Kansas City, MO
Osteopathic Medical Schools | Private Non-Profit
Overall, students rated the program a 5.4 out of 10 for satisfaction. The student body is described as moderately cooperative. The environment is considered supportive for underrepresented minorities, LGBTQ+ students, married students, students with disabilities, non-traditional students. Graduates feel underprepared for board exams. Faculty members are seen as reasonably approachable.
🎓 The Basics ▼
Overall, how satisfied are you with this program?
What was the zip code of your residence in high school?
| Response Avg | # Responders |
|---|---|
| 71,364.00 | 8 |
What do you like most?
-
The professors are welcoming and supportive of your success. Granted that there are students who feel otherwise but again, any school could be like that. The campus is beautiful and despite being in a not-so-good neighborhood our security does an AMAZING job at keeping all the students safe. By word of mouth, our school also does minimal amount of OMM hours that are required of osteopathic schools which helps with board studying.
-
The city
-
A few professors are great and teach well.
-
They will get you to become a doctor, and some of the professors are completely awesome and deserve the most respect as they gave it right back to us. While there is a lot of things wrong with this school, I have definitely felt that my year was almost a "trial" run for medical school and that they are still making changes to see how to do it right. I hope to hear more uplifting reviews and to see the school rectify itself in the future.
-
Great prep for boards.
What do you like least?
-
Some really loved professors have left.
-
If you choose to stay in Kansas City for rotations, it will be an awful experience. KCU does not have their own affiliated hospital, so they rely on relationships with local docs, typically KCU grads. This inevitably means that there are not enough specialists for each student. I was lucky enough (sarcasm) to have 3 family medicine rotations because there are not enough OBGYN and IM preceptor, which completely cheated me out of the opportunity to learn about these specialties. If you want a well rounded rotation experience, stay far away from Kansas City if you choose to attend KCU.
-
Horrible admin, OMT professors
-
For a 100+ year old school, you would think they opened two years ago. The first-year curriculum was based on whatever the profs felt was important, and plenty of time was spent determining where to focus your energy. Some of the anatomy profs can take a bit of sadistic pleasure in finding humor in students falling, as during my final anatomy practical one prof congratulated us on finishing while the other said "Unless you fail" and then chuckled. This is not the only time and with his behavior, and I felt at other schools this particular individual would promptly be fired in all honestly. Subjects such as histology are focused on in incredible depth that it just doesn't make much sense, and we were told during our neurology unit that we spent more hours in class with classwork then the average resident spends during a meeting. Code of conduct was immensely hypocritical, as our VP (or whatever he was) gave us a lecture first year that I still remember included him yelling at us like a wannabe step-father and saying "I'll tear you a new one" as he lectured us on his idea of professionalism. He then left his position due to starting a relationship with staff shortly after... Your tuition goes to COMBANK at the end of the second year, so be prepared to pay for resources for boards if that is not to your liking. Finally third year, please just rotate wherever you want based on location. You may not get (and most likely will not get) the rotations you hoped for. If a site offers in-patient/out-patient you have little control over where you'll be placed. If you want to rotate in neuro, you may not get it. Just pick somewhere you want to live for a year and be happy. We also had a mandatory poverty simulator, which tried to recreate poverty complete with drugs (they gave salt packets to students to pretend to be drug dealers), squirt guns (so people could rob each other), and a pawn shop. I don't think I need to comment on how unethical that was...by the way it was for our ethics class. I hate to go public with some of this, but feel like not much of it has been mentioned and almost too much credit is given to KCU on studentdoctor network. I know my class has had a rough time, and also really want to reinforce that KCU has tried to improve, but with my experience, I think its important to note that I have felt disrespected and not adequately supported, and have a certain amount of frustration with this school.
-
Was enrolled in the transition during Joplin's first year; had some bumps.
🧾 The Details ▼
Does the student body seem cooperative or competitive?
Does the environment seem supportive for underrepresented minorities?
Does the environment seem supportive for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual students?
Does the environment seem supportive for married students?
Does the environment seem supportive for students with disabilities?
Does the environment seem supportive for older/non-traditional students?
Do you/did you feel well prepared for your board exams?
How approachable are faculty members?
What are the facilities and clinics like (old/new, well maintained, etc.)?
-
Some old and others mostly new. The school is expanding an area currently where students will be able to have some R&R. They are also going to remodel some of the older buildings.
-
Joplin receives many more new facilities than Kansas City
-
Many new facilities, the main study space outside of the library (smith hall) is old and dated. Heating/air conditioning issues with drilled shut windows in the area.
-
New/well-maintained.
How do students from this program do after graduation - are they adequately prepared for practice?
-
I feel like we are well prepared to practice but we'll see when july hits
-
Well prepared if they do not rotate in Kansas City
-
I'd like to think so, I feel like while you will be preparing a lot on your own for boards and during rotations that our student body is competitive and does well due to a lot of self-motivation.
-
Absolutely; great match & performing well in clinical years.
-
Pretty good placement into a wide variety of PC and non-PC specialties that is strong when compared to the DO schools.
What are rotations like?
-
Affiliated with different hospitals around the nation which is nice if you plan on being closer to home. But 4th year is a disaster as majority of the planning is on you compared to our allopathic counter parts and this is true among majority of DO schools. We had to prepare 10 months of 4th year on our own, school will try to help but theres not enough people in the department to service all 400ish of us from both campuses.
-
If you choose to stay in Kansas City for rotations, it will be an awful experience. KCU does not have their own affiliated hospital, so they rely on relationships with local docs, typically KCU grads. This inevitably means that there are not enough specialists for each student. I was lucky enough (sarcasm) to have 3 family medicine rotations because there are not enough OBGYN and IM preceptor, which completely cheated me out of the opportunity to learn about these specialties. If you want a well rounded rotation experience, stay far away from Kansas City if you choose to attend KCU.
-
The rotations are random, you can kind of get any random specialty.
-
The honors tracks have very good rotations; can't speak to the others (not sure.)
-
9
How do students from this program do in the Match?
-
Average
-
Seemingly well. This school may not be the most fun experience, but you'll get where you need to be.
-
Very well.
Any other information you want to share?
-
Good school overall from the time I was there and I really enjoyed the friends I made along the way.
-
NA
-
No.
Success!
School has been added to your favorites.