I don’t know where you heard about the AP score difference, but is completely false. Those are the scores you need to get credit as those courses are towards your Bachelors degree given by the undergraduate campus, not the medical school.
First off, the program does not require students to take General Biology I and II with Labs. Credit for General Biology I and II (which is if you decide to do the Biology BA - you have to come in with credit like AP Calculus, AP Physics, AP Chemistry etc. though 1st to fit the Biology BA in the six year program) - is only allowed by actually taking the classes (with the labs).
Why you chose the 6 year med program at UMKC (and it has to be more than just bc I wanted to skip the MCATs and get into med school) vs. pursuing a 4+4 route
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Whether you are equipped to handle a highly compressed curriculum which runs year round (fall, spring, and summer) from a mental standpoint (i.e. if you say you want a full well-rounded college experience, your application will get tossed)
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Find about you as a human being - what do you read, your volunteering experiences, essentially explaining in greater detail the answers to the questions about you on the application.
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To the ones asking whether UMKC’s six year med program is expensive, in the words of Sarah Palin, “You betcha!”
In adding up the numbers from my prior post with the 2009-2010 numbers this is the total tuition for six years (those numbers also don’t take into account a rise in tuition every year due to inflation, also, if you extend you pay one additional year of tuition). These numbers are so high now, at least for OOS, there is no way I would have gone to UMKC on these current numbers. When I went as an OOS, Year 1-2 tuition was about 40 K, Year 3-6 tuition was 45.5 K.
2009-2010 TOTALS
In-state: 164,454
Regional (started in Fall 2007): 243,018
Out-of-State: 321,554
This does not include books, room and board, medical equipment, miscellaneous (fun, movies, laptop, clothes, etc.)
So talk this over with your parents, be realistic, and map this all out. This decision as well as going through the confusing world of financial aid, is WAY TOO HUGE to go about this alone, esp. now with the faltering economy. See how much debt you would be willing to put up with in loans. Most importantly don’t put all your eggs in one basket with this program. Investigate all the programs, and if you don’t make it into one of the combined programs that is financially viable or conducive to your career goals (i.e. you want to enter a competitive field), do the 4+4 like 98% of other doctors do.
If you click on the link and go to the bottom, you’ll see a list of courses you should probably come in with depending on the major.
Majors (all Bachelor of Arts): Biology, Chemistry, Communications, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology and the most commonly done one which is Liberal Arts.
Chemistry is hit or miss: here at UMKC the professor (Gounev) goes by the textbook and explains things very well so most med students do very well in the class - he teaches Chem I in the Fall.
Some take Chemistry when they come in the Fall starting w/Chem I (credit and GPA)
Some people take the AP/IB exam and get credit for Chem I and Chem II with Labs (but no GPA)
Some take Chem I and/or Chem II with Labs at an actual university:
If you take it at any college/community college/university other than UMKC in the summer, you get credit, but no GPA
If you take Chem I and/or Chem II at UMKC in the summer after graduating from senior year, you get credit and GPA
Common ones to AP/CLEP out of:
English Language (English 110) - You can not AP out of English 225 (Sophomore Eng)
Psychology (Psychology 210)
US History (History 101, 102)
US Government (Political Science 210)
French/Spanish/German/Latin (10 hours of Foreign Language credit)
Hi, just wondering where I stand.
I applied a while ago with a 4.0 GPA (weighted), 10 APs by the time of graduation and a 33 ACT.
And I also have a question about the APs. When do we send the colleges the ap scores? do you send them in with your application or do you wait for the end of senior year to send them? Also, how large of a role do they play in the addmission?
To be honest, a 4.0 (Weighted), assuming an Honors Class A = 5.0, and Regular Class A = 4.0, is pretty low, with 10 AP courses. What rank are you? Your rank will put that GPA in better context.
