Kansas City University (KCU-COM) Discussion Thread 2016-2017

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Is it worth buying the bag the school offers with the medical kit? Like is it a specialized bad designed specifically to carry all the things in the medical kit or is it just a regular old bag that could be bought anywhere?

It's not worth buying that. Save where you can. You can use your backpack.


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Just moved into my new apartment on Saturday! Pretty pumped and my girlfriend and I have been eating at a bunch of random places (so far Joe's, BRGR, Genesee Bistro, Manny's, River Market). Had Mexican with my Big today (we were friends in Undergrad so it wasn't weird or anything). He told me that 3 kids got expelled this year for cheating on an anatomy exam (texting other students about questions or something). I thought that was pretty crazy lol.
 
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Just moved into my new apartment on Saturday! Pretty pumped and my girlfriend and I have been eating at a bunch of random places (so far Joe's, BRGR, Genesee Bistro, Manny's, River Market). Had Mexican with my Big today (we were friends in Undergrad so it wasn't weird or anything). He told me that 3 kids got expelled this year for cheating on an anatomy exam (texting other students about questions or something). I thought that was pretty crazy lol.
Where did you decide to live? And what's the rent like there? I'm still apartment shopping
 
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Where did you decide to live? And what's the rent like there? I'm still apartment shopping
A newer place called Switzer Lofts. It's in a nice residential area in the crossroads art district. About 10 minutes from campus and Westport and about 5 minutes from power and light. I have a one bedroom one bath for $1200/month plus electric and internet. But I live with my girlfriend so I won't be paying all of that myself.
 
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A newer place called Switzer Lofts. It's in a nice residential area in the crossroads art district. About 10 minutes from campus and Westport and about 5 minutes from power and light. I have a one bedroom one bath for $1200/month plus electric and internet. But I live with my girlfriend so I won't be paying all of that myself.

Hmm, might be sorta pricey for a single dude like myself
 
Just moved into my new apartment on Saturday! Pretty pumped and my girlfriend and I have been eating at a bunch of random places (so far Joe's, BRGR, Genesee Bistro, Manny's, River Market). Had Mexican with my Big today (we were friends in Undergrad so it wasn't weird or anything). He told me that 3 kids got expelled this year for cheating on an anatomy exam (texting other students about questions or something). I thought that was pretty crazy lol.

Congrats on moving in. And also, holy **** on 3 kids being expelled. How did they possibly get caught if they were texting about it? Were they straight up texting in the middle of a practical lol. Either way, stupid stupid stupid stupid.
 
Congrats on moving in. And also, holy **** on 3 kids being expelled. How did they possibly get caught if they were texting about it? Were they straight up texting in the middle of a practical lol. Either way, stupid stupid stupid stupid.
So apparently there were kids from the early morning practical texting later exam takers about what's on it. But one kid got super guilty about it and ratted in everyone. Apparently they expelled 3 kids and failed the kid who ratted.
 
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So apparently there were kids from the early morning practical texting later exam takers about what's on it. But one kid got super guilty about it and ratted in everyone. Apparently they expelled 3 kids and failed the kid who ratted.
Wowzers...guess the moral of the story is actually learn anatomy so you don't cheat:eek:
 
So apparently there were kids from the early morning practical texting later exam takers about what's on it. But one kid got super guilty about it and ratted in everyone. Apparently they expelled 3 kids and failed the kid who ratted.

I'm glad you brought this up.. kind of a tear between wanting to be a good comrade and wanting the exam to be fair to be everyone.. Seemingly innocent, but technically cheating. Now we all know not to mess with that type of thing I guess!


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So apparently there were kids from the early morning practical texting later exam takers about what's on it. But one kid got super guilty about it and ratted in everyone. Apparently they expelled 3 kids and failed the kid who ratted.

SMH, just shaking my dang head.
 
So apparently there were kids from the early morning practical texting later exam takers about what's on it. But one kid got super guilty about it and ratted in everyone. Apparently they expelled 3 kids and failed the kid who ratted.

That seems a bit harsh, I feel like everyone always asks people what material was on an exam if someone took it earlier than others.

