2011-2012 University of Southern California (Keck) Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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I know everyone had problems with transcripts but now my status page says they haven't received my letters of rec from AMCAS, its been over a week since ive submitted my secondary.... anyone else have this problem?
 
Lamster said:
I know everyone had problems with transcripts but now my status page says they haven't received my letters of rec from AMCAS, its been over a week since ive submitted my secondary.... anyone else have this problem?
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I had that problem for few days and was told that the person who download LORs was swamped. You could call to make sure or wait another few days.
 
Does anybody know when interview invites come out/when interviews start for USC?
 
latitude6410 said:
Does anybody know when interview invites come out/when interviews start for USC?
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I was looking through the thread last year and the first interview invites came out October 1st. So, we can all relax for another six weeks or so.
 
The diversity question is a little tough for me. For one, I am married, and I know that this gives me a different perspective than singles. Note that I am not saying that this makes me better, but it does make me a little different than the average matriculant, and that is what this essay prompt is all about, right? So would it be a good idea to write about being married as one way that I contribute to diversity?

In addition, I think it would be good to include how extracurriculars might set me apart and what-not, so I will discuss that, as well.

Basically, as others have said, this question is so difficult to approach! It feels almost a bit forced. Everybody is different, but am I MORE different than others? Hehe, it makes my head spin. :shrug:

Thanks everybody who responds! 🙂
 
tritown said:
So would it be a good idea to write about being married as one way that I contribute to diversity?
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Are you gay-married?

Not sure I understand the different perspective you have. But then again: what do I know?
 
tritown said:
The diversity question is a little tough for me. For one, I am married, and I know that this gives me a different perspective than singles. Note that I am not saying that this makes me better, but it does make me a little different than the average matriculant, and that is what this essay prompt is all about, right? So would it be a good idea to write about being married as one way that I contribute to diversity?

In addition, I think it would be good to include how extracurriculars might set me apart and what-not, so I will discuss that, as well.

Basically, as others have said, this question is so difficult to approach! It feels almost a bit forced. Everybody is different, but am I MORE different than others? Hehe, it makes my head spin. :shrug:

Thanks everybody who responds! 🙂
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I think the bottom line isn't how you are different from every other (or most) applicants. The real question is, what do you, as a person, bring to the school and to the community? If being married has given you some kind of perspective or some kind of approach to your future career/life that might add to the school, I don't see why you can't write about it. Anyways, I guess I'm trying to say that I think the point of this prompt isn't to be diverse for the sake of being diverse - it's how your individual background has contributed to your perspective on medicine, and how it can contribute to that of your potential fellow students.

For my part, I take my relationship very seriously as well (I'm engaged, not married), and while I haven't written about it much in applications, I won't hesitate to speak about it if prompted during an interview. It has shaped my future goals, after all.

Good luck with that app! 👍
 
percy said:
Are you gay-married?

Not sure I understand the different perspective you have. But then again: what do I know?
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No, unless you mean happily married.

Life does change after being married, so when you have different life experiences, it can open your eyes a little.

My question was whether it would be appropriate or even beneficial to add to the application, and I think that sharpie1006 answered it pretty well. If it contributes to your ability to be a good student that contributes well to the student body and the medical community, then it is worth mentioning. If not, then no.

Thanks percy and sharpie1006. If anybody else has any input, that would be great, too. The whole diversity prompt is interesting because it is so open-ended and maybe even a little vague.
 
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how strict do you think usc is about the sentence limit to the short response questions? for example, one of mine is 6 sentences. i COULD make it 5, but then it'll probably make one of the sentences super super long. what do you guys think?
 
velleityx said:
how strict do you think usc is about the sentence limit to the short response questions? for example, one of mine is 6 sentences. i COULD make it 5, but then it'll probably make one of the sentences super super long. what do you guys think?
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I'm kind of neurotic myself, but I would limit it to five, just because they want you to be concise.

With that said it probably doesn't really matter, because they I doubt that they have an automated method to count sentences.

For the long essay (or essays if a reapplicant), it is definitely important to adhere to their maximum.

I hope that this helps!
 
tritown said:
No, unless you mean happily married.

The whole diversity prompt is interesting because it is so open-ended and maybe even a little vague.
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Haha, I see what you did there... 😎

In some seriousness, I fail to see what you mean when you say these "different life experiences... open your eyes a little." Sure, being married is categorically different from being unmarried, but there's a logical step you've gotta take if you choose to include this tidbit in your diversity essay(s).

