2021-2022 University of Southern California (Keck)

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Thank you to @MedPath_ and @zekozeko for sharing this year's questions!

2021-2022 University of Southern California (Keck) Secondary Essay Prompts:

Answer the following prompts in 3-5 sentences:

• What is the most fun you’ve had lately?
• If you had to give yourself a nickname, what would it be?
• If you had enormous wealth, how would you allocate your charitable donations?
• Describe a situation in which you didn’t get something you felt you deserved.

Essays

• What do you see as the physician’s role in Public Health? Please answer the question in 150 words or less.
• Optional: Is there anything else you would like us to know? If yes, please answer the question in 200 words or less.

Good luck to everyone applying!

***To see the additional MD/PhD questions, go here: #30

Interview feedback:
https://www.studentdoctor.net/schools/school/usc-keck/1/university-of-southern-california-keck-school-of-medicine
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Last edited:
Is Keck not OOS friendly? I know that it is a private school but looking at last year's II tracker it seems that almost all the II's given out were to students who are from CA...
 
captpremed said:
Is Keck not OOS friendly? I know that it is a private school but looking at last year's II tracker it seems that almost all the II's given out were to students who are from CA...
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You're not imagining things. CA is just a really tough nut to crack from OOS. Yes, Keck is a private school, and yet is MORE OOS hostile than UCSF or UCLA. This likely has something to do with the UC's T10 rankings, but still.

To directly answer your question, Keck receives roughly the same number of IS and OOS applications, but interviews around 3x more IS than OOS.
 
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captpremed said:
I see...that kinda sucks but thank you for your answer
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Yeah, I have been thinking long and hard about it for a while now. While the CA schools are truly awesome, the risk/reward just wasn't there for me and I decided to spend my time and money elsewhere. Same for Texas. Good luck to you!
 
krazykluckin321 said:
can you post the prompts please?
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Exact same as last year!


Answer the following prompts in 3-5 sentences:

• What is the most fun you’ve had lately?
• If you had to give yourself a nickname, what would it be?
• If you had enormous wealth, how would you allocate your charitable donations?
• Describe a situation in which you didn’t get something you felt you deserved.

Essays

• What do you see as the physician’s role in Public Health? Please answer the question in 150 words or less.
• Optional: Is there anything else you would like us to know? If yes, please answer the question in 200 words or less.
 
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2021-2022-NonTrad said:
Does Keck pre screen? Odd to have so few reports
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I just did a quick search - their website says that they do not screen, but looking at school-specific SDN threads from years past it seems like they can be a little slow getting the secondary out to all applicants at once. It's only a couple of days past when AMCAS was transmitted, so hopefully more people will receive theirs soon! I'm sure there are also tons of people who have gotten their secondary but haven't posted about it. Good luck!!
 
maybe there was an influx of people this year who submitted on the first day, so schools are still slowly sending everything out. i submitted third day and still havent gotten anything from keck
 
2021-2022-NonTrad said:
Submitted first day, high stats OOS, haven’t gotten anything either.
Click to expand...

From last years thread, it looks like secondaries were sent in waves. There were people weeks out who had not received one who got one later on. It looked like the second wave was sent about a month after the first, but of course COVID probably changed things a bit. So we just need to hold tight!
 
Macro_Corneaphage said:
From last years thread, it looks like secondaries were sent in waves. There were people weeks out who had not received one who got one later on. It looked like the second wave was sent about a month after the first, but of course COVID probably changed things a bit. So we just need to hold tight!
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a month :0 i wasn't anticipating it to be that long!
 
Throwawayaccount777 said:
a month :0 i wasn't anticipating it to be that long!
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If you think this is long, I suggest you take a look at the WL support thread. The entire cycle is a never ending series of hurry up and wait moments. 🙂

I beg you not to stress about this. Just like submitting a primary at 9:31 a.m. on 5/27 did not confer an advantage over anyone who submitted within the following week, so too will being the first person to be marked complete not confer an advantage over those who have to wait a month to receive a secondary. The schools know exactly what they are doing, they will select the candidates they want, and it's really not a race, just like being the first person to board a plane doesn't get you to a destination any faster than anyone else on the plane. 🙂
 
So is there a general consensus if the screen here is purely algorithmic or does an admissions officer take a brief look at applications before sending secondaries?
 
RelevantBeing1 said:
Lol they didn't know who they were playing with when they said 3-5 sentences.... 200 words in 5 sentences here we come baby! They have no idea how much power I can pack into 5 sentences without a word count yeehaw
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You joke, but I clocked an 86 word sentence on Hopkins with 4 different kinds of punctuation. Need to be proud of these personal victories.
 
does having ties to the school (faculty mentor/publishing a paper with a professor) make a big difference during the admissions process?
 
namaste2022 said:
does having ties to the school (faculty mentor/publishing a paper with a professor) make a big difference during the admissions process?
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Interested to know as well, as I feel they wouldn’t have asked a half dozen questions about connections if it didn’t matter...
 
2021-2022-NonTrad said:
You joke, but I clocked an 86 word sentence on Hopkins with 4 different kinds of punctuation. Need to be proud of these personal victories.
Click to expand...
Looooool this makes me feel validated. Almost every sentence on my USC secondary has at least high-40s word counts, with most being in the 50s. One is a 60-word sentence... it used to be even worse before doing some editing.
 
What are you guys doing for the optional prompt? Some sort of why USC answer?
 
Hi everyone, need some advice here. I am finished with writing the secondary essays but not sure what to do about the three letters of recommendation. My PI is writing me a letter but won't be done until the end of July. I have three other letters I can use, but I have known my PI for a while now and her letter would be strong. Would it be better to submit early with the three other letters or wait until the end of July to submit the PI letter?
 
dancer24 said:
Hi everyone, need some advice here. I am finished with writing the secondary essays but not sure what to do about the three letters of recommendation. My PI is writing me a letter but won't be done until the end of July. I have three other letters I can use, but I have known my PI for a while now and her letter would be strong. Would it be better to submit early with the three other letters or wait until the end of July to submit the PI letter?
Click to expand...
While there is some value in being early, late July is by no means late. I would put forward the best app you can, even if it takes a couple extra weeks. I would also push you PI to try to knock it out, its really not that hard to write a LOR in a couple afternoons if they prioritize it.
 
Have you previously applied to medical school (M.D. , D.O., international)? Given us your insights from this experience.

What are they aiming for? How we improved following our unsuccessful cycle (i.e. began working in research) or do they want us to talk about what went wrong during our previous cycle?
 
futuretrashwoman said:
Have you previously applied to medical school (M.D. , D.O., international)? Given us your insights from this experience.

What are they aiming for? How we improved following our unsuccessful cycle (i.e. began working in research) or do they want us to talk about what went wrong during our previous cycle?
Click to expand...
Did a little bit of both. Said what I thought went wrong and then said what I have done to remedy it
 
is everyone directly answering the "physician's role in public health" generally, or are you all tying in your own experiences? I feel like speaking generally directly answers the question, but it also sounds slightly generic.
 
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