Now these kids have pretty much had their dreams crushed since getting expelled from medical school basically means that no other med school will ever accept them.

How many times have you heard people have this conversation...

Person A: Hey, I wrote the midterm a day earlier, because I have to leave town tomorrow.

Person B: Oh, what was on it?

Idk, maybe it does constitute an unfair advantage, but to get expelled for just that seems extreme. I sympathize with the students whose world has just been shattered.
 
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That seems a bit harsh, I feel like everyone always asks people what material was on an exam if someone took it earlier than others.

Now these kids have pretty much had their dreams crushed since getting expelled from medical school basically means that no other med school will ever accept them.

How many times have you heard people have this conversation...

Person A: Hey, I wrote the midterm a day earlier, because I have to leave town tomorrow.

Person B: Oh, what was on it?

Idk, maybe it does constitute an unfair advantage, but to get expelled for just that seems extreme. I sympathize with the students whose world has just been shattered.

I would feel bad if it were a casual conversation in a group text type of thing... but if it were a planned thing where students were supposed to remember all they could that was on the exam so that other students would have a large advantage later in the day I wouldn't feel bad.
 
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That seems a bit harsh, I feel like everyone always asks people what material was on an exam if someone took it earlier than others.

Now these kids have pretty much had their dreams crushed since getting expelled from medical school basically means that no other med school will ever accept them.

How many times have you heard people have this conversation...

Person A: Hey, I wrote the midterm a day earlier, because I have to leave town tomorrow.

Person B: Oh, what was on it?

Idk, maybe it does constitute an unfair advantage, but to get expelled for just that seems extreme. I sympathize with the students whose world has just been shattered.

Nah.

Although what you said about taking a test early is still cheating...at least in that situation the test taker still have to know what their doing well enough to answer the question right (even if they know what's on the test). If someone is in taking the anatomy practical and their friend is taking it an hour later and they straight up tell them what structures are on the test, this is flat out cheating. The faculty makes it extremely clear that no one is allowed to discuss the exam until the next day (for this exact reason) and our class follows these rules (yes, even I take the test earlier than my friends...I don't even tell them what was on it). Gotta act professional in med school. They were warned and they took that chance.

Besides...think about everyone else who busted their ass studying to try and do well on these exams. You are cheating them as well. Anatomy isn't easy and it takes a lot of prep to do well. If you wanna do well...study hard and you won't have to cheat.

Just my 2 cents on the issue.
 
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How many times have you heard people have this conversation...

Person A: Hey, I wrote the midterm a day earlier, because I have to leave town tomorrow.

Person B: Oh, what was on it?

Idk, maybe it does constitute an unfair advantage, but to get expelled for just that seems extreme. I sympathize with the students whose world has just been shattered.

Eh. This is medical school. You Gotta do the work. Gotta challenge your mind and not cop out by cheating. Your patients depend on you really knowing this material.

Yes it's a harsh punishment but again, the standards and expectations are set high for a reason.




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If someone is in taking the anatomy practical and their friend is taking it an hour later and they straight up tell them what structures are on the test, this is flat out cheating. The faculty makes it extremely clear that no one is allowed to discuss the exam until the next day (for this exact reason) and our class follows these rules (yes, even I take the test earlier than my friends...I don't even tell them what was on it). Gotta act professional in med school. They were warned and they took that chance.

Besides...think about everyone else who busted their ass studying to try and do well on these exams. You are cheating them as well. Anatomy isn't easy and it takes a lot of prep to do well. If you wanna do well...study hard and you won't have to cheat.

Just my 2 cents on the issue.

If they were giving specific information about the test questions then I agree that expulsion is a no brainier. To me, that's equivalent to having a cheat sheet. I still feel bad for the students on some level but would feel that the expulsion is justified.

If it was a more casual scenario like the other peeps described then it would be a really tough spot. I feel like in that scenario having the students repeat the semester or year would be sufficient punishment.
 
