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KCUMB COB Discussion Thread 2018-2019
Started by passionatepremed57
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Hey! I am in the process of applying to KCUMB-COB masters program. I am currently working on getting my last LOR. Would you mind sharing your stats? Also congrats on getting in! Once you applied, how long did it take to hear back?
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Thank you for your help. When do school starts? Just for info, is KCU cob smp aimed for DO schools only or both MD and DO?
Idk when class starts for 2018, but I assume it will be fairly close to our start. We started class Aug 7! But had mandatory orientation activities the Thursday and Friday before.
Both! It really helps prepare you for any doctoral program, Dental, Pharm, MD, DO, etc. A lot of our courses, if not all, you will see in the first year curriculum for many doctoral programs! Of course students from past classes have gotten in to MD & DO. And some of my classmates are applying and interviewing for both as well.
Both! It really helps prepare you for any doctoral program, Dental, Pharm, MD, DO, etc. A lot of our courses, if not all, you will see in the first year curriculum for many doctoral programs! Of course students from past classes have gotten in to MD & DO. And some of my classmates are applying and interviewing for both as well.
How would you compare this program to other MAMS like programs? Were there others that you applied to as well? Also are you in the one or two year program? Thanks!!
I am in the one year program. The 2 year students still take class with us though, they just don’t take as many courses a semester, bc they do research full time also. Are you considering the 2 year program?!
I did apply to other MS biomedical sciences programs! The curriculums closely resemble give or take a couple of courses. Therefore Location became my top deciding factor.
I am considering the two year research track! I am waiting to hear back from one more program and it’s between them and KCUMB. But I am super excited to learn more about the program! 🙂 Right now I am having a hard time giving them an idea of what kind of research I could get involved because I don’t know what is available. Do you know what any of the current two year students are researching generally?
The website doesn’t have a lot of info so I would appreciate if y’all could answer my questions. Does this program have a summer component or is it just the Fall & Spring terms? How is the school? I know at LECOM for their MBS program if you have a 3.0 GPA after your fall term you get a guaranteed interview to their medical school for the incoming class that year. That is, instead of taking 1 year for the program and 1 year to apply, you just have to take 1 year off and go straight into their medical school after. Does this school have a similar setup?
Hey, I’m currently in COB and can answer any questions 🙂
Hey, I’m currently in COB. I applied in November 2017 (I think) and found out I was accepted in December. My AACOMAS GPA is 3.58s and 3.59c and my MCAT is low at a 495. I retook in August and unfortunately got the same low score. I managed to pull out a 4.0 in fall semester so i have been granted an interview next month (march). If you achieve a 3.5 GPA first semester and a 501 MCAT (unless something changes next year) you’ll get a garunteed interview!
Our class average GPA first semester was a 3.45 and the average MCAT is a 499, however several classmates retook last weekend, so that will probably change.
Hope this helps!
So I hope this addresses your question: unless something has changed you will get a garunteed interview with a 3.5 first semester COB GPA and a 501. You may still get an interview that spring without meeting these requirements, however. You still have to sub,it an AACOMAS application in the fall and interview in spring to maybe get accepted for the following year, but it’s definately do-able. I’ve heard that KCU-COM has a stronger program than LECOM and we have excellent COMLEX scores!
The research varies based on availability in labs, so something that a student (that entered in fall 2017) is doing now may not necessarily have the same availability come next fall. I do know that shortly after a friend committed to KCUs 2 year track last year that they invited them to campus for a day, sometime in March, to expose them to the type of research that would be available come the fall.
Like my classmate, I applied November 2016 and was accepted December 2016. I know someone who just got accepted for fall 2018, they submitted right before Christmas and was accepted second to last week in January!
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Absolutely not! I know of people who submitted later than that last year and were still accepted! Everything is rolling so people accept, decline, or withdraw which keep the seats fluctuating! Good Luck!
