A few questions for current/former students. I am hoping to have a better idea before the interview.
1. How easy is it for students to participate in current research or begin their own through a mentor?
2. What opportunities are there for students to volunteer in community health clinics?
3. Can students start new organizations? Looking at different schools, you see different organizations/activities and I was curious what it would take to start a new organization on campus.
4. If an academic need arises, does the program have resources available for students?
5. Do students travel between campuses in their first two years?
6. For students in clerkship years, how do students select locations for core rotations? I see a list of participating programs on the site and I am curious what these sites offer. Do students usually receive their top choices?
Sorry, if any of these are repeats from previous OP's.
Thanks all.
To elaborate with a little more experience (and knowledge of how rotations work):
1. It can be tough, I won't lie to you. I've heard people say in the past that the curriculum doesn't leave much space for research, but I don't know how true this is compared to other schools. Basically, because KCU is not a research university, and focuses almost all of its energy on the academics, extra opportunities like that are not accounted for. If you want to do it, you have to go find it. That being said, it can be done. One of my friends just emailed physicians and asked what he could get in on. Your advisor (especially clinical faculty members) can also potentially refer you.
2. The only clinic per se that is officially affiliated with the school (KC campus specifically) only takes a limited number of student workers from each class. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they only take about 30 students per class. Joplin has a huge advantage in this, since they are the only med school in the area, so they get a lot more early clinical experience. This, for me, was a major disappointment. However, there are other opportunities to do health screenings and such, primarily through Score 1 (see here for more details:
Score 1 for Health). I personally have a blast doing Score 1. My only wish is that we got more exposure to it in first year. But in second year, we've already had three different screenings, and have three more this month alone.
3. It's a process to start one, since I think you have to get enough potential members interested, but definitely doable. Last year, my class started at least two that I can think of off the top of my head.
4. Our professors, academic advisors, and learning enhancement staff are all really great. We also have tutoring available for all of the systems courses and OMM during first year.
5. Once again - not at all. We are "one cohort," but your campus is your campus. Joplin students did come up a few weeks ago for a core site/residency fair and homecoming in the same day, which I guess technically counts because it was required of them to attend the fair. Other than that, never.
6. We just got a big talk on this a few weeks ago, so I'll try to be detailed, but somewhat concise. The clinical education team is constantly working out contracts and agreements for core sites, so they do vary a little bit from year to year, and ones that we keep may have more or fewer spots available. Once the list is set for the year, they release a bunch of information detailing the unique characteristics of each site. Not sure exactly what that entails yet, but I imagine things like how many spots, whether you work with residents, available elective rotations, etc. After this, the committee (made up of three students drawn from each campus's SG) typically chooses to do a straw poll, so you can get an idea of how many people in your class are interested in each site. Sometime after that, we submit our rankings, along with letters and possible documentation as to why you need or deserve to be at a certain site. We also have honors tracks (
Specialty Honors Tracks) that are being applied for and selected at the same time. If you apply for an honors track, you must rank KC as your #1 choice, since that is where they are all based. Because of this, Joplin students are allowed to come to KC for rotations if they are in an honors track. By sometime in January, we all should know where we're ending up. From what I've heard, you rank your top three as you please, and a fourth from a list of sites that had little interest, as a safety spot. Essentially, as long as you're smart and don't rank three super popular sites, you will match to one that you ranked. They try to give as many people as possible their top choice, so if your second and third choices have 10 spots each and 10 or more ranked them first, you are never ever going to get it. Every site has its pros and cons, just be smart and don't rank them solely on where you think might be a cool place to live, or some other arbitrary reason.
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