2013-2014 University of Southern California (Keck) Application Thread

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does anyone know if keck tends to give out a decent amt of need-based scholarship aid? or is it, as a poster stated above, mainly loans regardless of financial background of the student?
 
lololol777 said:
does anyone know if keck tends to give out a decent amt of need-based scholarship aid? or is it, as a poster stated above, mainly loans regardless of financial background of the student?
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They don't generally do need based scholarships, just a few merit based (from what I was told by fin-aid).

On a side note, my phone wanted to call it fun-aid and it made me laugh in ochem lecture!
 
striker15 said:
Anyone from 1/17 hear back yet? Seems like I got passed over lol super anxious.
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Not me, but a good friend of mine got accepted yesterday 2/11 via email after interviewing on 1/17
 
Alternate listed today guys. Best of luck to the rest of you. Received email at 10:20
 
Still haven't heard anything. The wait is TEARING ME APART!!

Cool points for anyone that gets the reference 😀
 
Does anyone know when waitlist movement begins? I committed to a program at another school which begins in mid-june, so is there anything I could do to get off waitlist earlier?
 
Well I can tell you guys right now I believe at least 65% of the ~185 spots are 'filled', so to speak, with accepted students. They will definitely accept more people until they've accepted ~186 students before May 15. Between now and May 15, some students will withdraw because they will be accepted to a school they'd rather attend. But I doubt that would be a very significant chunk, because a lot of people just hold onto their acceptances (rather greedily, in some cases) for various reasons until May 15.

Basically, once students are forced to declare their single acceptance on May 15, many will withdraw from Keck, and then a lot of people will probably move off the waitlist sometime soon after May 15. That is my understanding, please somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

This is pretty much universally true for any school as competitive as USC (or any other CA school, really). I've read that schools can begin to see where you've been accepted to on March 15.

So to answer your question guannaberry, a small number of students will probably be accepted off the waitlist before May 15, but I'm betting the vast majority of people will move off the waitlist after May 15, and then things will slow down a lot after that.
 
Bisonman80 said:
Well I can tell you guys right now I believe at least 65% of the ~185 spots are 'filled', so to speak, with accepted students. They will definitely accept more people until they've accepted ~186 students before May 15. Between now and May 15, some students will withdraw because they will be accepted to a school they'd rather attend. But I doubt that would be a very significant chunk, because a lot of people just hold onto their acceptances (rather greedily, in some cases) for various reasons until May 15.

Basically, once students are forced to declare their single acceptance on May 15, many will withdraw from Keck, and then a lot of people will probably move off the waitlist sometime soon after May 15. That is my understanding, please somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

This is pretty much universally true for any school as competitive as USC (or any other CA school, really). I've read that schools can begin to see where you've been accepted to on March 15.

So to answer your question guannaberry, a small number of students will probably be accepted off the waitlist before May 15, but I'm betting the vast majority of people will move off the waitlist after May 15, and then things will slow down a lot after that.
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Many more than 186 students will be admitted prior to May 15. All admissions offices, including Keck, have a good sense of how many people will choose other schools. I think last year they told us there were about 330 admitted in mid-April last year?

Waitlist movement at USC will ONLY begin after May 15. As Dr. Arias probably said at your interviews, she doesn't want to receive anything ahead of then.
 
Interesting. I'm a little confused though, so you're saying that by May 15 they will have accepted up to ~300 applicants simply because so many withdraw in that time?

Because the alternative way of interpreting that (them accepting more people than they have spots for at a given time) is an impossibility. lol
 
Bisonman80 said:
Interesting. I'm a little confused though, so you're saying that by May 15 they will have accepted up to ~300 applicants simply because so many withdraw in that time?

Because the alternative way of interpreting that (them accepting more people than they have spots for at a given time) is an impossibility. lol
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Schools know, historically, how many students will accept and reject their offers. They can definitely accept 250-300, knowing that only 180 will end up matriculating.
 
milkandcereal said:
Schools know, historically, how many students will accept and reject their offers. They can definitely accept 250-300, knowing that only 180 will end up matriculating.
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No, that is heavily restricted and punished by AMCAS. Just think about it, if they 'guessed' wrong, then they'll end up with more people accepted than they have space for, which is THE BIGGEST ****UP YOU COULD EVER ACCOMPLISH AS AN ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE, lol

This is also the entire reason why so many people move off waitlists. Yes, they will eventually accept probably twice the # of people they have spots for, but they can't do it all at once.

I've had Deans say in multiple interview presentations that this something they just cannot (and should not ethically) do.
 
Bisonman80 said:
No, that is heavily restricted and punished by AMCAS. Just think about it, if they 'guessed' wrong, then they'll end up with more people accepted than they have space for, which is THE BIGGEST ****UP YOU COULD EVER ACCOMPLISH AS AN ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE, lol

This is also the entire reason why so many people move off waitlists. Yes, they will eventually accept probably twice the # of people they have spots for, but they can't do it all at once.

I've had Deans say in multiple interview presentations that this something they just cannot (and should not ethically) do.
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Schools almost certainly accept more students than they could take on, knowing that a large percentage will choose to attend another institution. Most medical schools have been around long enough to accurately predict the percentage of students that accept their offers. Some waitlists move a lot because the admissions committee awarded acceptances conservatively (not enough outright acceptances to fill the class). Other waitlists hardly move at all because the committees 'guessed' accurately. UPitt overenrolled and had to increase their class size recently because they 'guessed' wrong; it happens sometimes.
 
Do you have a source for your claim that 'most medical schools' do this? It seems so unreasonable, and it goes against what I've been told by two deans of admissions.