Hi everyone! I am also a current 1-year COB student and I'm supposed to be working on my thesis right now, but have decided to procrastinate and browse SDN instead. syed 121, with your stats I'm sure you'd be accepted. I applied last year for the COM and was rejected after my interview with them early March, but accepted to the COB about 1-2 weeks later. My GPA was slightly lower than yours, but MCAT was a few points higher. I'd be very surprised if you didn't get accepted to the COB
I'm also involved in research here so I can answer the previous research question to some extent. Currently, there are research projects in anesthesia, duchennes muscular dystrophy, hemochromatosis, membrane transporters, protein folding, and genetics (I'm not very familiar with the genetics project, but I've heard rumors that the PI is applying for NIH funding and it's looking good). I've probably missed a couple, but that should give you an idea. In order to participate in research, you either need to be part of the 2-year research program, or be part of the 1 year program and achieve and maintain at least a 3.4 GPA after the first exam week. for those in the 1 year program, you will have to apply to research and if whoever is in charge of the particular research project is interested in bringing you on, they'll schedule an interview with you and let you know afterwards.
If anyone else has any questions keep em coming!
I'm also involved in research here so I can answer the previous research question to some extent. Currently, there are research projects in anesthesia, duchennes muscular dystrophy, hemochromatosis, membrane transporters, protein folding, and genetics (I'm not very familiar with the genetics project, but I've heard rumors that the PI is applying for NIH funding and it's looking good). I've probably missed a couple, but that should give you an idea. In order to participate in research, you either need to be part of the 2-year research program, or be part of the 1 year program and achieve and maintain at least a 3.4 GPA after the first exam week. for those in the 1 year program, you will have to apply to research and if whoever is in charge of the particular research project is interested in bringing you on, they'll schedule an interview with you and let you know afterwards.
If anyone else has any questions keep em coming!
Congrats! another current COB student here, I can answer any questions yall have.
Thanks! Would you happen to know what percentage of COB students matriculate into medical school upon successful completion of this program? Doesn’t have to just be to KCU-COM I’m just curious about overall matriculation
No I got an email back in November saying they would waive my application fee if I applied by December 1, but it took me a while to get my letters of recommendation actually sent in, so when I did I got an acceptance letter earlier this week!
Class of 18 stats aren't up yet of course, but class of 17 stats say that out of 105 students; 9 were accepted into other career paths like PA, PhD programs, PharmD programs, etc., 69 got into med school overall. Out of that 69, 46 were accepted to KCU and were split between the joplin campus and the KC campus, then the remaining 23 were accepted to 15 other med schools. so the percentage of people who moved on to other programs was 74 percent. and i believe 16% took gap years.
Class of 18 is a little bit smaller after losing people once first semester was over.
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This might be a really dumb question, but when doing a post bac program, when do you apply to medical school? I’m assuming you finish the post bac and then apply when you’re done because if you were to apply while in the post bac, you wouldn’t have any grades to go on outside of undergrad. For example, if you were to start the post bac this fall and applied to medical school this summer, you wouldn’t have any grades until at least December or January and no final grades until late in the cycle next year. So does that mean you would finish the post bac next year, apply to medical school in 2019, and then hopefully start medical school in 2020?
Not a dumb question at all!
So you won't really have anything to show from the program until after first semester grades post which is at the end of December. I waited until my first semester grades posted to apply, which I feel has put me behind as far as applications go. I did still receive 4 interviews, but they have all been really late in the cycle (I even have one scheduled for April which I'm probably going to cancel because it feels like an interview for the waitlist at best). What I would recommend is you apply as early as possible, but contact each of the schools directly explaining the situation in hopes that they'll keep your application on file until your first semester grades come in. Worst case, you re-apply after you've completed the program and have both semesters grades. Hope this helps!
So from what they told us, about 75ish% of last years COB students went on to professional school after COB, whether that was dental, PA, Med school, or research etc. when it comes to the percentage that matriculated Into KCU-COM, I believe about 60 students were interviewed and around 40 were accepted. Keep in mind several students usually elect to take a gap year or they’re in the 2 year track.
