2024-2025 South Carolina - Columbia

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Mangosmoothie123 said:
As a current M1, I'll try my best to answer this.

1. Yes. And the first year, it's a points system so you can fail an exam and it's 100% okay. You just have a passing grade at the end of the semester. If you fail a module, the anatomy professor will offer extra tutoring sessions, which will be available for you for the rest of the semester, even if you pass the next modules. However, if you get a 70 in the module instead of a 69, she will not let you in. You have to fail it.
2. All anatomy/histology/embryology classes are required in the first semester. I will say that most people enjoy them being required, me included. The "How to be a doctor class" lectures are mandatory 70% of the time. The stats lectures have 3 required lectures. The M2's tell us that there are not that many required classes second semester, but there are a lot more in M2 year (Although still less than the M1 first semester).
3. Technically it's called "Smart casual" and we just found out last week that it's mandatory for second semester. Most of the class is pretty bummed about it, so we'll see if there's somehow enough push-back to stop it or if the teachers next semester will even care. A plain t-shirt (has to be plain, no words/no designs/no nothing) and khaki shorts fit the bill for class under smart casual but would not fit under business casual, for example. There will also be days you have to dress business professional for lecture. This will be when physicians come and speak or any time you have to deal with standardized patients.
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Thank you so so much!! I really appreciate the insights!!
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Anyone know when they accept letters of intent? Not sure if I am just being neurotic, I’m OOS and on the post-II WL. USC is my #1
 
Anyone know how likely it is for them to offer you admission during the interview period if you are "under active consideration"? Or is this pretty much just a sure shot that you're going on the waitlist in April?
 
awesomefishes said:
Anyone know how likely it is for them to offer you admission during the interview period if you are "under active consideration"? Or is this pretty much just a sure shot that you're going on the waitlist in April?
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my understanding is that it serves as pre WL - according to the convo I had with the dean of admission on admitted/active consideration visit day.
 
futuresportsmed said:
my understanding is that it serves as pre WL - according to the convo I had with the dean of admission on admitted/active consideration visit day.
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I don’t understand, how the email is worded it sounds like the “active under consideration” was the waitlist?
 
BigSneed said:
I don’t understand, how the email is worded it sounds like the “active under consideration” was the waitlist?
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Could be wrong but I believe there is no "waitlist" yet as that occurs april 30th or whenever the CYMS thing opens. Everything before that is deferred an then after april 30th, whatever was essentially a waitlist before now officially becomes the waitlist for the school.
 
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Does anyone have any information regarding the average number of people on the waitlist each year and how much movement there is generally?
 
OOS middle third of the WL
I have a hard time believing that half the class would come from the WL but that's what it says in the AAMC data. Has anyone verified this with the admissions staff by chance?
 
forthejoy5 said:
OOS middle third of the WL
I have a hard time believing that half the class would come from the WL but that's what it says in the AAMC data. Has anyone verified this with the admissions staff by chance?
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USC columbia is known to be the least preferred medical school in SC. So it is possible they have a high waitlist turnover when others get accepted to other places
 
I’m assuming they replace 1 IS person with another IS person from the waitlist and then the same if an OOS spot opens up they’ll pull from the OOS WL, but I’m curious to know whether the IS or OOS WL has moved faster in previous years.

Also, does anyone know the absolute latest date that USC would accept someone off of the waitlist?
 
banana914 said:
I’m assuming they replace 1 IS person with another IS person from the waitlist and then the same if an OOS spot opens up they’ll pull from the OOS WL, but I’m curious to know whether the IS or OOS WL has moved faster in previous years.

Also, does anyone know the absolute latest date that USC would accept someone off of the waitlist?
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According to MSAR, the latest date an acceptance notification can be sent is July 7th, 2025
 
Hey current M1 here who was middle third of the OOS waitlist last year at this time (LM 72 for you neurotic people who will want to know lol). I got the call in the middle of May and I know some of my classmates didn't get it until like mid/early June. It's definitely stressful being on the waitlist at this point in the cycle but there are still a lot of As to go out from both this school and others. Feel free to reach out with questions.

Also, if you are waitlisted you will 99.9% not hear back until very late April/early May at the soonest
 
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thaidakar said:
Hey current M1 here who was middle third of the OOS waitlist last year at this time (LM 72 for you neurotic people who will want to know lol). I got the call in the middle of May and I know some of my classmates didn't get it until like mid/early June. It's definitely stressful being on the waitlist at this point in the cycle but there are still a lot of As to go out from both this school and others. Feel free to reach out with questions.

Also, if you are waitlisted you will 99.9% not hear back until very late April/early May at the soonest
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This is super helpful! Thank you for the info! Do you by chance know if they ever touch the bottom third of the waitlist? Trying to get a better idea of my chances :’)
 
banana914 said:
This is super helpful! Thank you for the info! Do you by chance know if they ever touch the bottom third of the waitlist? Trying to get a better idea of my chances :’)
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Unfortunately not sure but a friend of mine got off the middle third in early/mid-June so I would guess they don't get there until later in the cycle. This probably varies year to year so don't take it as an absolute.
 