To be honest, a 4.0 (Weighted), assuming an Honors Class A = 5.0, and Regular Class A = 4.0, is pretty low, with 10 AP courses. What rank are you? Your rank will put that GPA in better context.
Well, i have only completed 5 of my ten ap courses so far, and im taking 5 this senior year…harsh i know. My ranking is 24 out of 384 so its the top 6.25%. My recomondations are good, and my community service and volunteer hours are pretty good too, and as i said before my act is a 33.
Does the college look more closely at the weighted or unweighted gpa?
Ok, then Bambi. Since your rank places you well within the top 10% (as you are in-state) then you should be ok.
UMKC’s emphasis is more on rank than the actual numerical GPA (whether it’s weighted or unweighted) as so many schools have different ways of computing it. Some schools give extra grade points for honors classes, others don’t. Also the rigor of courses as displayed by your transcript is also important (number of Honors/Pre-AP/AP classes), but they are understanding as esp. for many high schools in rural Missouri, many do not offer AP courses (surprisingly) or don’t have many of them. Out-of-staters (Regional/Out-of-State) are measured on a different yardstick:
Missouri Residents
The average accepted Missouri applicant has an ACT score of 29 and a rank within the top 10 percent of the graduating class.
Regional and Out-of-State Residents
The average accepted regional or out-of-state applicant has an ACT score of 30 and a rank within the top 5 percent of the graduating class.
Rwishka, what is your rank? I’m not familiar with a 5.0 scale GPA. Are you talking about Honors/AP classes being weighted at A = 5.0, and on-level courses being weighted at A = 4.0? If that’s the case, it’s not actually on a 5.0 scale. It would be called being on weighted 4.0 scale.
Thanks again Happy!! You were right about UMKC, I did some investigating on my own:
Going on SDN
Emailing the person of Council on Selection (Mary Morgenegg) my 2 questions - which she didn’t even email back anything even though I emailed twice, but I’m not surprised,
Even going on Facebook and messaging UMKC students and alums (some of the UMKC classes have Class of _____ groups) - which was very eye opening.
In reading the flowery prose of the pamphlets and the brochures it sounded like a FANTASTIC program but in researching it I can see that there are quite a few pitfalls of the program that are important and much of the literature is pure exaggeration of the school’s supposed strengths.
I applied to much better programs such as Brown, UIC, PennState, JMC, Mt. Sinai, Northwestern, BU, USC, etc. so I’ll let you know how that goes.
Oops, I just checked my school handbook and it is on a 4.00 scale. The IB/AP/Honors classes count as “weighted multipliers” and allow students to have 4.00+ GPAs.
I’m in-state and my rank is 10/269.
We have at least 5 valedictorians in our class because our school offers a program in which students (including me) can take high school classes during middle school.
Thanks for your help!
Sorry, schrizto, I jumped the gun. I was putting down Mt. Sinai as a possible plan later, if I don’t get into a combined BA/MD program now. I applied to several more combined programs, as well, but I made sure I deeply researched each and every school as well as take a hard look at their Match Lists recently and in the past few years. UMKC’s for me was unacceptable on the things they were skimping on.
Yes, luckily I go to a huge public high school with every AP class imaginable.
rwishka, well based on your academic stats, you should be ok, assuming your extracurriculars and volunteering activities are also up to par. The more competitive programs like to see research but UMKC is not huge on that as it is not really a research powerhouse.
Froggie2009, I’m glad you took the time to figure out for yourself about the program. Don’t take it from me. At the risk of sounding corny, “Knowledge is Power”. I am surprised she didn’t email you back, but I guess when you said you had asked her about the average Step 1 score and to give you a contact of someone you could email to find out more about the program, she didn’t respond, I shouldn’t be surprised one bit.
Yes, they do take quite a bit of time in making those brochures to make it sound warm and fuzzy and the price tag is huge. With your academic stats though, you should be able to get interviews at more prestigious programs who will probably be able to give you a better financial aid package than UMKC would ever be able to give you.