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

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Saw this on the UCLA thread:

The AAMC recommends that:

By March 30 of the matriculation year, March 15 for M.D.-Ph.D. programs, each school or program have issued a number of offers of acceptance at least equal to the expected number of students in its first-year entering class and have reported those acceptance actions to the AAMC Section for Medical School Application Services.

Source: https://www.aamc.org/students/applyi...nofficers.html

If Keck hasn't offered 180 acceptances yet, I'm sure they'll try to before the deadline. Maybe March will be a good month?

In other news, I keep replaying my interview in my head and am getting more and more discouraged. Any people with mediocre interviews get in? I could use some hope...
 
every time someone posts on here i keep thinking it's someone saying they just found out if they got in or not and my heart stops for a bit...but then it isn't the case
 
citrusguy2010 said:
every time someone posts on here i keep thinking it's someone saying they just found out if they got in or not and my heart stops for a bit...but then it isn't the case
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Sorry man...and I just did it again.
 
nuance said:
Hello fellow Thousand Oaksian! (I wonder if I know you..? if you went to TOHS then I probably do). Interview day depends on if you are session one or session two. Here are some posts from this thread to answer your question:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=12019344&postcount=538
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=12020760&postcount=539

and don't forget to read the interview feedback http://studentdoctor.net/schools/school/usc-keck/survey/26

Overall the day is very low stress and the majority of interviews seem to be low stress as well. :luck:
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congrats on your admission!! good to see another person from T.O. big pimpin. I think i may be a couple years older than you.... graduated TOHS in 2005... and Berkeley 2009
 
Anyone know what day of the week USC tends to release post-interview decisions? I'm starting to get neurotic lol.
 
TheMightySmiter said:
Anyone know what day of the week USC tends to release post-interview decisions? I'm starting to get neurotic lol.
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From other people's posts, it seems like they've released decisions every week day minus Friday, so there's not much indicator there.

I called in last Friday to see when the next set of notifications would come out, but the lady kept telling it would be 4-6 weeks after my interview. It's been almost 4 for me so far.

Hopefully we'll hear back this week. Between this and UCLA finally accepting people, I've been on high-anxiety mode all weekend : /
 
At my recent interview at USC, the dean mentioned that thank-you cards (or e-mails) were not necessary (in fact, she heavily discouraged us from sending them). Does anyone know how responsive the office is to letters of intent? USC is my #1 choice and I'd like them to know that 🙂
 
pnut said:
At my recent interview at USC, the dean mentioned that thank-you cards (or e-mails) were not necessary (in fact, she heavily discouraged us from sending them). Does anyone know how responsive the office is to letters of intent? USC is my #1 choice and I'd like them to know that 🙂
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I wrote to Dr. Arias after my interview day thanking her and letting her know that the school was my top choice. Numbers wise I was not the top candidate on my interview day, but I was accepted while others (who seemed pretty impressive in person) were not. I can think of no reason not to send an LOI as long as you truly want to attend the school.
 
MalibuPreMD said:
I wrote to Dr. Arias after my interview day thanking her and letting her know that the school was my top choice. Numbers wise I was not the top candidate on my interview day, but I was accepted while others (who seemed pretty impressive in person) were not. I can think of no reason not to send an LOI as long as you truly want to attend the school.
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agreed. the worse that can happen is that they don't read it.
 
Lets Get Free said:
congrats on your admission!! good to see another person from T.O. big pimpin. I think i may be a couple years older than you.... graduated TOHS in 2005... and Berkeley 2009
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Congratulations to both of you! Looks like I'll be in good company. I didn't go to TOHS (grew up in SImi Valley, went to Royal HS) but I had a lot of friends in Thousand Oaks and visited the area frequently. Hope to meet you guys / gals at second look! 🙂
 
MalibuPreMD said:
I wrote to Dr. Arias after my interview day thanking her and letting her know that the school was my top choice. Numbers wise I was not the top candidate on my interview day, but I was accepted while others (who seemed pretty impressive in person) were not. I can think of no reason not to send an LOI as long as you truly want to attend the school.
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Interesting. I too was specifically told NOT to write any thank you notes / letters of interest. Dr. Arias said she might consider it a "failure to follow instructions" if we were to send her one despite her instructions. In any case, it clearly didn't hurt you. I didn't write one and was accepted promptly. That being said, I did send in an updated transcript after I was invited to interview. They definitely accept those.

