To current students or alumni, Please answer a few or all questions. I appreciate any help you can provide.
- What do you like about this medical school?
- What do you wish you had?
- What’s bothering you the most?
- How did you feel about the rotations sites (3rd and 4th) and making connections for residency?
- How do you feel about the match list? Any popular specialties?
- In what region of the country do most students end up doing their residency?
- How difficult was it to make your group of friends? Or did the majority of people prefer to be alone?
- How supportive was the staff?
- How much is OMM emphasized?
- How was the overall learning environment? Competitive?
- Did you ever feel “alone”? Did the class size affect this?
- Thoughts on the curriculum? Do you like it?
- How’s the town? Are there cafes and good places to eat? To study?
- How solid is the gym?
- How was it when you guys prepped for boards? Did you feel supported? Was there a high % pass rate?
- What’s the attrition rate like? How many students do you see leave or repeat years?
1. Really, I like the opportunities I have had. I have been able to train with some amazing physicians and learn so much. I feel like I will address more of this specifically with other questions.
2. This one is hard to characterize, as some of my wishes just seem like more personal wants than issues with the school.
3. Again, see #2. But I am also still in Residency Interview mode so some days, everything bothers me.
4. I lucked out, I feel, with my rotation site. I was able to stay in Joplin and I have been able to work with residents and make some great connections. I also feel like I have been able to learn from some great clinicians and overall, it has helped shape me into a developing physician and grow confidence in medical care. I also know some who went to other sites for various reasons and were happy with their decision.
5. Match lists are hard to evaluate. There is so much selection bias. I saw a lot of great matches last year from the Joplin class and I am so proud of them. And so many of them got one of their top matches and are happy, and ultimately, that is the goal.
6. That is also self selection. Some of it is Midwest, because many know the name KCU, but I have seen matches coast to coast. Some try to go closer to home too, and that affects regional match results.
7. It might be smidge harder with online learning, but I had no issue. I met most of my friends in orientation and during first year. With my class, we made a GroupMe and still communicate with each other often. I was one to study alone mostly, but did study with some classmates some times as well. It is varied by the individual, but I feel that people were able to make friends.
8. I worked with some supportive staff. When the pandemic started, I had some staff that reached out to me and others to see how we were doing with the early days of the pandemic and the changes that came with it. I had people that I could always stop in their office for questions or venting or just general support. That was always helpful pre-clinical years. And our campus dean would walk around in the evenings to check in with the students and tell us she was proud of us often and keep encouraging. (I hope she still does this, but COVID times, ya know?)
9. Pre-clinical, decent amount. Not more than other schools for sure but it was definitely there. Clinicals, there are online courses and logs to complete, but if you want to do more than the minimum, there are attendings that will support that. I did not feel that it really was too much.
10. I never felt the learning environment was competitive. With my class at least, I felt it was more collaborative. I never felt like I was in competitive pressures from my class or other students.
11. Oh yea I have felt alone, but I think that was more of the imposter syndrome that comes with medical school and such. I do not think it had anything to do with the class. Mental health is so important and especially closer to boards, I think that was more of the stressor than social related issues.
12. The curriculum was good. 1st year "what goes right" and 2nd year "when it all goes wrong". I had subjects I had more issues in, but that was more related to personal strengths and weaknesses than a failure of the program. Overall, I think it helped me prepare for boards and for clinicals, and that is the ultimate goal. I had to adjust my personal studying as I went but there were great support people to help me evaluate what I was doing and make changes.
13. The town is a small city. Large cities within a day's drive away for time off. Great for studying though. And some good outdoor space. I think there are a ton of food options, especially for the size of the area. I was surprised but I have found great local food areas. Cafes, great coffee shops that have opened over the last few years that I have enjoyed to study in. And I love coffee. Really, I think Joplin has been a great place to study and lots of pathology to learn from as well as good places to relax, find good food and just to live in.
14. Gym = YMCA. It is pretty decent gym. But I do not go often, for personal reasons and not because of the facility. Some go to other local gyms as well such as Colaw, Planet Fitness, 24h Fitness.
15. I don't think I have seen internal numbers for pass rate, but we just switched from 360 to Workday so not everything has merged over. I think we had plenty of time in dedicated for boards. The school did purchase for us TrueLearn to help with COMLEX. I used some other resources (and some that our SGA helped organize a group buy for) but that was solely because I found other things that worked for me and my learning style (Sketchy is my fav).
16. This is also hard to characterize. Some left for personal/family reasons and not due to school things. I know some who left due to academic reasons, but I do not think it was a large portion of the class.
Well I hope that helps. I am not sure if I really answered the above thorough enough so I hope that helps!