2010-2011 University of Southern California (Keck) Application Thread

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USC interviews close to 600 applicants and has a class of ~174. That means that more than 174 are accepted, almost double are accepted to fill the 174 spots.

Fall 2008 Admissions Statistics

Total admissions data 6617 applied, 622 interviewed, 354 were accepted, 159 enrolled In-state admissions data 3540 applied, 236 were accepted, 121 enrolled Out-of-state admissions data 3077 applied, 118 were accepted, 38 enrolled Women's admissions data 3085 applied, 295 interviewed, 178 were accepted, 73 enrolled Minority admissions data 3059 applied, 275 interviewed, 159 were accepted, 80 enrolled International admissions data 314 applied, 10 were accepted, 6 enrolled

Source:
http://www.medicalschoolsinusa.com/University_of_Southern_California_Keck_School_of_Medicine.html
 
Does the status update on their web portal? Or do you have to wait for an email interview invite? Also, anyone been rejected yet?
 
-Advice for booking hotels in case you can't (or choose not to) get a student host. Thought I would throw this out there, I already did the research and figured most everyone was in the same boat as me: .

I tried looking for a thread about student hosting (there was one last year) but couldn't seem to find one. Current second year here, willing to host interviewing students. Send a PM if you're looking for a place to stay.
 
So I got swamped with work and did not complete my secondaries, is it even worth sending them in anymore? I was somehow consoled by the fact that some of my friends didn't even get their MCATs back until two weeks ago, but now I'm really bummed about not having sent them in.

BCPM undergrad:3.27
Overall undergrad: 3.37
degrees: Mol bio & Biochem

BCPM grad: 4.0
Overall grad: 4.0 (6 credits only)
degree: applied mol bio

MCAT:
#1 V6 P11 B12
#2 V12 P11 B10
 
Petitprincesse, may I suggest that you start a new thread with your specific question so that you can get more input from people? I think it will get your question answered more thoroughly than posting the same question on multiple threads.

I think you should go for it, if financially you can afford it. GPA and MCAT wise you show a lot of improvement which I hear schools like.....
 
Has anyone already interviewed?? Want to share your experience????
 
^ Let us know! Im interviewing next week on the 26th...😀
 
Are we allowed to send update letters before interview offer?

Thanks!
 
Hi everyone!
The interview was very very relaxed. one faculty and one student one hour each. very conversational, typical questions why keck, tell me about you, what do you do for fun, they have an evaluation form with them, which im sure they fill out right after they're done with you. loved USC! the new hospital is awesome, oh and the food was delicious, waiters and everything. we didnt get to talk a lot about financial aid, mostly about investing in a good education. we got a tour of the anatomy lab where the all the cadavers were, and the mdl facilities where you have your own desk and study room. overall great experience. the only downside is the neighborhood, but what great school isnt like this (JHU, Yale...) good luck everyone. just relax! 🙂 oh and they said my group would find out in 6 weeks :xf: less
 
Thanks, can I ask how you found that out? I looked all over their website and tried searching sdn.

I sent them one and they said they dont accept any pre-interview.
 
I sent them one and they said they dont accept any pre-interview.

Thanks, I just got an email back from USC confirming this too. Darn! lol

Please consider me USC for an interview, I love your schooL!!! 😍
 
Lucky USC gets to have Obama today 🙂 I wish I was interviewing there today.
 
Hi everyone!
The interview was very very relaxed. one faculty and one student one hour each. very conversational, typical questions why keck, tell me about you, what do you do for fun, they have an evaluation form with them, which im sure they fill out right after they're done with you. loved USC! the new hospital is awesome, oh and the food was delicious, waiters and everything. we didnt get to talk a lot about financial aid, mostly about investing in a good education. we got a tour of the anatomy lab where the all the cadavers were, and the mdl facilities where you have your own desk and study room. overall great experience. the only downside is the neighborhood, but what great school isnt like this (JHU, Yale...) good luck everyone. just relax! 🙂 oh and they said my group would find out in 6 weeks :xf: less

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Anybody have any interview experiences that they would be willing to share?
 
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Anybody have any interview experiences that they would be willing to share?

I did my Interview this weeks also. The school is amazing, definitely my top choice. They give you your own desk and storage space and have an amazing hospital. Everyone was nice and relaxed and seemed really happy there.

The interviews were very relaxed as well. My student interviewer was taking his boards the day after but he was extremely helpful, my faculty interview was also very relaxed.

The interviews are closed file so they know nothing about you, only your name. This means the hour will go by very quickly because you have to tell your entire story. I went overtime on both interviews. Both lasted over 90 mins but I liked both of them.

Let me know if you want to know anything else. Good luck :luck:
 
anyone complete around mid-august receive an interview?
 
I received the secondary mid august, and submitted it that same week. I dont remember when my file was considered complete, but I got the invite on 10/08/10. Hope that helps!


EDIT - Has anyone else recieved an invite, that was also placed on the alternate list for last years application cycle?
 
Hey everyone, my interview was today and it went pretty well. It was very conversational and low stress. I felt that my student interviewer did a better job, but my faculty interviewer didnt really give me a chance to talk very much. He wouldnt stop talking about the school and curriculum, so I dont know how that one went.
 
Hey everyone, my interview was today and it went pretty well. It was very conversational and low stress. I felt that my student interviewer did a better job, but my faculty interviewer didnt really give me a chance to talk very much. He wouldnt stop talking about the school and curriculum, so I dont know how that one went.

Really? Mine was kind of the opposite. My faculty interview was super low stress (we talked about music for the first 10 minutes or so). My student interview was harder (pretty intense ethical questions...). But when the student spoke about the curriculum he was really honest about it which was nice.
 