Not to be a Negative Nancy, either. I'm willing to entertain the idea that, like Sharpie suggested, marriage somehow leads to a contribution to the medical community. But as it stands, perhaps to an unmarried dude like m'self, the premise seems similarly "open-ended and vague." That I'm not buying it isn't such a big deal—but you might be met with a raised brow by an admissions officer if that's a major component of your diversity essay. Fortunately, as long as you explain yourself well, diversity in this context is entirely subjective.
 
And PS: If you're still wishy-washy about it, you might get more/better feedback if you asked this on the general boards, instead of on '11-'12 USC.
 
Just received the 'complete' email. Time to play the waiting game. 🙁
 
i think it's going to be a long waiting game. looking at last year's USC thread they didn't start offering interviews until like end of september early october
 
I have a question about the 30 humanities hours. Do classes like Accounting, Management, and Communications count? If so, then I'm good. If not, I might fall a few hours short....

I also had a class on "Professional Responsibilities of Engineers". It was basically an ethics/professionalism class for engineering majors. Does that sound humanities-y to you?
 
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This application is kind of fun. Certainly the most enjoyable one I've done!

Do you think that it would be okay to mention more than one thing for the "most prized possession" question? I'm sort of worried because it does ask for a singular item, but mine is more a group of related items, because of what they allow me to accomplish.
 
probably... depends on how you spin it? for example, if you're really into construction as a side project, maybe you can say your toolbox, not one specific tool. idk =\
 
Accalia said:
This application is kind of fun. Certainly the most enjoyable one I've done!

Do you think that it would be okay to mention more than one thing for the "most prized possession" question? I'm sort of worried because it does ask for a singular item, but mine is more a group of related items, because of what they allow me to accomplish.
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please don't say biology textbooks......
 
premed67783 said:
please don't say biology textbooks......
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Hahaha, nothing like that! Don't worry. Basically, I gave a really cheesy answer saying that I don't have a single most prized possession, but instead I most value those things that allow me to stay in touch and connected with people I love (very important when you're in a long-distance relationship) and then gave a specific example. I'm conflicted because it is completely sincere, yet it sounds very cheesy. =/

Maybe I should go with something related to a hobby instead....
 
I tried to orient my secondary towards things I would want to talk about in an interview. I think - though I can't be sure - these questions are used to help the interviewers stir up conversation. I used things that would really get me going... my hobbies and passions outside of medicine.

Just my two cents.
 
I was always interested in USC (even as an undergrad) but I thought I didn't qualify to apply because of the Molec Cell requirement. However, I now realize that I can just take it before matriculation (doh! 🙄) so I added USC to AMCAS at 2am yesterday, got the secondary today at noon, and just submitted it. :xf:
 
CaliKid2011 said:
I tried to orient my secondary towards things I would want to talk about in an interview. I think - though I can't be sure - these questions are used to help the interviewers stir up conversation. I used things that would really get me going... my hobbies and passions outside of medicine.

Just my two cents.
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That is a good way to think for most schools, but USC is a completely closed-file interview. Your interviewers don't know anything but your name.
 
EK601 said:
I was always interested in USC (even as an undergrad) but I thought I didn't qualify to apply because of the Molec Cell requirement. However, I now realize that I can just take it before matriculation (doh! 🙄) so I added USC to AMCAS at 2am yesterday, got the secondary today at noon, and just submitted it. :xf:
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I believe the molecular bio requirement can also be met by taking genetics, pretty sure I read that on the Keck website
 
i wanna freakin live in california. did anyone hear back yet?
 
Interview invite today within the last hour. So excited!
 
kduck said:
Interview invite today within the last hour. So excited!
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Wow, congrats!! Based on last years' thread I wasn't expecting any interview invites until October. Now I'm getting all nervous. :scared: USC is my super top choice school and I'm in love with them. PLEASE USC GIVE ME SOME LOVE!!
 
TheMightySmiter said:
Wow, congrats!! Based on last years' thread I wasn't expecting any interview invites until October. Now I'm getting all nervous. :scared: USC is my super top choice school and I'm in love with them. PLEASE USC GIVE ME SOME LOVE!!
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Congrats to the first round of interview invites! And to those anxiously waiting -- don't worry. Many of my classmates interviewed later in the year (through April I believe)!

We MS1s just finished our third week of school. Everything is great so far. My classmates are all awesome. We had the first gross anatomy lab today. What a surreal experience. And we are going into the hospital starting next week to start learning how to take patient histories! However, I am a bit sleep-deprived. Gonna go take a nap!
 