Current M1. I was middle third IS and I got the call May 1st. I would not doubt that half the class is from the waitlist.

Our school is better anyway, we don't have ranked preclinicals, leading to significantly less stress and being able to spend more time on padding your CV.

And for why there isn't a Facebook page or anything yet, the application to get that position is due tonight.
 
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Mangosmoothie123 said:
Current M1. I was middle third IS and I got the call May 1st. I would not doubt that half the class is from the waitlist.

Our school is better anyway, we don't have ranked preclinicals, leading to significantly less stress and being able to spend more time on padding your CV.

And for why there isn't a Facebook page or anything yet, the application to get that position is due tonight.
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Wondering if you would be willing to answer the following to help with my decision process:
  1. How are classes, are they all in person? What is the attendance policy?
  2. What does your schedule look like for year 1?
  3. What can you share about years 2,3, and 4?
  4. Where are sent for clinical rotations?\
  5. How accessible are professors?
  6. How is housing in the area?
Thank you!
 
MedSchool2029 said:
Wondering if you would be willing to answer the following to help with my decision process:
  1. How are classes, are they all in person? What is the attendance policy?
  2. What does your schedule look like for year 1?
  3. What can you share about years 2,3, and 4?
  4. Where are sent for clinical rotations?\
  5. How accessible are professors?
  6. How is housing in the area?
Thank you!
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1. For first semester, they are all mandatory, and it's pretty much 8am-12pm most days and sometimes even longer. First semester is Embryology, Histology, and Anatomy, and they are honestly not that bad. You will have 2 tests and your lab practical all on the same day. So 8am-9:15am for practical, or like 9:45am-11am practical (It rotates, so last names A-L will be one group and M-Z will be the other and you swap times every module.) Then you all take the written exam at 1pm, split into an Anatomy exam that's like 12% Embryology, and then a Histology exam. The practical, Anatomy/Embryology, and histology exams are then averaged, which is your module grade. You are allowed to fail modules. As long as you have a passing grade by the end of the semester, you're perfectly fine. There is also your introduction to clinical medicine class which and your statistics class. The statistics class is a complete joke and is not worth worrying about in the slightest. The Clinical Medicine class is really annoying first semester.

Note: There's also going to be a lot of time spent in anatomy lab, which is not mandatory, but will be necessary if you want to do well.

Note 2: Your lab table will be 8 or 9 people split into 4 groups. Lab partners are randomly assigned, and you will have an opposite sex lab partner as the demographics allow. We had a class of 42 guys & 58 girls so some of the girls had to partner up. You rotate dissecitng, so for example, in our MSK Module, Group C dissected upper arm, Group D dissected lower arm and hand, Group A dissected upper leg and butt, and Group B dissected lower leg and foot. Since these are all bilateral, you get your own side, except for the 4 tables that will have a group of 3 for one of their groups (Unfortunately, 100 isn't divided evenly by 8).

For second semester, we only have Physiology and Biochemistry as our main courses. It's honestly been much more stressful for me, and I'd wager for most of the students. However, there are almost no mandatory classes except for our introduction to clinical medicine classes, which is usually twice a week. The majority of the students still attend Physiology lecture. In contrast, they have discontinued biochemistry lectures being in-person due to extremely low turnout over the years, so those lectures are all prerecorded.

2. Feel like I mostly answered this with the previous question.

3. This is the schedule for years 2-4: https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schoo...t_information/2025-2026_academic_calendar.pdf

I can only say that M2 year has more mandatory classes than 2nd semester M1, M2s have complained about that quite a bit. M2s also have quizzes that make sure they're keeping up with the material, while M1 doesn't have any quizzes.

4. Clinical rotations are mostly done through Prisma, at least to my knowledge, but I would not be surprised if there were rotations at some of the MUSC locations. The other option is that there is a Florence Regional Program where your rotations will be done at McLeod and the MUSC location in Florence. They give a $7500 yearly stipend (Only in the years you're in Florence) if you do Florence. If you commit, you have to do it for M3 with an optional choice of also doing it for M4.

5. The professors are accessible if you email to meet with them. If you are not doing well, there are extra tutoring sessions offered both during anatomy, but also during physiology. It is highly recommended to participate in those when offered. The professors really do want everyone to pass.

6. Housing is fine, no roommates is probably gonna cost at least $1300 but will probably be more. Most people in our class live relatively close to campus. Creekside Apartments, Hampton Courts, Hampton Greene, or Devine Street in Shandon are some of the more popular options. Living in the same place as people, even if you are not living with them, is nice as it means you can uber together with other people to save money if you plan to have a fun night out.


I also want to say that I enjoyed mandatory class. It's not as big as a negative as it feels. It really helps you mend together as a class. However, if you don't care about that aspect at all, which tbh, I'd say 20% of my class doesn't, then yeah maybe it's a fault against the school.





Hope this helped and I hope to see you all next year!
 
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