2020-2021 University of Southern California (Keck)

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Does anyone here know about the Primary Care Program? Is that something you are supposed to apply for after being accepted into Keck (aka next summer) or is it something you're supposed to submit concurrently with your normal application? The deadline says July 10th, 2020...
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CK1212 said:
As someone who interviewed at Keck last year, I would strongly advise that no one writes a "why Keck?" response. Dean Arias specifically talked to us at the interview about how much she hates that question, and that she knows the real answer is "it's a large research institution in Los Angeles with great weather outside".
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CK1212 said:
Haha swapped apps with someone on Reddit who did this so I thought I'd run here and warn everyone. She also HATES update letters. To quote her "Do not send me an update letter no matter what. If you get published in Cell, I'm very proud of you. Just don't tell me."
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In that case, I'm looking forward to my combined Why Keck-gap year essay getting hit with a pre-II R, but nothing I can do about it now.
 
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lifelong said:
Do you advise against writing a why USC even if you have strong ties to LA and the area? Does putting a gap-year essay seem better?
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I would do gap year or COVID.
 
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katiecat213 said:
In that case, I'm looking forward to my combined Why Keck-gap year essay getting hit with a pre-II R, but nothing I can do about it now.
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I’m sure it won’t be a deal breaker. They did not have that question last cycle from what I remember, or else I would have likely done the same.
 
CK1212 said:
As someone who interviewed at Keck last year, I would strongly advise that no one writes a "why Keck?" response. Dean Arias specifically talked to us at the interview about how much she hates that question, and that she knows the real answer is "it's a large research institution in Los Angeles with great weather outside".
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I wrote one as an OOS applicant and was fine. I had zero connections though so I thought I needed it

YMMV
 
katiecat213 said:
In that case, I'm looking forward to my combined Why Keck-gap year essay getting hit with a pre-II R, but nothing I can do about it now.
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I'm pretty sure that won't get you the pre-II R. But adcoms don't really care for unsolicited 'Why Us' or diversity essays, at least the SDN ones. I feel like the only essay you can get away with is the gap year essay IF you have stuff not already in your AMCAS
 
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Does anyone know if MCAT scores are needed for interviews? I submitted my secondary today, it says my application is complete and under review. I took the MCAT 7/18 and am still waiting for scores.
 
Status changed from complete to complete and under review, o boi
 
woofer23 said:
Anyone having trouble uploading the photo? When I click save it disappears
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This means that the file is larger than 4MB - or whatever the minimum requirement it says on the portal. I had this issue as well. I just cropped the photo and it worked!
 
Hey everyone, I submitted my verified application (with an MCAT score) to Keck on Thursday last week (July 16). Haven't received the secondary from them yet. Totally understand that there might be a delay but just wondering how long I should before getting concerned. Thanks!
 
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Hi Everyone! I'm a 2019-2020 applicant who applied last cycle and was accepted by Keck for delayed matriculation to the class ya'll are applying for now (MD c/o 2025). I will be starting med school at Keck in August of 2021, so hopefully I'll see some of you next year! If anyone has specific questions, please feel free to message me privately. :giggle:

My biggest pieces of advice for the secondary are as follows:
  1. BE GENUINE AND HONEST, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY YOURSELF! These secondary questions are structured such that they give adcomm insight into how you think and who you are as a PERSON, not a pre-med student. Dean Arias is so refreshingly aware of how try hard pre-meds are and she conveys this very strongly during the opening conversation you have with her on interview day. Try your best not to be a try hard pre-med and just be genuine and talk about yourself like you would talk to a friend if they asked you these questions (obviously with formal writing and correct punctuation and grammar).
  2. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. If the prompts say 3-5 sentences, use 3-5 sentences to answer the question. Their secondary app portal does not strictly limit character counts or anything (it will not cut off your responses like other portals do if you go over), but Dean Arias is a huge proponent of following directions lol. You'll see what I'm talking about on the interview day. She specifically says to not send thank you emails or update letters, so I imagine that she would get pretty peeved when people don't follow specifically laid out instructions.
  3. TURN IT IN ASAP!!! Keck has the fastest turn around time I've experienced in terms of how long it takes them to get back to you and tell you whether you've been invited to interview or not. It all turned out for the best in retrospect, but I made the mistake last year of turning my app in later than normal. I turned my secondary for Keck in mid-September and they gave me an interview invitation 4 days later. However, the only days that were available were for the end of January. When I looked back at last year's Keck SDN thread recently, I realized that all the applicants who interviewed past mid-January were placed on the alternate list. Basically, my theory is that by mid-January, they had already over accepted for the class I was applying for, even though they were still conducting interviews. I also think they had meant to accept a lot of us, but people weren't letting go of their spots because of COVID, which is why they have accepted quite a few of us from last cycle for the Keck MD c/o 2025. I know of at least 4 other people who were given this offer. Part of me wonders if I had submitted my secondary app earlier and interviewed earlier, whether I would have been accepted for the class I applied for, but it all worked out so I'm not complaining. I would just strongly suggest you turn in the secondary ASAP.

