So I’ve been getting PMs on this, so thought I would address this in the thread to help everyone, for people comparing among several Bachelor/MD programs, and those who have only one Bachelor/MD acceptance [you’re not alone, quite a few of us were in this same scenario], but still aren’t sure if this is better, and are prepared to do the traditional way (which 99% of med students do). We have discussed this before, deep in the thread, but thought it was important to bring back up, since people are doing comparison shopping and making decisions.
The 6 year time aspect
This program runs for 6 years, no summer breaks/vacation off. In the first 2 years, holidays coincide with the UMKC undergraduate academic calendar: Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, MLK Day, Spring Break, etc. Depending on how much credit you are coming in with (and can continue to test out thru CLEPs during the first 2 years), you can decrease the undergraduate coursework load substantially, and be more flexible in your course arrangement. However, no matter how much credit you have, unlike some of the other combined programs, you can not be “off” any semester and not officially enrolled. You have to be enrolled full-time (and thus pay tuition) for every semester (fall/spring/summer) in the program, unless you take an official leave of absence, in which case, you start right back up where you left off when you come back, to complete the program.
When you interview for residency in your last year, no residency program director will care that you graduated from college & medical school in 6 years. It’s not a factor that tips the residency selection scale in your favor. That might be surprising to learn since you would think it would show sustained focus, determination, hard work, endurance, intelligence, etc. to have finished something that most people do in 8 years. What you have to understand though, is that it’s not a race to see who can finish the fastest. Residency programs have SO MANY other factors that we can look at to evaluate your application, which are much more important and valid. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a clear accomplishment for students and their psyches, which maybe they and/or their family/friends can be proud of and beam/brag about. But in terms of some real tangible benefit to affecting your career trajectory, not really. In fact if you speak to some UMKC Med alumni, they will tell you that quite a few interviewing residency program faculty, view accelerated 6/7 year combined med programs in a bad light, due to concerns (legitimate or otherwise) about maturity, lacking life experience & perspective, about only having been “studying machines” for all 6 years since high school, not being well-rounded as individuals, more likely to be burned out during residency training, etc. Again, this isn’t everyone, but I’m just saying that it is duly noted, since doing a combined accelerated program is not the norm.
What residency faculty want above all else, are competent, strong med school graduates who can enter their residency training programs and graduate from them successfully, as residency training has its own stresses, even more than medical school, in terms of # of hours worked, sleep deprivation, emotional stress, etc. Whether you graduate from medical school 6 years after your high school graduation date or 10 years after your high school graduation date is completely irrelevant. So while you should be proud of your accomplishment, as well as I’m sure your parents & friends are, just keep in mind, in terms of your own career advancement, the 6 year factor won’t play a role and be the shiny gold star you might think of it to be. So I think both I and @Blugrn6 have mentioned this before, but please don’t harp on the time factor as a major reason to come here. While it may not feel at all like it now in high school, 2 years is nothing in the entire process to becoming a physician.
Keep in mind also, that many of the Bachelor/MD programs that started out originally as 6 year programs (you can look in prior MSAR books at the library), are no longer 6 years in length for a reason. They’ve either gone to 7 years or the full 8 years. Examples: Boston University, Northwestern, Rennselaer/Albany, NEOMED, Miami HPME, Penn State/Jefferson Medical College. Someone will have to check me on this, but I believe the only U.S. allopathic 6 year combined programs left are UMKC and Howard University in Washington D.C. And then of course, you have traditional medical schools that have either eliminated their combined programs (Mizzou’s Conley Scholars Program: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/education/med-school-to-stop-pre-admission-plan/article_438ff87d-7468-51a8-a956-c749d3394b12.html, although they have kept their Bryant Scholars Program) or have never had combined medical programs to begin with, since they’re getting good applicants in the normal process, so why change it?
Not having to take the MCAT
One aspect of becoming a physician is taking lots of exams and doing well on them, both in courses and especially standardized exams. Just like anything else that requires practice and can be worked and improved on. It’s something you start with in elementary school, middle school, high school, as well as in college, etc. You take state level high school exit tests, SAT/ACT w/ or w/o SAT subject exams, the MCAT, USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2 CK, USMLE Step 2 CS, USMLE Step 3, Residency In-Training Exams (ITEs), Initial specialty board exams (residency), Initial subspecialty board exams (if you do a fellowship), which you then have to recertify every 10 years, and take an exam (usually one in your residency field and one in your subspecialty field). This doesn’t include what is called MOC (maintenance of certification) which you do continuously during those 10 years. So test taking is not something that ends in college or in medical school, after which you’re somehow home scot-free.
The MCAT is just one of a myriad of exams that physicians take. You even take exams during residency, while you’re working. If it’s one skill that you will have to master, it’s being a good test taker, although it’s not the only skill you’ll need. Skipping out on one feared exam, the MCAT, DOES NOT make this pathway any easier, as you will be taking many exams in med school, much harder than anything the MCAT will throw at you. Contrary to what people might think, the hardest part of the physician pathway is not just getting into medical school, especially now, when we will reach the point where there are more US medical graduates than there are residency spots (which hasn’t happened just yet, although we’re getting close).
I’ll paste here some posts/threads that I think are relevant to this:[ul]
[]One was a UMKC MD-only student who graduated in 2012 and posted a while back, talking about the MCAT, which I think is relevant here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/10888832#Comment_10888832
[]A student who did a BS/MD program on the East coast: http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/threads/is-there-any-way-i-can-transfer-medical-schools.1175960/, I’m pasting it here as one of the veteran posters says, combined programs, “attract people who want to avoid the MCAT (which in a career filled with numerous standardized format tests and which greatly rewards skilled test takers, is a bit counterproductive).” His underlying point being that it’s kind of silly to enter a combined program in a profession, just to skip one test (which you can take more than once), when you’ll still be taking exams later on in that pathway, in which the stakes are different and higher.[/ul]
So TL;DR: Don’t use the fact that the UMKC program is 6 years long and getting to skip the MCATs as your sole or major reason(s) for deciding to do this program.