And this: "You will have interviews focused on diversity and inclusion questions, critical thinking skills, and responses to ethical scenarios."
If you scroll up through earlier posts on this thread, a lot of people have given great advice on how to prepare and what the day would be like. But know that no one can disclose any specifics because of the NDA that we all had to sign. Just to briefly recap what the others have said and from my own experience, have answers to the generic questions (tell me about yourself, why medicine, why DO, why KCU, etc), google some medical ethical questions and practice them, and do mock interviews if you have time.
Good luck!!What is your opinion on the quality of clinical rotations and have they prepared you for residency?Hi all! I haven't participated in these threads in awhile, but I'm a current fourth year at KCU who's interviewing for residency right now and wanted to see if I could help out with anything. I'm a bit further removed from the preclinical years so I might not have the most up to date info, but I can try my best to speak on my experience
So I stayed in KC for rotations and I feel like I got a good experience overall. Some rotations are better than others for sure. I had a couple of rotations throughout M3 with residents and a handful that were more one-on-one with an attending (or me, another student, attending). I see the pros to both: it's good to have some exposure to working with residents so that you can see what it's like/what's expected from you prior to auditions and fourth year, but I'm not a believer that you need to have every single rotation with residents in order to be successful...it's just really not that hard to figure out how things work as long as you have 1 solid residency-based rotation. I felt that my education was actually better on rotations where I worked more one-on-one with attendings (obviously there are exceptions to this, as some attendings quite plainly suck and it's obvious they don't want to actually teach you): I got to be way more hands on, learn directly from them, and form better relationships with them, which is important when it comes to letters of rec. Also, the schedule and work/life balance is a lot better when you're not working with residents all the time. Some people like the hazing process of medicine and the hours worked, but you'll have plenty of time for that in residency, and no amount of doing it in M3 is going to make you more prepared....especially if it's a field you know you're not interested in (like taking 24h call on ob/gyn when you want to do IM, for example). That being said, if you are looking for a more "traditional" experience where you work with residents for everything, the Michigan site is a strong one.
Thanks for this post and taking the time! I recently got accepted to KCU and am strongly considering attending! Say I wanted to do my rotations in Michigan site, do I get to stay there for all my core and elective rotations?Hi all! I haven't participated in these threads in awhile, but I'm a current fourth year at KCU who's interviewing for residency right now and wanted to see if I could help out with anything. I'm a bit further removed from the preclinical years so I might not have the most up to date info, but I can try my best to speak on my experience
You would definitely get to be there for all of M3, then I'm not 100% sure how the site handles fourth year but I believe you would be able to stay for electives and stuff that year too!
That's an awesome overview of the process which I had NO IDEA about. Thanks so much for taking the time to respond!You would definitely get to be there for all of M3, then I'm not 100% sure how the site handles fourth year but I believe you would be able to stay for electives and stuff that year too!
Rank lists are not due until February. A very general timeline is that ERAS opens up around June or July when you're starting your M4 year. You will likely take Step 2/Level 2 around then as well as you are given a month off to study in June between your last rotation of M3 and the start of M4. ERAS submission date is typically end of September, so you'll have time to fill out the application and gather things like your board scores, transcripts, letters of rec to submit. Most people will do auditions from the beginning of M4 (so typically July) throughout December, with the target being July-October so you can rotate there before apps go out. Then from October-January you'll get invitations to interview at programs. Come February, you'll submit your rank list of all the programs you interviewed at, and each program will submit their rank list of applicants they interviewed. Then March is match day! So basically since rank lists aren't due until February, you can do an audition up until that point if you want to get one-on-one exposure to a program, but ideal time is July-October so that you can convince them to give you an interview if you perform well!
*caveat here being that advice on auditions etc. is dependent on what specialty you're applying to/your competitiveness as an applicant, but that is getting more into the weeds and isn't really relevant at this stage in the process
Those on the WL at KCU have a good shot, but you'll have to wait until late spring as the traffic dates for both MD and DO schools are around that time. Usually people hold onto some acceptances until they are forced to commit to one school and suddenly an influx of seats become available.
