Notes for meeting with University of Missouri’s Rural Scholar’s (Bryant Scholars) program administration.  2007

 

After meeting with some of the administrators and some members of the admissions committee at the University of Missouri Medical school, I came away with several gems that I would like to share with students that may be interested in applying to the MU medical school in general (and the Bryant program specifically).  First nearly all members of the selection committee look for candidates to supply them the following three items:

 

1.  Academic.  This is typically the easiest for the committee to asses simply because it involves looking at numbers in comparison to a set group of applicants.  In essence MU is looking for numbers that DO NOT suggest that you are an academic risk and if those number do show you may be an academic risk . . . they frequently ask themselves if you are worth it.  Which means that other elements of your application have to be stellar.

 

GPA--- the committee is usually looking for applicants to have somewhere between 3.3 to 3.5 or above.

 

MCAT—the committee would like to see scores above 27.  Scores of 26 or below would be an area of concern.

 

Research is most commonly viewed as an academic asset rather than a personality asset.

 

2.  Personality traits.  The committee members in this element are typically looking for evidence of personality traits that would be an asset in a medical career.  This evidence can come from several places:

            a) letters of recommendation

            b) service in health related field

            c) evidence of good communication

            d) evidence of solid ethics

            e) evidence of altruistic service

            f) evidence of service to community

 

Many of these activities can be viewed incorrectly by applicants as check offs, but in reality, most medical schools are trying to assess how likely you are to dedicate yourself to a particular activity that may not necessarily be glamorous but rather requires continuous effort and hard work.  The justification is that attending MU medical school will require personality traits that favor those individuals that are hard working and diligent in tasks that may not necessarily be (and often will not be) glamorous.  Activities and tasks that deal with difficult societal problems like alcoholism, teen pregnancy etc. are also viewed favorably. 

 

3.  Health care experience and understanding.  MU medical school wants to know if you have selected the profession of medicine understanding some of the difficulties of day-to-day pressures and responsibilities and not based on glamorous depictions of the medical profession seen within prime-time soap operas.

 

Also, committees want to know if you understand some of the big contemporary issues associated with medicine:  stem cells, underinsured, uninsured, HMOs etc.  The committee would like you to understand all sides of the argument.  Many students will describe their reasoning for being against the use of stem cells, but will not have the slightest clue why someone would be in the affirmative position regarding stem cell research.  Be familiar with all sides of issues. 

 

Other Gems I picked up during my meeting:

 

In general if you do not know it, do not put it down in your application.  If you put down that you conduced independent research with a faculty member, then you will be expected to explain exactly what you did and why you did it. 

 

Some of the members of the committee used the following quote from a student to highlight such errors:  “I played around with some worms and the research wasn’t that interesting and not that important.”  Then why put it down in the first place? was a common retort by the selection committee.

 

Committees are also weary of students who seem to have developed an interest in medicine late or simply because of a family illness.

 

Of late you are working against some difficult odds:  1,300 applicants were received in 2006  400-500 of those being from the State of Missouri.  96 were admitted with 60 of those being originally placed on the wait list

 

The selection committee for the Bryant’s scholars is made of 15 members serving a 6 year term, most of them are faculty in the medical school but 2 of them are medical students.

 

The standard selection committee is made up of 20-25 members each serving a 3 yr term. 

 

Members to both committees are nominated and appointed by their departments.

 

Statistically, students who reapply are more likely to get in.  This is likely because the applicant already has obtained some feedback from the committee and has taken corrective measures to shore up weaknesses in their application.

 

Missouri is a net exporter of physicians.  This is likely because D.O. schools in Kirksville and Kansas City, and allopathic programs at Washington University in St. Louis attract out-of-state matriculants.

 

Curriculum at the University of Missouri is based on Program Based Learning (PBL) pedagogy; consequently, “conceptualizers” do best at MU not memorizers which typically do better at more traditional curriculums offered at different schools including SLU.

More information about MU goals and curriculum can be found at:

http://www.muhealth.org/~medicine/studenthandbook/StudentHandbook070606.pdf#page=4

which includes, MU 2020 critical success factors which can serve as a template for prospective students considering applying to MU medical school.