I get what you are saying. However, I wouldn't want a doc that cheated. That's how I view our education: what would my future patients want. Yes it's harsh but our society expects us to be better than that. It's tough but we ask people to do uncomfortable things and they will because they know we keep high standards as professionals. There can't be any slack when it comes to our integrity or we ruin that patient-physician relationship. I want to think that's what the school is protecting. That's my thoughts and now I'll go back into not posting mode.

That seems a bit harsh, I feel like everyone always asks people what material was on an exam if someone took it earlier than others.

Now these kids have pretty much had their dreams crushed since getting expelled from medical school basically means that no other med school will ever accept them.

How many times have you heard people have this conversation...

Person A: Hey, I wrote the midterm a day earlier, because I have to leave town tomorrow.

Person B: Oh, what was on it?

Idk, maybe it does constitute an unfair advantage, but to get expelled for just that seems extreme. I sympathize with the students whose world has just been shattered.
 
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Pretty sure that whole cheating thing resulting in expulsions turned out to be nothing but a rumor. Everyone was intrigued to find out who had been expelled but no one was "missing" and the class count online stayed the same. Probably a slap on the wrist or maybe all fiction.

But yeah don't cheat and especially don't talk about anything exam related on electronic devices. much better to miserably fail straight up than to try something like this.
 
Totally agree that cheating is terrible, but do you think that kind of situation has made the administration revisit the idea of pass/fail so students don't feel like they need to cheat for a few extra points?


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Totally agree that cheating is terrible, but do you think that kind of situation has made the administration revisit the idea of pass/fail so students don't feel like they need to cheat for a few extra points?


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No


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Totally agree that cheating is terrible, but do you think that kind of situation has made the administration revisit the idea of pass/fail so students don't feel like they need to cheat for a few extra points?


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My thoughts on a pass fail curriculum are that the success of a curriculum that is created with those outcomes is very school dependant. Often times the students who attend medical schools and are strong advocates of switching the curriculum to a pass/fail curriculum are students of schools where there is some significant disconnect between the information presented/tested on in the classroom and the information tested on the boards. Yes, most of what you learn your first two years will probably manifest in some way on the boards but when low yield information is presented like high yield information in the classroom and tested on like high yield information in the classroom, it hurts the student in the long run when they finish up with their classroom studies and move on to board prep. So, in schools with this issue, Yes a pass fail curriculum seems to benefit the students long term goals better than a curriculum with grades because it allows students to focus on board prep to a greater degree than they would be able to otherwise. However, from what I gathered during my interview and my interactions with past and current students at KCU, the administration and the professors seem concerned with their students' success on the boards from day one so a greater effort seems to be made to create exams that are "board style" and to test and present content accordingly. If this is truly the case, then the implementation of a true pass/fail curriculum may actually hurt the students long term goals, especially if the students emphasize passing over doing well in classes. Anyway, these are my thoughts on the subject but it could all change when we start school and I get to see how stuff with taught and tested with my own eyes. Perhaps current students can weigh in on this, @SynapticDoctah @AlteredScale - what are your thoughts?
 
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I have a question for students coming from high cost of living places like California etc...

Given the much lower cost of living in KC, do you find that deals on such things as electronics are much cheaper?

Like if I were to buy a top of the line Mac laptop in KC, would it be the same price as in Los Angeles? Or does the lower cost of living decrease these prices as well
 
I have a question for students coming from high cost of living places like California etc...

Given the much lower cost of living in KC, do you find that deals on such things as electronics are much cheaper?

Like if I were to buy a top of the line Mac laptop in KC, would it be the same price as in Los Angeles? Or does the lower cost of living decrease these prices as well

Seems to be the same prices here. There is something where the first Friday of the month or something like that there are deals on electronics where you dont have to pay tax or something like that. Look into it.


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Can a current student (@AlteredScale, @SynapticDoctah, et al) shed some light on how exactly to go about gaining some research experience/publications?

I'm interested in doing some once I get there but I'm unsure the best way to go about it since we only get five or so weeks off in the summer.

When should I start looking and what is the time commitment like? Any other helpful info on this would be fantastic.

Also, if I wish to do research, do I absolutely have to give up my summer after first year to do it? I'd really like to be able to go home during that time.
 