I see you applied IM, are you pursuing academic or community programs? Do you want to specialize? Do you feel KCU can get you to a good academic program?Hi all! I haven't participated in these threads in awhile, but I'm a current fourth year at KCU who's interviewing for residency right now and wanted to see if I could help out with anything. I'm a bit further removed from the preclinical years so I might not have the most up to date info, but I can try my best to speak on my experience
I am targeting based on location moreso than community vs academic based on my priorities. I want to go back home. Location is #1 for me and I am not interested in pursuing fellowship at this time so I am not super concerned about landing somewhere academic. That being said, I have multiple academic interviews at this time.
Wow congratulations that's amazing. God willing I get an acceptance here and then I will reach out to you for studying tips!
Congrats on the great accomplishment
Likely similar results, now it'll be "have you taken step 1" when the PD/program sees you're a DO, if so have you taken Step 2 and what was your step 2 score?
I agree with what @ReaDoc wrote above.
I got in with my third MCAT slightly above 500 (so 2 scores under)
I think we will be waiting till at least before Thanksgiving
It seems like there's been one day designated for interviews each week. First group had theirs on 9/10, then 9/15, 9/22 and so on. There really hasn't been a lot of posts about results after the 9/22 group. The last person to post about an acceptance was on 10/27, which I'm assuming his/her interview was during the last week of September.I think we will be waiting till at least before Thanksgiving
Out of curiosity, what were the October interview dates at KCU?
I was also wondering this! I have no interest in basic science research but I have lots of experience in clinical and public health related research and is my interest… how do we get similar experiences at KCU? Or for specialties, you typically just need bench research?
So I actually did not do any research while in med school. I have a couple of things from undergrad but research is just not my passion, and I knew that my career goals (hospitalist / primary care) didn't require it, so I didn't go out of my way to do it.
If you're looking to do research with a certain specialty or something related to the specialty you are looking to apply to, I would highly suggest looking outside of KCU for research. I'm not trying to knock bench research as it has contributed a great deal of the medical knowledge we have today but if you're looking to get pubs, it isn't the best use of your time. I did bench research in undergrad and I felt clinical was the right move for me knowing how slow the processes in bench can be.
Is it too much to try and balance bench research at KCU and clinical research elsewhere? Also is it possible to do clinical research far away (3+ hours) in case there is nothing available in Kansas City?
I think you'd be stretching yourself thin juggling those two, but again you know yourself best. I would take the first semester of med school to figure out your study strategies and then start looking at research opportunities around mid fall.
I did last year! I’m a first year now. Feel free to pm me with questions.
Just to add a little to this, if you want to get published you should really try and avoid bench research unless you can just get you name on a project that’s almost done. Otherwise you need to reach out to docs in the KC area and really anywhere you know of docs doing research. I would ask upperclassman at KCU about who they do research with and go from there.
It's in your original email in the PDF document that includes the schedule of events
My interview was also 10/14! Our d-day is probably next week for us but I'm just curious if there is any movement at all since no one's been posting about decisions for the last few weeks 🥲
Last month I noticed that KCU released results most of the result in bulk over the course of a week, for the majority of folks who interviewed in September
9/10 people received their results on 10/8 (on their 4th week)
It was late september.
Ya they switch to H/P/F when the pandemic hit and then decided to keep it permanent. Unless they changed it for the newer classes (I’m 3rd year). It’s funny cause I have like 1.5 semesters of ABC grading and then all H/P/F after that, so my MSPE (med school report card) is really weird
Can confirm that it is H/P/F for pre-clinical years!
can confirm that some of my friends got in with below that. it really depends on your overall CV.
Ascension has the most residents and Denver is also good. I haven’t really heard good things about San Jose and the cost of living is insane unless you have family you can stay with. KC is decent but a lot of people got screwed over with there electives for 3rd year in my class because they couldn’t find enough docs to take them, and for one rotation you might have to live like 3 hours outside KC at some sh** house KCU bought, I know people who have to b there for their surgery rotation. I’ve also heard good things about the Fort Myers site but I don’t think they have any residents there.