Evergrey said:
Congrats to the first round of interview invites! And to those anxiously waiting -- don't worry. Many of my classmates interviewed later in the year (through April I believe)!

We MS1s just finished our third week of school. Everything is great so far. My classmates are all awesome. We had the first gross anatomy lab today. What a surreal experience. And we are going into the hospital starting next week to start learning how to take patient histories! However, I am a bit sleep-deprived. Gonna go take a nap!
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+1, it's been awesome so far! Plus USC's football season starts in a week, and I'm looking forward to some med student tailgating 👍
 
This school is AMAZING!!!!! Definitely one of my first picks for med schools. I think I might crap my pants if I get an interview.
 
Hey all, I'm also a current MS1 at Keck--just started a few weeks ago. To take a break from studying for our practice test tomorrow, I thought I would just post and echo other people by saying if you have any questions feel free to post or PM me and I'll try to check back occasionally.

Just a comment: try and relax throughout this whole process (I know it's really hard). Believe me, I understand how stressful this can all be after doing it last year. Checking SDN all the time can make you ancy about getting a secondary or an interview or whatever. But really, the only thing I correctly predicted based off of SDN was getting my BU rejection exactly three weeks after my application was complete 😛

But just because someone with the exact same stats as you gets an interview now doesn't necessarily mean you still won't get one later. I got interviews from schools whose averages were above my stats and didn't get interviews from tons of schools whose averages were below my stats, including my state school. The whole process is just crazy and there is no way to predict what is going to happen.

One more comment: from my experience with Keck--since it is a private school--I don't think being instate really matters. Granted, a lot of people I know here are either from California, or like me, are from OOS and went to undergrad in California. But we still have people from all over the country in our class.

Anyway good luck with the whole process and I'm looking forward to meeting some of you guys when you interview here throughout the year!

P.S.: For the requirements, I never took Molecular Biology, but I took a Cell Biology class my winter quarter that fulfilled the requirement. I think for that, they are mostly looking for an upper div bio class that is generally in the same area. Feel free to ask admissions though if you are unsure.
 
BioeMD said:
. But really, the only thing I correctly predicted based off of SDN was getting my BU rejection exactly three weeks after my application was complete 😛
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👍👍👍👍👍This EXACT thing happened to me yesterday. Heres hoping for some USC love!
 
Interview invite!

USC undergrad, but I moved out of state for work after graduation, SO EXCITED!! 🙂
 
csot said:
Interview invite!

USC undergrad, but I moved out of state for work after graduation, SO EXCITED!! 🙂
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congrats!

nice GPA trend as well! I am definitely twittling my thumbs and waiting for this school 🙂
 
For those who have interview invites, would you mind telling us what your complete date was? 🙂

USC is the only school I'm like freaking out about. :laugh: Someone tell me not to be neurotic!!
 
TheMightySmiter said:
For those who have interview invites, would you mind telling us what your complete date was? 🙂

USC is the only school I'm like freaking out about. :laugh: Someone tell me not to be neurotic!!
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Don't be neurotic! I interviewed at USC in February and everything turned out fine. :luck:
 
DaisyBuchanan said:
Don't be neurotic! I interviewed at USC in February and everything turned out fine. :luck:
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Haha thanks. Good to hear. 🙂 Hope your first few weeks have been going well! I'm gonna try to go to the USC-Colorado game in October since I live in Boulder...I'm having trouble deciding whether to root for USC or CU, cuz I grew up in CO but I love USC! Decisions, decisions. 😀 Yay for Pac 10 (Pac 12?) football!
 
i would love to go to usc after all that money they got in donations 🙂
 
kautionwirez said:
congrats!

nice GPA trend as well! I am definitely twittling my thumbs and waiting for this school 🙂
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Thank you! Much appreciated compliment.

Mightysmiter, I was complete July 19th, good luck!!
 
Evergrey said:
Congrats to the first round of interview invites! And to those anxiously waiting -- don't worry. Many of my classmates interviewed later in the year (through April I believe)!

We MS1s just finished our third week of school. Everything is great so far. My classmates are all awesome. We had the first gross anatomy lab today. What a surreal experience. And we are going into the hospital starting next week to start learning how to take patient histories! However, I am a bit sleep-deprived. Gonna go take a nap!
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That's reassuring to hear. Just sitting around waiting for invites, especially from your top choice, is agonizing. Anyone else going to Keck on Thursday for the med school info meeting?
 
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