Can a current student (@AlteredScale, @SynapticDoctah, et al) shed some light on how exactly to go about gaining some research experience/publications?

I'm interested in doing some once I get there but I'm unsure the best way to go about it since we only get five or so weeks off in the summer.

When should I start looking and what is the time commitment like? Any other helpful info on this would be fantastic.

Also, if I wish to do research, do I absolutely have to give up my summer after first year to do it? I'd really like to be able to go home during that time.

I am a current first year and I have been doing research throughout the year. I would recommend reaching out to a professor early on in the year if you think you can handle the extra commitment. I tend to do about 5 hours a week.

It is definitely not necessary to do research over the summer.
 
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Can a current student (@AlteredScale, @SynapticDoctah, et al) shed some light on how exactly to go about gaining some research experience/publications

The school only offers basic science research. If that is something you would like to do then you can reach out to the professors on the KCUMB research page. The school very much lacks in the field of clinical and translational research so you must network outside of the school and cannot depend the schools research interface if you can even call it that. This is what I did and am currently sitting on 4-5 abstracts as well as 1 manuscript in collaboration with faculty at Yale.

I'm interested in doing some once I get there but I'm unsure the best way to go about it since we only get five or so weeks off in the summer.

When should I start looking and what is the time commitment like? Any other helpful info on this would be fantastic.

There is no specified time commitment, the commitment time is when the project is done and even then, you usually continue working with them to keep pushing out pubs/abstracts/posters if it's an area you are interested in.

If you want to do the basic science research, contact the professors ASAP, the rest of the class will also be trying to get those opps so the earlier the better.

Also, if I wish to do research, do I absolutely have to give up my summer after first year to do it? I'd really like to be able to go home during that time.

No you do not have to give up your entire summer. You can try and do research during the school year but it is quite difficult to perform this with school. Now, there are exceptions for a very small amount of students who can truly balance wet lab research with school but no guarantee that will be you. Academics absolutely comes first so if your grades start to fall you need to step back from the research.

The M1-M2 summer is ideal for research. You can do clinically focused research and still go back home which is what I did. It still required 4-5 hours a day of work for most of the summer but at least you can go back home. If you do basic science research you should expect to do work over the summer if you want to really get something out of it if you don't put a lot of time in during the year.
 
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The school only offers basic science research. If that is something you would like to do then you can reach out to the professors on the KCUMB research page. The school very much lacks in the field of clinical and translational research so you must network outside of the school and cannot depend the schools research interface if you can even call it that. This is what I did and am currently sitting on 4-5 abstracts as well as 1 manuscript in collaboration with faculty at Yale.



There is no specified time commitment, the commitment time is when the project is done and even then, you usually continue working with them to keep pushing out pubs/abstracts/posters if it's an area you are interested in.

If you want to do the basic science research, contact the professors ASAP, the rest of the class will also be trying to get those opps so the earlier the better.



No you do not have to give up your entire summer. You can try and do research during the school year but it is quite difficult to perform this with school. Now, there are exceptions for a very small amount of students who can truly balance wet lab research with school but no guarantee that will be you. Academics absolutely comes first so if your grades start to fall you need to step back from the research.

The M1-M2 summer is ideal for research. You can do clinically focused research and still go back home which is what I did. It still required 4-5 hours a day of work for most of the summer but at least you can go back home. If you do basic science research you should expect to do work over the summer if you want to really get something out of it if you don't put a lot of time in during the year.


I have an ignorant question. How necessary is research for all students? I mean surely not all 270 of us will land spots in a lab and to be quite honest I'm not interested in research. Is it something you do if you're interested in competitive specialties only? Let's say someone was interested in OB GYN or EM or something? Sorry I'm just trying to get a grasp on exactly what it is I should be doing over the next four years!
 
I am a current first year and I have been doing research throughout the year. I would recommend reaching out to a professor early on in the year if you think you can handle the extra commitment. I tend to do about 5 hours a week.

It is definitely not necessary to do research over the summer.

