Because UMKC is tremendously expensive, for six years and has an incredibly high drop-out rate.
Also, when you go the traditional route, you’re at least up to speed in terms of being a college student; you know if you can handle more challenging course loads (such as medical school). At UMKC, there’s no prep-period for the medical curriculum - if you can’t handle it, you’re done.
Simply put, stop hating. High drop out rate, 20 kids drop out approximately in a class, that is much lower than the drop out rate in a pre-medical school. No prep-period? Just study and deal with it, like every other medical student in the nation.
oh man i haven’t been here in 3 years. i remember coming to these forums when i got accepted into umkc. Well if anyone has any questions, i’m currently a third year so feel free to ask away…
What were your stats? Un-state or not? Hows the place? Whats the dorms like? how are the costs.
Wow, I didn’t know threads like these existed, outside of SDN (Student Doctor Network). Wish this had existed when I had applied to the program. Just for anyone’s info, I have actually graduated from the BA/MD program, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask me.
In looking at some of the threads, I noticed some are overglamorized, others are truthful and realistic, and some are JUST PLAIN lies. My guess is some of these people are just defensive or need to have some defense mechanism to justify them coming to UMKC.
I prefer to be truthful and realistic, which does not necessarily equate with being negative. Just to make it clear whether you are in-state or out-of-state (especially if you are out-of-state), this is a VERY IMPORTANT decision and should not be taken lightly. In that regard any question asked of me I will reply. If not by private message, I will post on the thread so everyone will benefit.
nawab saab, just curious what year are you? As to be quite honest, your view of the program is quite tilted, which makes me think A. You are a high school senior or B. You are in Year 1.
To answer your question, word written, the attrition rate of UMKC’s medical school is MUCH higher than most medical schools. If you would like the source of this information I can send it to you.
The average USMLE Step 1 score now is 216. The failure rate of UMKC on the boards used to be VERY HIGH. When I was a Year 1, that year the class taking boards - 2/3 failed the first time. This is much lower now, as many academic restrictions have been placed with respect to promotion (i.e. science GPA, taking a mock exam requiring a certain score to which you are not allowed to sign up without getting that score, etc.).
I am a little shocked by the lampooning of DON’TUndrEstimat by those who don’t really know anything about the program. And I’m sorry, liking the program because your “bro” said so is not valid reason to like it.
I don’t know DON’TUndrEstimat personally but many of the things he does say is true and it is very important that you look into the program very closely.
If one of these threads are correct, where people are saying not to ask, how people pay the exceedingly high tuition here, that should DEFINITELY be a red flag to you.
Angeluvsoccer15, to answer your question about breaks, The first year is arranged like a typical college school year where you get those particular breaks (Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc). You don’t get your summers off throughout the program. At the end of your first year, you stay two more weeks after finals to do a Hospital Team experience, then you get about 2 wks. and then you do the summer semester, and after that 2 more weeks, before you start the Fall of Year 2. After that it is about 1 month per year, esp. the last 4 years of the program (i.e. the “med school” part).
Wordwritten, you are incorrect. The drop out rate in a medical school in which people have done pre-med is much lower than UMKC’s drop out rate. UMKC’s drop out rate is approximately 20%.
“No prep-period? Just study and deal with it, like every other medical student in the nation.” —kyle is very much correct, you automatically start jumping into medical school courses in your 2nd year of the program (Sophomore year). Most medical students at other places have a full undergraduate experience and are more prepared for medical school coursework. Yes, it requires studying but as you will see when you get in the program, many prerequisites are taken out to try to fit everything in six years. Many times this is to the detriment of students.
Otacon88, “UMKC faculty is great too: we have teachers who graduated from yale, duke, rice, etc.” - you’re so full of baloney. Are you kidding me?
“UMKC is well known because of its docent rotations.” - Do you know what Docent rotations are? It is a two month Internal Medicine rotation, that is done at ALL medical schools.
This is how the schedule essentially looks like if you do the Bachelor of Liberal Arts which is what most students do.
It’s 21 hours Humanities, 21 hours Social Sciences, with the rest of the hours contributed from your required undergrad and medical school science courses. Hence it is very necessary to come in with some testing credit whether AP exams, CLEP exams.
