2019-2020 Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (Kansas City) KCU-COM

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Hi, I wanted to ask a questions regarding rotations. I'm an OMS-I at Joplin. I know that Freeman and Mercy both have rotations and that Freeman has ward-based ones as well. A lot of people said they were excited for those being an option in the Joplin area, but I recently spoke to a second year that mentioned that more people preferred to go to Mercy, because you got to do more hands-on stuff. I always thought ward-based were nice because they oriented you better to what's expected of a med student, especially priming you for 4th year aways? Would anybody be able to comment further on the how these two sites compare? In line with that, I noticed that the KCU core site of Ascension Macomb Oakland Hospital in Warren, MI has a lot of other residencies (and thus potential ward-based rotations?) that I was potentially considering since it would be a bit closer to home. Does anyone have experiences they could share regarding that site? Thanks.
 
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Portcullis said:
Hi, I wanted to ask a questions regarding rotations. I'm an OMS-I at Joplin. I know that Freeman and Mercy both have rotations and that Freeman has ward-based ones as well. A lot of people said they were excited for those being an option in the Joplin area, but I recently spoke to a second year that mentioned that more people preferred to go to Mercy, because you got to do more hands-on stuff. I always thought ward-based were nice because they orientated you better to what's expected of a med student, especially priming you for 4th year aways? Would anybody be able to comment further on the how these two sites compare? In line with that, I noticed that the KCU core site of Ascension Macomb Oakland Hospital in Warren, MI has a lot of other residencies (and thus potential ward-based rotations?) that I was potentially considering since it would be a bit closer to home. Does anyone have experiences they could share regarding that site? Thanks.
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I don’t have much info on those sites. But from what I’ve heard the Ascension rotation site is one of if not the best site because of how many residencies are associated with it. And it’s pretty competitive so if you want to go there you you’ll defiantly need to write letters for it, but if it’s close to your home you can write a letter for that
 
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Portcullis said:
Hi, I wanted to ask a questions regarding rotations. I'm an OMS-I at Joplin. I know that Freeman and Mercy both have rotations and that Freeman has ward-based ones as well. A lot of people said they were excited for those being an option in the Joplin area, but I recently spoke to a second year that mentioned that more people preferred to go to Mercy, because you got to do more hands-on stuff. I always thought ward-based were nice because they orientated you better to what's expected of a med student, especially priming you for 4th year aways? Would anybody be able to comment further on the how these two sites compare? In line with that, I noticed that the KCU core site of Ascension Macomb Oakland Hospital in Warren, MI has a lot of other residencies (and thus potential ward-based rotations?) that I was potentially considering since it would be a bit closer to home. Does anyone have experiences they could share regarding that site? Thanks.
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Ward based 10000000000000000000000%. I have classmates who had really great experiences with preceptor based rotations and good hands on stuff (like surgery), but that doesn't really prepare you to be a good medical student and resident. I've seen medical students struggle really hard when it comes time for sub-I's and away rotations because they have no clue what's going on. Also Ascension macomb-Oakland is great and they *really* prepare you to rock aways/sub-I's and impress MD programs.
 
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Pharmd2MD92 said:
Hey prospective KCU students! I am an incoming 1st year at KCU-KC. I’ll be on this thread periodically to answer any questions you all have about the application cycle, questions about the school (as I learn more as a student), why I chose KCU over other acceptances, or really anything else you want to know. Good luck! This is a crazy process!
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Hi! how do you like this school? What is the schedule like? Do you get a week break after each block? Are the teachers helpful? Is it easy to find a place to live?
 
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stripedscarf said:
Hi! how do you like this school? What is the schedule like? Do you get a week break after each block? Are the teachers helpful? Is it easy to find a place to live?
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Suffice to say, you don’t get a week break between blocks. You get a weekend, though.
 
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stripedscarf said:
dang! Other schools I am looking at do and I think it should be like that across more schools.
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I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but in my experience the curriculum and scheduling at KCU is fine and has the benefit of seeming like your life is on 2x. The weeks/days before each exam just fly by.
 
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stripedscarf said:
dang! Other schools I am looking at do and I think it should be like that across more schools.
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Do they get a summer though? Or, is their learning more condensed so that they can cover the same amount of material in x amount of weeks in order to provide a week off? Something has to give, so I'd look into this more.
 
