2024-2025 Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (Kansas City) KCU-COM

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greedysneeze said:
How long do you get for dedicated? What percent of students are able to stay in KC for clerkships? Do you feel supported in making your own 4th year schedule? How long is summer break between 1st and 2nd year? Does the school provide any 3rd party resources? Is the culture of the class more collaborative or competitive? What is your honest opinion of the school/curriculum?
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kcubonewizard said:
Maybe I'm jaded but to offer a different perspective, I don't really feel supported in making my own 4th year schedule lol. They had us go to some required zoom meeting about 4th year a few weeks ago and the first point they made was basically "we will support you but you will do everything yourself" so I guess I don't know what support means in that context. They sure don't mind charging $100k or whatever it is in tuition for 4th year though. This is a problem at a lot of DO schools though.

The curriculum is fine I guess. There's a little too much busy work and hand-holding at certain times. Any school with in-house exams is gonna have its fair share of being tested on random crap that isn't on boards and KCU is no different. The boards pass rate has apparently been going down for the past few years so something isn't quite right, but I have no idea what it is. I personally think that I prepared myself well for boards and that if I listened to the school's advice of focusing on lecture content over 3rd party then I could've been screwed. Overall though it's worth considering that KCU is pass/fail (well sort of, there are internal rankings based on quartile) and has less OMM than a lot of other DO schools. In general I think they do a decent job of respecting your time in the first 2 years in terms of not making you go to a bunch of required stuff. I would still choose to attend KCU over most other DO schools.
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Like I said in the past, you get what you put in. What KCUbonewizard said is true- 4th year is on your own... But the other part that sucks is you'll find out in 4th year very quickly that the school doesn't care about you, it only cares about its match statistics. If you apply anything competitive, they will push you to apply FM or IM or something safe, and they are very quick when it comes to recommending you do this even if you have high match probability. They also want you to overshoot and apply to way too many programs (each program you apply to is more and more expensive). I could go on about KCU for days about the good and the bad, but the end of the day, remember that the grass is never greener elsewhere.
 
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Withdrew my acceptance today, kind of deliberately after Thanksgiving to prove the rule don't mean nothin! I hope some lucky duck gets an interview first thing Monday. Best of luck to everyone at KCU and elsewhere !!!! You'll do great hope to see you in residencies, conferences, and symposia for years to come.
 
juicy_scooby said:
Withdrew my acceptance today, kind of deliberately after Thanksgiving to prove the rule don't mean nothin! I hope some lucky duck gets an interview first thing Monday. Best of luck to everyone at KCU and elsewhere !!!! You'll do great hope to see you in residencies, conferences, and symposia for years to come.
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Withdrew too! A on Nov 6, II on Nov. 4.

Good luck to everyone!
 
For International students on the KCU site it states that you need to show proof of assurance (total cost of attendance) liquid assets of amount $425k in order to get an I20 issued. If you get accepted as a Canadian applicant is this still true? Most schools only expect full tuition amount of two years but this $425k amount upfront seems ridiculous! Can any current international students attending shed some light on this requirement. Thanks!
 
nrk420 said:
For International students on the KCU site it states that you need to show proof of assurance (total cost of attendance) liquid assets of amount $425k in order to get an I20 issued. If you get accepted as a Canadian applicant is this still true? Most schools only expect full tuition amount of two years but this $425k amount upfront seems ridiculous! Can any current international students attending shed some light on this requirement. Thanks!
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Also interested in light on this matter. Are internationals at KCUCOM basically all massively rich in liquid assets already?
 
For those that didn’t hear back after a weeks, did you send an email or call admissions? and if so, was that effective in hearing back sooner?
 
iloveomm said:
For those that didn’t hear back after a weeks, did you send an email or call admissions? and if so, was that effective in hearing back sooner?
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wondering this as well, have a deposit for another school coming up and I think I prefer to deposit here rather than there
 
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Can any current students comment on conference opportunities at the school and the support the school provides in terms of travel costs? Thanks!
 
Anybody else get an interview waitlist email? I submitted last week and they just emailed me saying they are gonna try to fit me in to interview in December if someone cancels but it wasn't like an official interview invite? Not sure what to make of this really
 
I know some of the people on here have been discussing how KCU's board pass rates have been declining over the past few years. Are any current students able to share insight on any reason this may be happening? Is it a curriculum change, professor issue, lack of admin support, or something else? What changed from previous years and do you think this is something that will be an issue if I matriculate next year? I really like KCU and it's one of my top choices from my acceptances, but I don't want anything to make medical school harder than it needs to be
 
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dragon_lord said:
I know some of the people on here have been discussing how KCU's board pass rates have been declining over the past few years. Are any current students able to share insight on any reason this may be happening? Is it a curriculum change, professor issue, lack of admin support, or something else? What changed from previous years and do you think this is something that will be an issue if I matriculate next year? I really like KCU and it's one of my top choices from my acceptances, but I don't want anything to make medical school harder than it needs to be
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Current [emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]]nd year. It’s really hard to say because no one’s been through it twice, you know?

I can say anecdotally I think people that do well have a personal fire lit under their ass that others don’t naturally. They’re the ones that started sacrificing school grades to board study earlier. But we’re all fighting burn out, always.