As you can see it is VERY compressed:
[PAGE</a> NOT FOUND](<a href=“http://www.umkc.edu/medicine/curricu.../Year12BLA.pdf]PAGE”>http://www.umkc.edu/medicine/curricu.../Year12BLA.pdf)
Testing credit (AP/CLEP):
[UMKC</a> Registration and Records - Credit by Examination](<a href=“http://www.umkc.edu/registrar/creditbyexam.asp]UMKC”>http://www.umkc.edu/registrar/creditbyexam.asp)
Ok so for some reason the Liberal Arts Bachelors plan didn’t show up. Here it is again:
<a href=“http://www.umkc.edu/medicine/curriculum/acrobat_files/Year12BLA.pdf[/url]”>http://www.umkc.edu/medicine/curriculum/acrobat_files/Year12BLA.pdf</a>
happytograduate: I was just wondering where did you get your residency and in what field. Also, I think the speciality that the Docent Rotation that UMKC has is that students get to learn skills early on unlike other med schools which make you do these rotations in the last year or so. Thanks.
happytograduate: why the hate man? i thought you said you graduated from umkc? fyi…some of our professors DID graduate from ivy league schools…
and by docent rotations i didn’t mean DoRo…i meant regular docent during years 1 and 2. i made those posts when i first came to umkc, lay off damn.
and i also would like to know where you got into residency and in what field. congrats on graduating man, but you don’t have to be a prick just cuz ur “done” now.
octacon88 are you related to nawab saab?
HappytoGraduate thank you for your remarks. Curious about what your class makeup/personalities were like…these days the students here seem to be so focused on future income and not the actual field of interest and the goal of helping heal others. It is very frustrating sometimes. I try to chalk it up to young society as a whole these days…still wonder what kind of physicians that they will ultimately make.
Otacon88, what do you mean why the hate? I was correcting your prior post. I apologize if you thought I was getting up in your face about it.
Let me know which ones graduated from Ivy League schools. Are you referring to the Year 1-2 docents or the Docent system that starts in Year 3?
Just to let you know, when you say Docent Rotation (DoRo) that usually refers to the 2 month Internal Medicine rotation that you do every year in Years 4-6. Most of the time, when the school is praising its Docent system they are talking about Years 3-6 not Years 1-2. Year 1 and 2 Docent doesn’t even go in your Dean’s letter to residencies.
“you don’t have to be a prick just cuz ur “done” now.” — Interesting how correcting someone or not praising the glories of UMKC without any indications to the realities of it, makes me a prick. You are a Year 3 and will realize it when you start studying for boards during Year 4 as to how well your courses have prepared you for USMLE Step 1.
I am in urology residency, but not right after UMKC of course, as UMKC does not have a urology residency program. As you will see if you are going for something competitive there are many departments that UMKC does not have which puts its students at a heavy disadvantage for those fields. UMKC does not have departments in other competitive fields either: Derm, Radiation Oncology, etc. If you’re going for primary care fields, UMKC may not be a problem, however, even residencies at prestigious institutions are difficult to obtain. If you have any doubts, look at the match lists in the last 10 years of UMKC.
Hey DON’TUndrEstimat,
Usually the class personalities are pretty similar, there is quite a bit of immaturity: #1 is usually: who’s extended and who hasn’t - this usually stops after Year 2 as u usually don’t extend 1 yr. after that (as if that means anything to those outside of UMKC - just to make it clear to some of the immature here, I didn’t extend in the program), #2: “I heard this next exam is the hardest ever!!”, and #3: the usual high school type rumor mill.
With respect to people pursuing fields for their high income, it’s not just UMKC, it’s like that at most medical schools, as reimbursement esp. by Medicare/Medicaid and even private insurance tends to be less. It tends to be more pronounced at UMKC as people there are much younger and thus haven’t socially matured necessarily. What do you expect when you’re taking Medical school level Gross Anatomy as a sophomore in college? Also, a lot of times, the rules of UMKC Med and administration are not too student friendly, there are exceptions of course, but I am talking about as a whole. So a lot of the times, we felt it was an “us against them” mentality.
Happy to defend you, as in looking at the postings, I thought the whole point of this board was to get the real deal about UMKC. To many people I think fall for the propaganda that is fed to them, and don’t research programs well enough (which is hard to do sometimes). If more people liked UMKC, maybe UMKC wouldn’t have such a bad alumni support problem and could thus give their students more scholarships.
Many esp. those in STL and out-of-staters, esp. tend to be not happy at UMKC. I would say when UMKC charges $50,000K and increasing, for medical tuition, while Harvard is about 34,000 then something is really wrong, esp. when students don’t dissect in the required Anatomy class (now Structure Function).
I’m not trying to put down UMKC, the theory of having docent is good, but in reality it doesn’t always help out or is a learning experience for students depending on the docent group you’re in. Not to mention, much of the curriculum is condensed to fit it into 6 years which doesn’t always help the students. I mean who learns all of Pharmacology in 2 months (believe it or not it used to be 1 month and then they changed it based on the very bad board scores)?
coldg44, are you talking about Year 1-2 docent, or Docent Rotation, the internal medicine rotation that is done for 2 months every year in Year 4-6?
Most schools now give their students some clinical experience during the basic science years as well, so that is nothing new. UT Southwestern, Harvard, etc.
An interesting note is that UMKC students do Internal Medicine for 2 months every year in Years 4-6, but when it comes to the end of rotation exam (shelf or Chairman’s exam), their average is much lower than at other medical schools, where they only do Internal Medicine in their 3rd year.