Like above, not a dumb question! In our class I've noticed everyone is in this program for different reasons, some people have been rejected because of MCAT scores, or undergrad grades, or even both. but some people don't need first semester grades to submit early, for example maybe they left undergrad with a 3.8. I would say just kind of depends on what you need the program for, if you need the grades then waiting until after first semester would be most beneficial for you, but yes that would cause you to be apply pretty late in the cycle.
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Congrats!
Just accepted today to the 1 year Program and I’m very excited! What is the class schedule like? Do we go to class all day every day?
What were your stats like applying to the program?
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SciGPA: 2.64
CumGPA: 3.01
MCAT: 502
I had a good reason for my GPA being so low and had a big upward trend. Not sure if that helped or not.
Do we have breaks in between classes?
Congrats!
Lecture is in the morning, starts at 8 or 9 depending on your elective and ends around noon or 11AM. Sometimes earlier again depending on your elective.
Yeah it’s usually around 10-15 mins
Yes definitely very helpful thank you! This actually made me feel a lot better as I have similar GPA's to you for valid reasons as well, so it makes me feel better that they are looking at everything with a holistic approach versus just looking at the numbers without the reasons behind them.
Some people don't earn the grades/gpa to continue the program.
Application in review stage as of today!
Unreasonably? Not at all! Does that mean it's easy? Heck no! You have to put the work in. You will quickly have to find ways to adjust to this course load and the amount of material presented to you if you don't already have the skills. For those who didn't continue on, they could have easily had other distractions in their life, family, personal issues, or there's definitely a possibility they were just not studying/putting in the effort.
There's no way to cram for these courses. None of them are meant to be a piece of cake. But you have to think about it this way, if you aren't working and all you do is go to class and you're done by lunch time, you're "free" for the rest of the day. There's absolutely no reason why you can't squeeze in at least 40 hours a week for school stuff. You should still have plenty of time to enjoy part of the weekend, watch you favorite tv shows, go to the gym or even skip a day of studying if you just need the break. Time management will be key. It may take a few weeks to get in the flow of how you like to study and when, but thats normal. Once you're in a good place you'll be able to create a balance.!! For me personally it didn't come until after first round exams because I was so nervous to "slack". I promise you will do fine!
All you former COBers are awesome. Thanks for taking time to answer our questions!
How many classes do we take each semester? What are the orientation days like?
How many classes do we take each semester? What are the orientation days like?
You take 5 classes each semesters and then there is a mini-thesis that you have the whole year to finish. There are various deadlines throughout the semester to make sure you work on it.
There are 2 days of orientation. On the first day you sit in the main COB lecture hall and all the dean, faculty, professors etc. indroduce themselves and tell you what they do then they make you introduce yourself, theres lunch at some point. You get your iPad and you take your ID photo. And the pinning ceremony is later that night. Then the next day is a volunteering day and everyone splits into groups and goes and does community service around the city at various locations and i think this is a short day, then everyone went to a royals game/cookout and thats pretty much it.
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Thanks! You are awesome.
This is on the KCUMB COB website:
Required Courses for One-Year Track
All courses considered electives for two-year track students.
- Anatomy 1 & 2
- Physiology 1 & 2
- Epidemiology
- Biochemistry
- Immunology
- Molecular Biology
- Histology
- Human Genetics
- Human Embryology
- Microbiology
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Thank you! Do you know how many courses are taken per semester in the one year track?
Would it be 4 required courses + 1 elective course per semester?
Yes its 4 + 1! You will choose your fall elective during orientation. Electives are first come first serve, but they hold like up to 70ish think in a class.
Fall will be: Anatomy I, Physiology I, Epidemiology, Biochemistry + your elective
Spring will be: Anatomy II, Physiology II, Immunology, Molecular & Cellular Biology + your elective
The two year track students only take 2 course a semester while being full time in their labs.
doesn't look like there's a Facebook group for your class yet. I know people have been asking, I'm not sure why one hasn't been created for you all. They've been having some people be added to the current COB classes Facebook page, but sense it's our page and we use it for current stuff, it's not a place where people are making regular posts. There's been one post that all the acceptancees have been commenting under about housing, but just that one post. lol
I just found one today. I had to search KCU-COB class of 2019 and select groups for it to come up.
