High School Student looking at Accelerated Programs

[madmedic101]

Hi guys,

I'm a high school student going to school in a Denver suburb looking at admission to a few accelerated medical programs, namely the UMKC six-year program, and just wanted to see how I stack up, and I also wanted to see what physicians/physicians-to-be think about these accelerated programs.

GPA: 4.18 (3.95 unweighted)
Class Rank: 15/450
ACT: 29
SAT: 1940
AP Biology: 4
AP Calculus: 5
Deputy Captain of Youth Medical Team (with 400 volunteer hours)
President of Math Engineering Science Association
Editor-in-Chief of the Newspaper
Academic Letter x6
UK Medical Research Council Internship (80-ish hours)
Senate Internship (100+ hours)

Thanks guys!

-MadMedic101

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[236116]

The numbers sound good.

Are you positive this is what you want? Can you handle the workload?

I personally don't like them, people in the 6yr programs tend to not have real life skills and experiences.

 

[hellohumph]

umkc's program is not good mainly because your undergraduate life is cut way short. Plus the training in UMKC isn't that superb from what I've heard

I disagree even with a few 7 year programs

For for a 8 year guaranteed program. PPSP, SLU med scholars, Bacc/MD USC, etc

 

[madmedic101]

umkc's program is not good mainly because your undergraduate life is cut way short. Plus the training in UMKC isn't that superb from what I've heard

I've heard lots of conflicting things about the UMKC program. I do have some contacts that are graduates of that program located in various medical specialties and they all seem to be qualified physicians/researchers. I have had some trouble, however, locating hard statistics about this University. The one number I do have is that UMKC has a 94% residency matching rate.

I do, however want to question the importance of a stringent undergraduate education. I'm pretty committed to medicine and have been for quite a while now. Within my experience on the Youth Medical Team, I've dealt with lots of exciting patients (mostly local Boy Scouts, since we cover their district events) as well as lots of disgusting patients and think that I'm fairly well prepared to begin recieving training geared towards making me a clinician.

Now, I'm not saying that I think an undergrad education is worthless, but I just want to hear what others think about cutting it short if the ultimate goal is to become a good physician.

Thanks,

-MadMedic101

 

[AznDragon]

MadMedic101,

I graduated UMKC in 2006. I'd say you'd at least get an interview. I don't know if things have changed, but when I was in school they only took 10-15 people out-of-state. All the other spots are for Missouri residents. So it was pretty competitive for the out-of-state slots since there were so few.

This program is for people who are 100% sure they're going into medicine. If you have any doubts whatsoever, I would not go to UMKC. Every year, there are people that drop out after realizing medicine is not for them and they're already thousands in debt. As for undergrad. degree, almost all of us have a bachelors in liberal arts. Ever since I graduated UMKC, no one has even asked me (or even cares) what my major was in college.

UMKC prepares you well for primary care. You start seeing patients in your 1st year and starting your 3rd year, you have weekly medicine clinic where you'll see your own patients. We also do 2 months of inpatient internal medicine every year starting year 4. So by the time we graduate, we would have done at least 6 months of internal medicine. It's not to say that our graduates don't go into other specialties. People that do go into other specialties generally do away electives or research. In my class, there were a couple of people that matched in ortho, 2 in ophtho, 1 in ENT, 1 in plastics. Anyway, hope that helps.

 

[Depakote]

I'm going to move this to our High School forum where there is more discussion of BA/MD programs.

To answer the OP's question:


I'm cautious about your chances. Obviously only the admissions committee knows for sure, but as an out-of-state student you'll be held to a higher standard than in state students (also higher tuition). While your GPA is impressive, your test scores might hurt you.

Your ECs are exactly where they should be. I can only speculate about your essays.

Obviously, the only way you're going to know for sure is to apply.

 

[Depakote]

There's a lot of good info on selecting BA/MD, BS/MD programs here:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=6766122

 

[BahamaBreeze]

Work on getting your ACT score up. Go to the UMKC Med website & see what the program reqs are for OOS.

 

[madmedic101]

Work on getting your ACT score up. Go to the UMKC Med website & see what the program reqs are for OOS.

All right, so I have managed to improve my standing as such:

GPA: 4.20 (3.97 unweighted)
Class Rank: 12/450
ACT: 32
SAT: 2040 (1430 CR + Math)
AP Biology: 5
AP Calculus: 5
Deputy Captain of Youth Medical Team (with 400 volunteer hours)
President of Math Engineering Science Association
Editor-in-Chief of the Newspaper
Academic Letter x8
UK Medical Research Council Internship (80-ish hours)
Senate Internship (100+ hours)

Does that improve my chances of getting accepted by an accelerated medical program significantly? In addition, I am concerned about the steep cost of UMKC's program. Does anyone know whether or not there are any scholarships available to those attending this program?

Thanks,

-MadMedic101

 

[CScull]

That'll help a lot. The main thing they would have held against you is test scores and GPA, but now that your GPA is about as good as it can get... I would still try and get that ACT up as high as you possibly can, but a 32 is much better than a 29.

What grade are you in?

 

[NickNaylor]

Just curious... how did your AP scores change?

Beyond that, I think you have great stats. If I had to recommend something, I would suggest more direct medical experience (i.e., volunteering at a hospital or shadowing). You have some good medical ECs in there, but I don't think you can leave those things off entirely. Obviously this is going to differ from person to person; I think it's important though.

As far as BS/MD programs go, if you know you want to go into medicine then I would definitely go for them. Even if you don't graduate early, you won't have to go through the med school application gauntlet. I think that alone would probably be a wonderful benefit. However, don't be disappointed if you don't get accepted to one of these programs. They're extremely competetitive. You can still get into medical school the traditional route and probably do extremely well, assuming your high school performance is a good predictor of your college performance.

 

[madmedic101]

"Just curious... how did your AP scores change? "

My school's AP program uses released AP tests as the final exams for the class. I had scored in the 4 range on the final exam in Biology, and in the 5 range for Calculus. I figured that these finals would be a pretty good indication of how I'd do on the actual test, so I didn't hesitate posting them here on SDN. Admittedly, I was pretty surprised that I got a 5 on the AP Biology test, but I'm certainly not complaining.

"What grade are you in?"

I'm actually going into my senior year this year, so the applications haven't gone out yet. The dates that I have to send the applications out steadfastly near, however....

-MadMedic101