Now 24, Tiffany Williams charted early course to become a doctor

Jet, Dec 20, 2004

When Tiffany Williams graduated from high school in 1999 she wrestled with a choice: take off across the country to prestigious Duke University or head downtown to the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).

Williams chose UMKC, not because it was close to home, but because at 18 and right out of high school she was accepted into its six-year medical program.

Now at an age when other medical students are just getting the hang of anatomy class, Williams is applying for residencies in physical medicine and rehabilitation. She graduates in May with her M.D. and a bachelor's in liberal arts.

"I have a friend who's 28, and he's doing the same thing I'm doing now," said Williams, who has sent out about a dozen applications to residency programs across the country. "He won't graduate until he's 30, and I'm graduating at 24."

The University of Missouri-Kansas City Medical School is one of about 30 medical schools in the country that takes students directly out of high school. About seven of those schools offer six-year combined degree programs. The others are seven- or eight-year programs.

The UMKC program, which was developed in 1971, gets about 600 applications for its 100 openings each year. Students from Missouri must have at least 26 on their ACT or a 1,200 SAT score, said Basma Jaffri, administrative assistant to the council on selection for the UMKC Medical School. The medical school admission test, or MCAT, isn't required.