received anything. Thanks for asking.

6215

@WGSK88 there is an element of luck in everything in life, but based on when I applied to UMKC, whether someone gets an interview or not has a lot more to do with what their experiences are and how their application is “sold” to the medical school. So it’s possible that the 35 ACT candidate who just happened to be Indian, did not “sell” themselves as well as the applicants with lower ACTs. If I remember correctly, UMKC reviews the applications without knowing the applicant’s name or race so unless they volunteer this information in their essays, I don’t see how race would play a role.

I know that nothing is 100% in this process, but for me, I already had a rough idea of my chances of receiving an interview at UMKC based on my RUC score (free at the time) which predicted my %chance of getting an interview. Many BS/MD applicants are shocked when they do not get into UMKC with perfect/near perfect GPAs, ACT/SAT scores and even merit awards but remember that there are way more ppl applying with these “qualifications” so something else’s gotta give, so if you are fortunate to receive an interview at any of these BS/MD programs, make sure you spend the time and effort on getting yourself ready for their interviews.

6216

@UMKCPanda - You miss read my note. I didn’t say UMKC, I stated UIC GPPA (Illinois) program that didn’t call 35 ACT.

6217

Thanks for clarifying @WGSK88 … I can’t really speak for UIC.

6218

@vexgrl I would not suggest doing Dr. Rubin’s Mini Med School or any other mini med experience this late in the process. When my DC went through the BS/MD process, we considered doing APE’s Mini Med Experience held at various medical schools in the country in junior year but we were actually discouraged from doing so by APE (directly) as it would not increase our DC’s chances.

Based on your posted experiences, I think it will be money much more well spent to work with someone who can help you present yourself to UMKC in a way that sets you apart as you mentioned. I think your medical experiences is lacking and might be a problem to them if the former is not done properly.

I gained a lot of experience going through the process as my DC has lower stats than you but was able to be very successful at many BS/MD programs including UMKC and clearly not just based on luck. There was a lot of skill involved. Good luck.

6219

Thanks, these are really good feedback.

6220

@UMKCPanda, I totally agree with you. Infact, I was planning to reply myself for @WGSK88 and may be some other folks a while ago, who kind of implied that if somebody gets 36/36 , they deserve a seat in direct Med programs. I did not reply as I did not want to get into unending discussion on this topic.

Just to give an example, I, myself called a direct BA/MD program office in New york state and asked her what kind of students apply to that program. She said lots of students with 36s apply, then I revealed my daughter’s ACT score and told her that there would be no use for my daughter to apply to this program. That lady immediately interupted me and said no, your daughter can still apply and see what happens. My daughter applied and got admission into that program. Ultimately my daughter selected another great school for her direct Med program.

I can discuss pages and pages on this topic. Just to summarize, students with less scores can do similar wonders as 36s and can be as successful in their lives and professions.