All initial decisions come snail mail only. The first batch will hear at earliest Thanksgiving, and everyone else will hear 4-7weeks after the interview date (add a week to that for the holiday season).

In regard to comments about scheduling an interview, it makes no difference on the day or month. This isn't true for all schools, but it definitely is true for Keck.

For all those interviewing, please come to the interview prepared. It is very frustrating to interview a student who doesn't even know about LAC, Norris, or UH. At the very least, go to our website and read about our recent research, curriculum (ICM, PPM, systems, ICS), and clinical programs.

See one of you Tuesday morning!

I've been looking through the website for a while and while there's a TON of info there (much more helpful than lots of other schools' sites) I couldn't find anything about systems or ICS. anyone care to clarify what these programs are? thanks so much!
 
I've been looking through the website for a while and while there's a TON of info there (much more helpful than lots of other schools' sites) I couldn't find anything about systems or ICS. anyone care to clarify what these programs are? thanks so much!

Keck's curriculum is systems based. ICS is integrated clinical cases that are done as the last system to review for boards.
http://medweb.usc.edu/
click the different years on the left to see the schedule.
 
Since Keck doesn't like update letters, do they allow in the area emails?
 
Hey guys so I just interviewed on Tuesday. The interviews were very relazed except the faculty talked alot more than I did which I do not know what to make out of it. Anyways, I was wondering how soon should I send in the thank you notes? and what is the format and should it be a card? As you can tell this is my first interview and im a complete noob.
 
I will probably send my thank you cards this Friday if I get a chance. I personally just bought cards and wrote something nice. Pick a card that you think is appropriate for each interviewer.
 
I know it's probably really late in the game to ask for advice about turning in secondaries. But for the question about how you will contribute to the educational environment of the campus, is it appropriate if I talk about the fact that my undergrad was at a large research institution where there was not a lot of interaction between the professor and the students due to the professor being more involved in research? Thus, I developed studying groups and online chats that helped me assume the role of a teacher. I feel as if this really helped and I hope to implement it in my future as a student at Keck.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks! 🙂
 
I know it's probably really late in the game to ask for advice about turning in secondaries. But for the question about how you will contribute to the educational environment of the campus, is it appropriate if I talk about the fact that my undergrad was at a large research institution where there was not a lot of interaction between the professor and the students due to the professor being more involved in research? Thus, I developed studying groups and online chats that helped me assume the role of a teacher. I feel as if this really helped and I hope to implement it in my future as a student at Keck.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks! 🙂

Hey,

I am by no means an expert, but this sounds like a cool anecdote and if you can't think of anything else, I would write about it. In my opinion though, I would suggest straying away from saying you're a "teacher" and maybe more of a "leader/organizer of people." Also, I wouldn't dwell on the poor student-professor interaction in your essay, because you never know who is going to read your negative rant and think something wacky about it that you didn't expect.
 
Interview offer today! Scheduled for the absolute earliest date available... January 12.
 
After making myself sick for weeks reading these forums, I finally got an interview invite. I was complete 10/4 and was able to snag an interview for 11/17. By the looks of the interview dates, the only other ones I saw were for Jan.
 
Hey,

I am by no means an expert, but this sounds like a cool anecdote and if you can't think of anything else, I would write about it. In my opinion though, I would suggest straying away from saying you're a "teacher" and maybe more of a "leader/organizer of people." Also, I wouldn't dwell on the poor student-professor interaction in your essay, because you never know who is going to read your negative rant and think something wacky about it that you didn't expect.

Thanks for the advice! I decided not to really discuss the low interaction too much.
 
does anyone know if USC is almost done giving out invites?
 
I hope this helps relieve some stress. I'm a 2nd year med student at USC and I'm almost positive we are not done giving out interview invites. We interview well into April and when I was applying, I received my invite mid-December and interviewed in mid-February. Good luck!
 
I hope this helps relieve some stress. I'm a 2nd year med student at USC and I'm almost positive we are not done giving out interview invites. We interview well into April and when I was applying, I received my invite mid-December and interviewed in mid-February. Good luck!

thanks for the positivity.. Normally I dont get too stressed about the interview invitations but it really startled me when they appeared to fill oct-dec in one round of invites haha

good to know theres still hope! thanks for letting us know
 
if keck doesn't like update letters do they also not like letters of interest? i'm planning on sending one so i hopefully get an interview 🙁
 
if keck doesn't like update letters do they also not like letters of interest? i'm planning on sending one so i hopefully get an interview 🙁

They don't accept any additional material before the interview is granted.
However, additional materials are accepted from applicants who have already interviewed.
 
They don't accept any additional material before the interview is granted.
However, additional materials are accepted from applicants who have already interviewed.

so.. is a letter of intent considered additional material if i'm not including any updates in it? i'm really just saying USC is my top pick
 
so.. is a letter of intent considered additional material if i'm not including any updates in it? i'm really just saying USC is my top pick

Feel free to call and ask, they are very nice. But I am pretty sure they won't accept it.
 
Did anyone who interviewed hear anything back yet?
 
I interviewed 10/20 and they said 4-6 weeks...here's to a good thanksgiving! 🙄
 
Did anyone who interviewed hear anything back yet?

I interviewed last week, and they said they would send a decision (acceptance or waitlist) by snail mail within 6 weeks.
 
4-6 weeks is what they told me too, interviewed 10/26. I still find myself checking the mail for the letter, but its only been 2 weeks😱
 
Aren, I believe we spoke last year about being on the alternate list for Keck. I submitted my secondary in August, received the invite on 10/8, and interviewed on 11/2. Hopefully, we both can get in this time around.

For whoever wanted to know about filling out the secondary late, I filled mine out this time last year because I didn't get my scores back for a while. I interviewed on 3/31. I think it is definitely worth filling them out if the deadlines haven't passed.
 
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