Even with accurate predictions, there are still going to be people who were 'accepted' but the school don't have spots for. The # of spots schools have is another heavily controlled thing by AMCAS. Again, I was told this on interview days. I'm having a hard time believing that what you're describing is common.
 
Bisonman80 said:
Do you have a source for your claim that 'most medical schools' do this? It seems so unreasonable, and it goes against what I've been told by two deans of admissions.

Even with accurate predictions, there are still going to be people who were 'accepted' but the school don't have spots for. The # of spots schools have is another heavily controlled thing by AMCAS. Again, I was told this on interview days. I'm having a hard time believing that what you're describing is common.
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I meant that most medical schools have been around long enough to have a good idea of their typical accepted:matriculated ratio. I have no source that most medical schools accept more students than they have seats, but I've been told by a few of the UCs that they do this. If you use years of historical data and accept a conservative number of students, you run very little risk of having more matriculating students than seats in the class by the time classes start.
 
Bisonman80 said:
Do you have a source for your claim that 'most medical schools' do this? It seems so unreasonable, and it goes against what I've been told by two deans of admissions.

Even with accurate predictions, there are still going to be people who were 'accepted' but the school don't have spots for. The # of spots schools have is another heavily controlled thing by AMCAS. Again, I was told this on interview days. I'm having a hard time believing that what you're describing is common.
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This is common practice in Admissions in the undergraduate and graduate level.

Imagine you have 200 spots and every year you know 100 people tend to choose to attend another school. You could safely accept 250 and waitlist the rest because in all likelihood you would end up with 150 +/- 20 accepted students and then could fill the rest with waitlist movement.
 
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Can anyone provide more details on the interview? I know it's closed-book, 1 faculty, 1 student, and generally conversational. Any other details?

Thanks!
 
contigo said:
Can anyone provide more details on the interview? I know it's closed-book, 1 faculty, 1 student, and generally conversational. Any other details?

Thanks!
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Both of my interviews started off with, "So tell me a little about yourself." if that is helpful. Both were very laid back and really just about getting to know more about you, personality-wise.
 
OregonDuck02 said:
Both of my interviews started off with, "So tell me a little about yourself." if that is helpful. Both were very laid back and really just about getting to know more about you, personality-wise.
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Pretty much this, it was the most laid back interview I've had all season. Really gives you a chance to let them know who you are and how you'll fit in at Keck.
 
Has anybody received any updates recently? Still waiting on my 1/14 interview :/
 
wilde0sc said:
Has anybody received any updates recently? Still waiting on my 1/14 interview :/
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At my interview we were told that they meet every two weeks. Since decisions just came out last Tuesday, I would guess that they won't be handing out more until next week. 🙂
 
Runican said:
At my interview we were told that they meet every two weeks. Since decisions just came out last Tuesday, I would guess that they won't be handing out more until next week. 🙂
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This, and it saddens me greatly 🙁

I must endure for one more week.
 
I'm rooting for you SilentSoldier! I can tell how badly you want to go here 🙂
 
Bisonman80 said:
I'm rooting for you SilentSoldier! I can tell how badly you want to go here 🙂
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Interviewed here today as OOS, loved it! Everyone was super friendly, the campus was gorgeous, the facilities were amazingly well-maintained, and they have a special program that combines medicine & engineering -- love at first sight 🙂

Interview was really laid back, and conversational. There weren't any list of questions that the interviewer had to go through that I could recall.

From what the dean of admissions said, a lot of people get off the wait list, so there is hope! Good luck to everyone :luck:

Edit: I was told the committee meets every 2 weeks as well. However, after the interview day, I stuck around and peered in the conference room, and it seemed like a committee of sorts was meeting there. This was 02/18 so maybe there's more acceptances on the way for you guys, or maybe there's a 1 week delay?
 
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juliuspepperwood said:
They don't like any updates, ever.
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That's what I heard too during interview day. However, I keep on wanting to send them my Fall grades (upward trend) as well as an updated list of activities 😕 I just can't help it. I guess I just need to wait and hope for the best. Anyone else had any luck with post-interview updates?
 
supermintyfresh said:
That's what I heard too during interview day. However, I keep on wanting to send them my Fall grades (upward trend) as well as an updated list of activities 😕 I just can't help it. I guess I just need to wait and hope for the best. Anyone else had any luck with post-interview updates?
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Dr. Arias explicitly said not to send an update after your interview so I would imagine it would counted as a mark against you if you did. If you were put on the waitlist, I think that's a different story...
 
midnight0il said:
Dr. Arias explicitly said not to send an update after your interview so I would imagine it would counted as a mark against you if you did. If you were put on the waitlist, I think that's a different story...
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Even if you're placed on the waitlist, they don't want you to send anything until May 15!
 
Maybe its alphabetical and its taking a while to get my last name... keck pls:bigtears:
 
Are acceptances all sent out at the exact same time? If we haven't heard anything by now does it mean a waitlist or reject?
 
cheetah91 said:
Are acceptances all sent out at the exact same time? If we haven't heard anything by now does it mean a waitlist or reject?
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When did you all interview? I interviewed the last couple days of Jan and still waiting to hear.
 
I interviewed jan 22nd which would make this week 5 I believe. They told us we wouldn't wait any longer than that so I hope to get something soon.
 
Well I'm wondering if acceptances are sent all at the same time? So if we haven't heard that means waitlist or reject? Or are acceptances sent out over several hours
 
cheetah91 said:
Well I'm wondering if acceptances are sent all at the same time? So if we haven't heard that means waitlist or reject? Or are acceptances sent out over several hours
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Wondering the same!
 
Do you remember what time you were accepted? I remember someone was accepted on feb 11 at 1130am pst
 
Just accepted via e-mail; mucho stoked!
banana[1].gif

Interviewed first week of February. IS LizzyM 76
 
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