Are you doing basic sciences research with a prof at KCU? Or did you find an opportunity off campus
 
Are the individuals just finding a professor who is doing research they are interested in and emailing them or is there any formal line of communication between the school and professors who plan on working with students? I am guessing from some of the prior comments that there is no formal line of communication and we find and beg/charm our way into a laboratory? Anyone involved in Public Health or clinical research?
 
Haha, I can see why you'd be lead to believe that given the recent questions asked. I just need answers, RamsFan

Haha I totally agree with your questions though. We need to know if we're gonna be able to blow off steam after tests


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Are you doing basic sciences research with a prof at KCU? Or did you find an opportunity off campus
I'm doing both. I reached out to a KCU professor after the first course finished. I'm also continuing to work on a project that I started before school.
 
How often would you say first years party at KCU?

Sort of a indirect answer to your question, but the most difficult aspect of medical school is time management. Once you learn to manage your time appropriately, you can have a lot of free time.
 
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Haha I totally agree with your questions though. We need to know if we're gonna be able to blow off steam after tests


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For sure, a good piece of advice I've heard is to study more than you sleep, sleep more than you party, and party as much as you can.
 
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Haha I totally agree with your questions though. We need to know if we're gonna be able to blow off steam after tests


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I live in CT and I can tell you that they go HARD after exams. Sometimes embarrassingly hard, theres about a 75% chance someone will vomit in the elevator/hallways after an exam.
 
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I live in CT and I can tell you that they go HARD after exams. Sometimes embarrassingly hard, theres about a 75% chance someone will vomit in the elevator/hallways after an exam.

That's what I like to hear haha. Is there a common area in CT everyone hangs out at? I feel like the apartments are too small for that


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That's what I like to hear haha. Is there a common area in CT everyone hangs out at? I feel like the apartments are too small for that


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There is a lounge on the 5th floor, but there are cameras so if you **** **** up Gia will know. The lounge has a lot of large couches, a big TV, pool table, and a patio. Theres also a hot tub but I've never used it. Most people just party in the rooms or go out to the bars. The rooms are big enough for about 10 people, but when someone has the largest room in CT you could probably fit 30+ in there and have no problems.
 
How often would you say first years party at KCU?

At the very beginning of the year I don't think people did too much partying, but once you get the hang of things it's easier to find free time. I will admit that I am one of those who goes a little too hard after exams. But it's totally worth it ;) People will generally go out Friday or Saturday night if we don't have an exam on Monday. It's really the hangovers that kill far more time than actually going out, so just be smart about it and drink lots of water and eat bread or something before bed. If partying is your thing, you can definitely find time to do it.
 
Is there anyone else out there who's behind on getting books?

They haven't even put out the book list so don't sweat it yet! I'm ordering the biochem book off amazon shortly (like $28) and waiting until orientation for the rest.
 
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They haven't even put out the book list so don't sweat it yet! I'm ordering the biochem book off amazon shortly (like $28) and waiting until orientation for the rest.

My big brother said the five we absolutely really need are:
  1. Moores anatomy
  2. panini biochem
  3. EKG dubin
  4. BRS physiology
  5. Costanzo physiology
After that we can probably just get away with simply using whatever PDFs we find online.
 
My big brother said the five we absolutely really need are:
  1. Moores anatomy
  2. panini biochem
  3. EKG dubin
  4. BRS physiology
  5. Costanzo physiology
After that we can probably just get away with simply using whatever PDFs we find online.

Scratch moores. You don't need a hard copy of that. You'll need a hard copy of Robbins though for sure.


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My big brother said the five we absolutely really need are:
  1. Moores anatomy
  2. panini biochem
  3. EKG dubin
  4. BRS physiology
  5. Costanzo physiology
After that we can probably just get away with simply using whatever PDFs we find online.

Id actually just get all these .pdf except biochem. Also, get Robbins hard copy


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Id actually just get all these .pdf except biochem. Also, get Robbins hard copy


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We really use the biochem textbook that much? I thought biochem is just the first block for the first three weeks.

Once we get into the organ system blocks, how much biochem is there?
 
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