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stripedscarf said:
dang! Other schools I am looking at do and I think it should be like that across more schools.
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Yeah most schools also don’t have near the summer break KCU has. They give us 8 weeks between 1st and 2nd year, which is actually 3 weeks longer than what I already thought was a generous 5 weeks in past years. I’d look into it a bit more. The amount of material you have to cover in just 2 years is so bananas you’ll constantly wish they would give you more time between tests rather than wishing you had a week off.
 
stripedscarf said:
Hi! how do you like this school? What is the schedule like? Do you get a week break after each block? Are the teachers helpful? Is it easy to find a place to live?
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I’d also say that teachers here are typically teaching to a class of 450+ students. Most of them are incredibly helpful if you make an effort to reach out after class, but during class it’s all about just shutting up so the teacher can bust through an asinine number of slides and then you can leave and go pretend like you learned something. Cost of living here is probably about as good as it gets for any city of equivalent size around the country. Very affordable. I think most students live in Century Towers just kitty corner to the school and people are constantly moving out and in so I wouldn’t say it’s hard to find living here. I never had an issue with KCU. It’s medical school, so yeah it f***ing sucks for a couple years no matter where you go. There are a multitude of reasons why people have said that they don’t like KCU, but I think you’d get a lot of crap to complain about at just about any Med school you go to. The reason I ended up choosing KCU over other schools was cause the facilities here are incredibly nice and since I was about to fork over 50k for a year of school, I at least wanted to see what my money was paying for. Anyways just my thoughts.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Do they get a summer though? Or, is their learning more condensed so that they can cover the same amount of material in x amount of weeks in order to provide a week off? Something has to give, so I'd look into this more.
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Fun fact: KCU used to have a week off after every block, but that was like early 2000's I think. No way in heck would I condense some of the classes we had even further just for a week off. Weekends off would have been nice though.
 
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Jesus H Christ said:
but during class it’s all about just shutting up
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Its amazing to me that after 2 years of pre clinical we still have some students who just can’t get this through there head. They don’t understand that the professor isn’t just there for them and that they dont need to share the 5000 pointless questions and comments they have. Okay, end of my rant lol
 
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PorkChopsOG said:
Fun fact: KCU used to have a week off after every block, but that was like early 2000's I think. No way in heck would I condense some of the classes we had even further just for a week off. Weekends off would have been nice though.
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Same. Would also much rather have an 8 week summer than a week off after every block. A week isn't enough time to really do anything or fully relax.
 
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stripedscarf said:
Hi! how do you like this school? What is the schedule like? Do you get a week break after each block? Are the teachers helpful? Is it easy to find a place to live?
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My opinion of the school has fluctuated over the past 2 years, probably because medical school just sucks in general. And I’m currently headfirst in dedicated for boards right now, so I’ll try to answer this without sounding too jaded lol. When I first started, I did really like KCU a lot. Most professors are very willing to help, but there was one that was just terrible. He’s no longer there, though. I really loved the community that I felt like I had and LOVED the campus spaces, but covid took all of that away for the better half of my didactic medical education. I have no idea what your schedule would look like with covid and changes to the curriculum, but I’d expect to be required on campus 2-3 days per week and have a few required lectures/small groups over zoom per week. Everything else you can study on your own time. In general, I would set aside about 40-50 hours per week for med school, sometimes more sometimes less. Make time for yourself, workout, do the things you love, and continue to be a normal human!

My biggest complaint is that I didn’t feel like our exams were representative of board exams. Sure, we had some hard exams, but I never felt really pushed hard until I started studying for step. With that being said, if our exams were as hard as step, no one would pass lol. FWIW, I had ~93% average in the first 2 years and boards are really making me feel like I know nothing. *note* I have nothing else to compare my education to, so idk if another school would better prepare me for boards. Overall, I like the school. I don’t think you can go wrong with choosing KCU and you’ll get a great education. We have thousands of graduates who have came before us, and thousands who will come after. Also, it is very easy to find a place and a roommate if you want one.
 
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Do we know how many students had to SOAP on this year's match? and what the pre/post soap match rate was?
 
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