Will I be rejected from ALL BA/MD programs with my stats?

MD2B2012
Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:46:16 +0000

MaJaHa:

If you’ve done your research or spoken with any hospital administrators, you would find that most hospitals would prefer a distinguished graduate of a program like UMKC to a middle-of-the-road graduate of a high-dollar-name college or university.



That is actually not true if you look at the programs UMKC’s students match into from their match lists in comparison to other medical schools’ match lists esp. those in the state of Missouri: SLU, WashU, Missouri-Columbia - all of which ALSO have Bachelor/MD programs. The perceived quality of education at the medical school by the residency program director at an interview is very important, which is why quite a few programs only give invites and rank students from top-tier schools. This is esp. true for those thinking about competitive specialties. You can not for example compare the education and educational opportunites available at the medical school in UMKC vs. at the medical school at Wash U in St. Louis.



MaJaHa:

This is because UMKC 6 yr BA/MD grads have a bedside manner beyond that of a 4+4 student. One of my favorite aspects of this combined program is that its students are seeing and working with patients by their first weeks."



To be truthful, ALMOST ALL medical schools now give students early on clinical exposure in the first 2 years. Bedside manner is not like clinical experience and knowledge - once you have achieved good bedside manner, you can move on and you don’t need extra practice. Not to mention, everyone takes the Step 2 CS exam to test for that before graduating from medical school.

I do agree ask around, and more importantly ask those who are IN the program now and have completed several years already and are way deep into the program (not those in the first year, who have not experienced the program long enough not to mention the first year tends to be relatively close to an undergrad, or those in their last year who don’t really care as they’ve already matched and thus any valid complaints/criticisms magically disappear). Alumni opinions are a tossup depending on how long it has been since they’ve graduated from the program as the medical curriculum has changed greatly in a short period of time.