I don't think you stand to lose much by sending a letter though. They can't hate you for being polite.
 
DennisdaMenace said:
Interesting. I too was specifically told NOT to write any thank you notes / letters of interest. Dr. Arias said she might consider it a "failure to follow instructions" if we were to send her one despite her instructions. In any case, it clearly didn't hurt you. I didn't write one and was accepted promptly. That being said, I did send in an updated transcript after I was invited to interview. They definitely accept those.

I don't think you stand to lose much by sending a letter though. They can't hate you for being polite.
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Where did you send the updated transcript? I just included my new GPA in my update letter/intent.

I did not hear anything about not writing letters of interest though Dr. Arias specifically did say not to send thank you letters.
 
Does anyone know anything about the alternate list?...number on it, typical acceptance number? I know people were rejected after interviews so it might not be as much of a longshot getting accepted from the list?
 
citrusguy2010 said:
Where did you send the updated transcript? I just included my new GPA in my update letter/intent.

I did not hear anything about not writing letters of interest though Dr. Arias specifically did say not to send thank you letters.
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I just sent it straight to the admissions office. You can also scan it and e-mail it to them.
 
csot said:
Does anyone know anything about the alternate list?...number on it, typical acceptance number? I know people were rejected after interviews so it might not be as much of a longshot getting accepted from the list?
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My numbers might be slightly off, but here's a rough approximation based on posts earlier in this thread and in last year's thread.

Total number accepted (including those off alternate list): 300-ish
Total class size: 176

That leaves a difference of about 125. Not all of these are going to come from the alternate list, of course as some people withdraw early, opening up more spots for acceptances. So based upon my highly unscientific methodology, I predict that 100-115 people come off the alternate list.

Now, before you say this is a lot, keep in mind that many other medical schools regularly accept double to triple their class size by the time school starts.

Cheers
 
To the people that have been sending letters of intent/are deadset on going here, can you articulate what draws you to the school so much?
 
Etorphine said:
To the people that have been sending letters of intent/are deadset on going here, can you articulate what draws you to the school so much?
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EVERYTHING! Probably the best medical institution there is... in terms of both academic and social mission.
 
Etorphine said:
To the people that have been sending letters of intent/are deadset on going here, can you articulate what draws you to the school so much?
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I feel it comes down to how USC or any other school suits you and most if not all of that info to guide you can be found on interview day or the website.
 
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coming up onto Week 4 for me and nothing. i dread checking my physical snail mail box...
 
Etorphine said:
To the people that have been sending letters of intent/are deadset on going here, can you articulate what draws you to the school so much?
Click to expand...

1) I wanted to remain in LA.
2) I wanted to train in a safety net hospital (why I applied to Temple & Downstate as well)
3) Although I don't speak the language fluently, I wanted to train in a bilingual environment. Practicing internationally (especially Latin America) has always been an important personal goal.
4) I'm an adrenaline junky. EM & trauma intrigue me, and the LAC ER is very high volume with tons of trauma (MS13, 18th st., bloods, and crips are all prominent in LA county). And although I've repeatedly read that 3rd and 4th year should provide exposure to bread and butter cases, I REALLY look forward to training in a high-intensity environment with diverse pathologies.




and a far distant 5: from the HSC it's equidistant to 1st point Malibu and Trestles 😉
 
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citrusguy2010 said:
i thought i read somewhere that rejections/waitlists were snail mail
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:scared: Aw man! Why prolong the bad news?! Can any waitlisters shed light on this? I don't think anyone on this thread has been rejected post-interview.
 
citrusguy2010 said:
coming up onto Week 4 for me and nothing. i dread checking my physical snail mail box...
Click to expand...

awesomepossums said:
Week 5 for me... has anyone from February heard back at all?
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I interviewed on February 10 and haven't heard back. I'm pretty sure we will hear back this Friday. March 2 was their last interview day, and that will have given them three weeks to decide. However, we might have to wait until March 30, where all schools have to have given out as many acceptances as they have seats. I want this school so badly. If I get in, Pasadena/South Pasadena, here I come. Then, once I know the LA area, I'll move to silver lake / los feliz.
 
