UMKC 6-year BA/MD Program

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
4390

@pleasant‌

Biology major was annoying when I entered the program because of a couple reasons:

  1. when you take your microbiology class, microbiology lab was not offered the same semester because it ended 30 mins before fundamentals started and the school thought that 30 mins would not be enough time for us to drive back to main campus one time for the other class. So they made us take that course automatically in the fall semester of your year 4 because that is the only time that lab class is offered, in fall semester.
    Fall semester is annoying in terms of boards studying because then your schedule becomes choppy.
  2. That automatically places your into summer pharmacology, right after a semester of Pathology 1 and 2. There is like a 1.5 week break in between, and that summer was brutal.
  3. Your year 4 vacation is now super choppy as well, because you have a break from August 1st after path to when fall campus starts (somewhere around the 19th or so) and then again from December 8th or so when finals are done till January 1st when you are automatically placed in Behavioral science (its only offered Aug, Sept, Dec, Jan) but you are in fall campus the other three months so you have to take it in January.
  4. So now we have reached february, you still have to do two months of Year 4 Doro (can be either feb/march or april/may, those are the only options, the whole cycle refreshes starting june) and you have to do one more month of family medicine. So feb/march and then family in april, and that leaves you with May and June to study for step 1. That’s fine if you have that schedule, but again you won’t start year 5 until June, that means you won’t finish until next June, and if you year 6 doro starts is early again like august/sept or something than you have one month left to do an away rotation.
  5. The reason its so annoying is because the only credit that I had left to finish my undergraduate degree was that stupid micro lab. If that was not a requirement I could have gotten summer campus. Instead of wasting August, sept, oct, nov, and december in undergrad (which btw is way to early to study for step 1 cuz you forget stuff, and not to mention, you could study for it and take it in fall campus but UMKC has a stupid rule that you can’t take step 1 until you have finished behavioral science (which makes sense cuz its on the exam) AND either DoRo or family (either one) which is a stupid policy cuz that means any studying you do for step 1 in fall campus is too early, you’re gonna forget).
    Vs. Summer campus, you are done with undergrad stuff in June/July, you can take behavioral in august, family in september, pharm oct november, and then likely doro somewhere in there, but you have essentially from december until may to do whatever the hell you want, in terms of study month, take your test and start you year 5 rotations early. Or if you have spring campus, you will have finished all of your requirements before January starts, so then again most people take stupid online classes to fulfill their degree, so again you have from January all the way till May to study for step 1 essentially without a worry in the world. Its just more convenient.
    Sorry that was a long and un-neccesary rant, but I think they changed it two years after we started so you can take micro lab at the same time, but again UMKC has weird rules. You can’t take more than three science courses at the same time, so if you don’t have much credits you’re gonna have to take them year 4 instead, and for biology those requirements are like upper level 300/400 numbered courses that are more tedious in terms of time commitment, etc. Plus you’re pretty isolated in your class (which can be a good or a bad thing), but you can’t really get advice from a lot of people cuz most of them are doing BLA and in their happy criminal justice is so easy world, and its just annoying to deal with. If you plan on sticking with the program, it really makes no difference if you get a BA in liberal arts (which btw is not a thing in the real world) or a BA in biology, chem, psych, etc. Is it really worth the headache to set up? No really. Just take some humanities courses and call it a day.

To comment on other things that @Roentgen‌ mentioned.

  1. Extending isn't pushed around as much anymore, if you if fail a class or you GPA tanks, that's it. You're extending. It does not matter if you find some way to fit everything in, they won't buy it. This is in first 3.5 years when you have actually classes. When its clinical rotations, if you can fit it in (at a cost to you because it usually means you don't have as many elective months later), they won't push you too much and try to work with you. Also please remember, and someone correct me if i'm wrong, but once you extend, it does not matter where you are from, you have to pay OOS tuition fee for the rest of your time here at UMKC. Please be aware of this, because not only are you extending, but you are then gonna end up paying more.
  2. Yes that formula is still a secret. They have some secret formula they use to determine latin honors for your class. Essentially just try to get an A/Honors in everything and do decent on boards and you'll be fine.
  3. Grades are not curved as much as they used to be. HSF is basically 100 question exams and you get how many you got right, there is no curve. Micro has a curve but that's because that class is actually legit. Neuro has a hella curve (I would never study for a test, walk in, feel like I failed and then somehow get a 100...it was bizzare, no one knew how it worked, but that teacher retired after our class so idk how it works right now). Path does or does not have a curve depending on who taught the unit. Pharm as not curve.
  4. Research isn't discouraged but it is not actively encouraged either. If you wanna do it you have to figure it out yourself. I commented more on this part earlier on the thread and some of the problems that come associated with it.

I would honestly just talk to people in your class and do what a majority are doing. That way you are all in this together and help each other out.
Doing Biology or Chem does not help you out in the slightest later on. People who did BLA do just as well if not better on boards than the ones who did the “exotic” majors like bio and chem. And yes saying exotic is not an overstatement, you will most likely be the only one in your class. The avg number of students doing biology in most classes in 2-3, and chemistry is usually 1, there are 1-2 psych thrown in there and the other 99 do BLA.