I cannot comment on curriculum nor professor changes bc I haven’t taken boards yet lol. Admin seems normal amongst normal politics at other institutions. They’re never [emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]% going to support you, it has to be self motivated too.
 
latransplant said:
I can say anecdotally I think people that do well have a personal fire lit under their ass that others don’t naturally. They’re the ones that started sacrificing school grades to board study earlier. But we’re all fighting burn out, always
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I take offense to this - I think everyone wants to pass boards equally and everybody takes it seriously. I have friends who studied for a few weeks and passed and friends that put in an extraordinary amount of effort/time in and didn't pass. I can't explain why the pass rates have decreased but I don't think we should be blaming the students when there is an obvious trend.
latransplant said:
I cannot comment on curriculum nor professor changes bc I haven’t taken boards yet lol.
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Probably best not to comment then.
 
dragon_lord said:
I know some of the people on here have been discussing how KCU's board pass rates have been declining over the past few years. Are any current students able to share insight on any reason this may be happening? Is it a curriculum change, professor issue, lack of admin support, or something else? What changed from previous years and do you think this is something that will be an issue if I matriculate next year? I really like KCU and it's one of my top choices from my acceptances, but I don't want anything to make medical school harder than it needs to be
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I think theres a long list and a lot of reasons that can potentially explain why. The school initially blamed COVID, which is fair, but its been so long that i dont think its a valid reason.

Boards going pass fail does not help. The national boards pass rate has dropped- and while going to pass fail might relieve pressure to perform well, there can be a false sense of relief. When you shoot for 400, slipping up means you fail. If you shoot for 600, slipping up means you get a 550.

Beyond that, I think theres more underlying issues with KCU, and you can DM me if you want to talk. But some reasons I think are an outdated grading system, lack of ability to hold onto teaching faculty, the expansion of KCU, the curriculum, the expansion of other medical schools, etc all play a role. But Ive said it before and ill say it again, every medical school will have its own problems, and it truly is the student that makes the difference. Students who are successful at KCU will be successful at any medical school. Unfortunately, it is natural for some people to fail out of medical shcool due to the brutal nature (Even Harvard has students who cant pass). Very few students will succeed at one place and fail out at another place.
 
Waitlisted today, interviewed 11/7 /:

Odds of getting off waitlist?? Not sure if applicants who got waitlisted before me will have a better chance of getting off the waitlist?
 
sammie22 said:
Waitlisted today, interviewed 11/7 /:

Odds of getting off waitlist?? Not sure if applicants who got waitlisted before me will have a better chance of getting off the waitlist?
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Each cycle is a little different but my cycle there was a lot of waitlist movement toward the end of the cycle. I know a handful of people in my class that got in off of the waitlist.
 
oos A KC campus 🙂 really excited about this one. is there a groupme or something?
 
I heard class of 2028 has 265 students, is it true? should I go by other DO options that have less students even though KCU is better than them?

edit: A on 09/19, have to make deposit by 12/16
 
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Helpmesurvive123 said:
I heard class of 2028 has 265 students, is it true? should I go by other DO options that have less students even though KCU is better than them?

edit: A on 09/19, have to make deposit by 12/16
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Depends what your options are, DM me if you want
 
Anyone offered an II in October with no interview date who got an II spot this December?I am slowly losing hope ....
 
Helpmesurvive123 said:
I heard class of 2028 has 265 students, is it true? should I go by other DO options that have less students even though KCU is better than them?

edit: A on 09/19, have to make deposit by 12/16
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Keep in mind that half of those students are at Joplin and half at KC. Its a big class total and there are a lot of people on each campus but it doesn’t feel as hectic as that number sounds. They also break us into smaller lab groups so it rarely feels like we are all together at once.
 
DoneDone3451 said:
Depends what your options are, DM me if you want
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Justify2018 said:
Keep in mind that half of those students are at Joplin and half at KC. Its a big class total and there are a lot of people on each campus but it doesn’t feel as hectic as that number sounds. They also break us into smaller lab groups so it rarely feels like we are all together at once.
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thank you, so it's not 265 each? like 265 joplin and 265 kansas city?
 
Helpmesurvive123 said:
thank you, so it's not 265 each? like 265 joplin and 265 kansas city?
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I’m not sure the exact split. I would look at their website to see. I know Joplin’s class size is around 150 or so. We may in fact be around 250 at KCU but the only time I was aware that the class was that large was at orientation and the white coating and occasionally a bioethics class where we all have to be there at once. Otherwise we are split into smaller groups. That being said, if you want a small cohort feel, KCU is not the school for you. You can easily find your people and have close friendships here, but it is a large class. For me that was a positive. KCU has a great track record of graduating a lot of doctors and placing them competitively in residency. The numbers were attractive to me. Random complaints that a few people have mentioned aside, they have a formula that has worked for a long time.
 
Justify2018 said:
I’m not sure the exact split. I would look at their website to see. I know Joplin’s class size is around 150 or so. We may in fact be around 250 at KCU but the only time I was aware that the class was that large was at orientation and the white coating and occasionally a bioethics class where we all have to be there at once. Otherwise we are split into smaller groups. That being said, if you want a small cohort feel, KCU is not the school for you. You can easily find your people and have close friendships here, but it is a large class. For me that was a positive. KCU has a great track record of graduating a lot of doctors and placing them competitively in residency. The numbers were attractive to me. Random complaints that a few people have mentioned aside, they have a formula that has worked for a long time.
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Thank you for details
 
medzone99 said:
I interviewed yesterday on 12/6 and hoping for a fast turnaround. I have a few other acceptances and their deposit deadlines are coming up fast but KCU is at the top of my list. Would love to just put down 1 deposit :/
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you might be able to call admissions and let them know the deposit due date situation and how kcu is your preference. they may note it down and get back to you before your deposit time. I called them about the same thing and they were really nice about it. you can also try calling the other schools and requesting another week before having to deposit.
 
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