If you live in Kansas or if you are planning to move there and you want to pursue a career in medicine, there’s a great option for you here. Unfortunately, Kansas doesn’t have a great number of medical schools as other states do, but that doesn’t mean that the quality isn’t as good. Actually, the medical school at the University of Kansas has over a century of experience in the field and is known for its excellent reputation. So, let’s see what it has to offer!
Top Medical School in Kansas
University of Kansas School of Medicine (KU SOM)
The School of Medicine of the University of Kansas (KU SOM) was established more than a hundred years ago. It started to give courses in the medical field in 1880, but they didn’t design a four-year program until 1905 when they started to grant medical degrees.
Nowadays, it is ranked within the best medical school in the U.S. According to the U.S. News & World Report of 2019, it is considered the 41st best in terms of primary care and the 67th best in terms of research. However, many of the KU SOM departments are positioned within the top 10.
KU SOM has three different campuses located in Kansas City, Wichita, and Salina, but each of them has a different approach. In Kansas City, students will receive all kinds of opportunities in the health care field and they will study in the metropolitan area.
In Wichita, a new campus was initially opened to provide unique experiences to third and fourth-year students in hospitals that attended different communities. A few years later, the complete curriculum was implemented on the campus and students were able to study the full four-year program here. Today, education here focuses on primary care and providing experiences that are centered in the communities of the area.
The campus in Salina was opened for third-year students. Here, clerkships were done in rural areas. As it happened in Wichita, the program was expanded and now a limited number of students can complete the four-year program here. Clinical experiences take place in rural areas, and education is done in very small groups.
Although you can choose to focus on rural health, education in all the campuses profits from technology. They have modern facilities and use many online tools, like podcasts, simulations, online exams, and interactive videos. That’s why they even have a suggestion for the equipment you should have while studying.
KU SOM offers much more than just M.D. degrees. This medical school has a few dual degree programs and some Masters and Doctorate programs. In the case of dual degree programs, you can combine your M.D. degree with a Ph.D., a Master’s in Public Health, or a Master’s in Health Services Administration. In the case of Master’s and Doctorates, they are available in the areas of Health Policy and Management, Biostatistics, and Research.
As the only medical school in Kansas, they strongly prefer to accept students that live in this state. However, if competitive enough, they admit a limited number of students from other states to add diversity and broaden the background of the class. In 2018, they only admitted 211 students. There were 2,500 out-of-state applicants, and only 23 of them enrolled.
KU SOM also has programs for international students, college students, and high school students. Visit their website to learn much more about all the incredible opportunities available here!
We hope that this article on Kansas medical school was helpful. To know more information on studying abroad, check out the Available Programs for International Students!
