To Keck Students: Questions about Keck before attending

[threadedair]

I have a few questions about Keck that I want to ask before going to the school. I would really appreciate the help!

1. What exactly is PPM and ICM? I see that on all the schedules. The website also talks about CTR and EBM. What are those also?
2. How is the curriculum?
3. How many hours a week do you spend in lectures, small groups, hospitals, studying, lab, etc.?
4. What made you choose Keck?
5. How do you apply for scholarships and how good is the financial aid? Are spouses and children included in the budget?
6. How far do you live from the school? I heard that around USC is kind of dangerous and people told me not to live walking distance from the school? How hard is it to find housing for a reasonable price?
7. How much time do you have for extracurriculars and other activities?
8. How does the elective/selective part of med school work?
9. How much time do you have for friends, family, working out, and fun?
10. What do you do for fun?
11. Is there a lot of support from faculty and older classes? Is there a mentor system?
12. How friendly and helpful are your classmates?
13. Will we get free parking?
14. How do you go about starting/doing the required scholarly project?
15. You might not know this one but how many students match into their first choice residency?
16. Are you happy at Keck? Are you often stressed? I know med school is stressful but how bad is it?

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[WedgeDawg]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...n-california-keck-application-thread.1134767/

I might direct your questions here. You'll get more targeted responses.

 

[lmn]

If you interviewed or are accepted I would try contacting their admission's office, a lot of schools have lists of current students that signed up to answer questions from prospective students.

 

[threadedair]

Thanks you two!

 

[Bruin45]

.

 

[Apophilius]

1. How do you apply for scholarships and how good is the financial aid? Are spouses and children included in the budget?

financial aid is a joke. Tuition is 60,000 and COL will be at least 20,000. almost no scholarships are available to incoming MS1's. there are scholarships available for upperclassmen but they do not contribute much relative to the high cost of tuition. MD/MPH students get a scholarship for 20k/year I think. There is a rumor that one of my classmates has a full tuition scholarship. Idk if spouse and children are included in the budget.

How does that not scare the living bejeesus out of you? Crunching the numbers, if I end up getting married before residency I'm still ending up paying 540k, living as a resident until 35yo.

Also, looking over the match lists coming out of Keck... why are there like 15+ people matching into PRELIM surgery? Is that just listing prelim positions separately from advanced positions, or are these students who didn't match advanced/categorical?

 

[Apophilius]

Honestly if you are accepted to a cheaper school of comparable quality, you should go to the cheaper school. Keck tuition is insane. If family support is gonna pay for your tuition, attend wherever you like the most!

Hmm what year match list are you looking at? I looked at the 2016 and 2014 one and did not see that many prelim surgery matches. On the match lists I looked at, >75% of the surgery prelim matches noted the student matched into a radiology/urology/etc. residency as well. Sorry I can't post the actual lists, the school wants them to be confidential.

I think that's what it is. The match list I'm looking at just lists the different residencies and their teaching hospitals, and don't pair "Prelim: location 1. Advanced:location 2." They just list "Prelim surgery at Mayo," for example, with no other pairings. That's comforting.

How do they grade? Do they just return your tests P/F? Or do they actually give you a percentage breakdown and let you review your tests?

 

[qw098]

there's a computerized multi choice exam at the end of each block. you get an email with your percentage score within 5 min of finishing the exam, and that is very comforting. We get to review the exam questions and discuss answers with fellow students a few weeks later, but the school does not provide an answer key......so the exam review session is basically a huge room of people asking each other "what did you get for this one? for this?"

the answers to the gross anatomy practical exam are posted the same day at 5pm in the lab. Your official grade for the anatomy practical exam will be posted online 2-4 weeks later.

overall grade for the block is 80% computer exam and 20% anatomy exam. If there was no anatomy component for that block, your grade is based 100% on computer exam. threshold for passing the block is 70%

What % of students or # fail an exam?

 

[threadedair]

How does that not scare the living bejeesus out of you? Crunching the numbers, if I end up getting married before residency I'm still ending up paying 540k, living as a resident until 35yo.

Don't worry, there's financial aid. I have a friend who chose Keck over UCLA because it ended up being cheaper overall with the grants and scholarships she received. I know a lot of people with good financial aid and other Keck students said it's pretty good

 

[threadedair]

ICM is intro to clinical medicine. It is a weekly class where you learn how to take a history, do a physical exam, and you go interview real pts in the hospital. It is very valuable and one of my favorite parts of this school

Thank you! What about the ICM workshops? Are they required?

 

[Apophilius]

Don't worry, there's financial aid. I have a friend who chose Keck over UCLA because it ended up being cheaper overall with the grants and scholarships she received. I know a lot of people with good financial aid and other Keck students said it's pretty good

I know they hand out 6-12 recruitment scholarships every year, and these are usually the Harvard golden children who've been doing huge commitment service work and research since high school. These are shipped out with acceptance packages. Did she have a high-tier acceptance that she forewent for Keck with a recruitment scholarship?

 

[threadedair]

I know they hand out 6-12 recruitment scholarships every year, and these are usually the Harvard golden children who've been doing huge commitment service work and research since high school. These are shipped out with acceptance packages. Did she have a high-tier acceptance that she forewent for Keck with a recruitment scholarship?

I'm not sure, I'll ask. But she wasn't the only one who told me there was good financial aid. I'm also looking outside the school. There are a lot of scholarship websites people take for granted. And some of the scholarships are redistributed after April 30th when people drop.