I've been lurking in SDN for quite some time; thought I'd finally contribute and share my own experience and status:

I interviewed at USC in mid-February and have yet to hear back from them as of yet. The tour was amazing, as were the medical students and staff that I talked to. I couldn't believe how warm and supportive the atmosphere was. It would be a dream come true to be able to learn at LAC, and be a part of the USC/Keck community. If I were to describe what really struck me about the school, it would probably be that it seems like they believe whole-heartedly in their mission, as well as the happiness, improvement and well-being of its students and community.

Man, I thought after completing my interviews I would feel much less stress, but awaiting the email/letter is nerve-wracking!
 
DennisdaMenace said:
My numbers might be slightly off, but here's a rough approximation based on posts earlier in this thread and in last year's thread.

Total number accepted (including those off alternate list): 300-ish
Total class size: 176

That leaves a difference of about 125. Not all of these are going to come from the alternate list, of course as some people withdraw early, opening up more spots for acceptances. So based upon my highly unscientific methodology, I predict that 100-115 people come off the alternate list.

Now, before you say this is a lot, keep in mind that many other medical schools regularly accept double to triple their class size by the time school starts.

Cheers
Click to expand...

But what about the over acceptance before even getting to the alternate list candidates?? I thought they accept arounddouble initially and then pull from the alternate list?

I am hoping I am wrong clearly!
 
csot said:
But what about the over acceptance before even getting to the alternate list candidates?? I thought they accept arounddouble initially and then pull from the alternate list?

I am hoping I am wrong clearly!
Click to expand...

All credit goes to nadaba for finding this info in US News:

6442 applied
524 interviewed
337 accepted
174 enrolled

As you can see, slightly less than double the class size is offered acceptance. This includes all initial offers as well as those coming off the alternate list. A high ratio of those accepted choose to attend, no doubt due to the sheer awesomeness of this school 😉
 
csot said:
But what about the over acceptance before even getting to the alternate list candidates?? I thought they accept arounddouble initially and then pull from the alternate list?

I am hoping I am wrong clearly!
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be nice if each school was completely transparent about all of this? As Dennis said, all we can do is speculate. I guess they don't want to feed our neurotic-ness, haha.
 
I interviewed on February 7 and found out EXACTLY two weeks later that I was wait listed. I also did some research and it seems that a schools ranking, upon other criteria, is based upon how many acceptances they intially give out and how many of those are rejections. Therefore they tend to put a ton on the wait list and wait until after May 15th. In this case, should a wait lister-er reject the school, it doesn't hurt their rankings. NOTE: this is from the research I've done on the internet.

I received the horrible news of being wait listed via email...for those asking.
 
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Alternate list. Sigh. Can any of you post the link for the secondary application? I no longer have it and need access to accept my spot on the alternate list.
 
FearlessHyena said:
Alternate list. Sigh. Can any of you post the link for the secondary application? I no longer have it and need access to accept my spot on the alternate list.
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Same. My fourth waitlist. 🙁 I love you Keck...

Also: https://keck-medadmit.usc.edu
 
!!! sorry to hear about that 🙁

do you guys mind posting when you interviewed?
 
Whoohoo! Accepted this morning!! Coming back home to SoCal 🙂 Best of luck to everyone! Interviewed 2/17
 
Also waitlisted. Does anyone know when waitlist acceptances begin?
 
njpxcrnr said:
Also waitlisted. Does anyone know when waitlist acceptances begin?
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Congrats to those accepted! And gl to those waiting! Did everyone who heard back today interview on or before Feb 17?
 
dblue10 said:
Congrats to those accepted! And gl to those waiting! Did everyone who heard back today interview on or before Feb 17?
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Not sure if the date correlates direclty. Interviewed Feb 15. Haven't heard anything yet. (via both email and status check)
 
Interviewed mid-February, alternate listed today.
 
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