For those of you who have advanced to the interview stage: You will have two, one hour, one-on-one traditional interviews: one faculty and one student interviewer. The interview is closed file. Your interviewers will know nothing about you aside from your name and what you look like from your picture. What's nice though is that they try to pair you up with interviewers who have similar interests to you or come from a similar background, based on your application. Obviously they start off with the "tell me about yourself" or "tell me about your path to medicine", but after that the conversation pretty much flows naturally. They do have required questions they have to ask you during the interview, but I was honestly not surprised by any of the questions they threw at me and had thought about an answer to all of the questions I was asked while I was prepping for this interview. After your interview, your interviewers will write a one page reflection on their interview experience with you which will be submitted to adcomm and then your entire file will be reviewed with this feedback for a final decision. They got back to me two weeks after I interviewed.

Tips for Prepping for the Interview:
  1. CHECK THE SDN KECK INTERVIEW FEEDBACK FOR QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ASKED IN THE PAST! The interview feedback for Keck on SDN was SO accurate. I practiced what I would say for as many of the questions on this page that I could. I practiced saying them out loud and having a general idea of what I would say for each question without totally memorizing word-for-word what I would say. As a result, I was prepared for EVERY SINGLE QUESTION I was asked during my actual interview. Not being surprised by any of the questions I was asked definitely reduced some of my stress during the interview.
  2. PRACTICE SAYING YOUR RESPONSE TO "TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF" OUT LOUD, MULTIPLE TIMES! Personally, my story is long and I needed to be more concise so that I wasn't rambling and potentially boring the interviewer with the long spiel about myself so writing down what I wanted to say and memorizing the points I wanted to hit for this question really helped me do well on this initial question.
  3. DON'T MEMORIZE YOUR INTERVIEW RESPONSES! While you want to come across as polished and put together, Dean Arias specifically said that the most chilling feedback she could get from an interviewer is "rehearsed responses". Although you need to practice saying things out loud for conciseness and clarity, you should NOT memorize any response word-for-word and the delivery should come across well-spoken but also very natural.

Post Interview:
  • DON'T SEND A THANK YOU EMAIL OR UPDATE LETTER. Seriously, Dean Arias hates these and specifically instructs you not to do it.
  • On or after 4/30, you can send a waitlist letter of intent, which I did and that was the only communication I had with them after the interview. What's nice is that Keck screens so hard for their interviews that, unless you did extremely poorly in the interview, you will either be accepted or placed on the waitlist post-interview. Very rarely do they reject you post-interview without putting you on the waitlist first. After you're on the waitlist, it's not ranked and I'm not sure how they select people from it, but I know your interview plays a huge part in the decision to either accept you or reject you post-interview.

Best of luck to everyone! I hope some of you found this helpful! Please feel free to message me for more specific questions. I don't claim to be an expert or anything, but I am more than happy to share my experience and help you out in any way I can!
 
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TinyGirlBigDreams said:
Hi Everyone! I'm a 2019-2020 applicant who applied once and was accepted by Keck for delayed matriculation into the class ya'll are applying for now (MD c/o 2025). I will be starting med school at Keck in August of 2021, so hopefully I'll see some of you next year! If anyone has specific questions, please feel free to message me privately. :giggle:

My biggest pieces of advice for the secondary are as follows:
  1. BE GENUINE AND HONEST, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY YOURSELF! These secondary questions are structured such that they give adcomm insight into how you think and who you are as a PERSON, not a pre-med student. Dean Arias is so refreshingly aware of how try hard pre-meds are and she conveys this very strongly during the opening conversation you have with her on interview day. Try your best not to be a hard pre-med and just be genuine and talk about yourself like you would talk to a friend if they asked you these questions (obviously with formal writing and correct punctuation and grammar).
  2. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. If the prompts say 3-5 sentences, use 3-5 sentences to answer the question. Their secondary app portal does not strictly limit character counts or anything (it will not cut off your responses like other portals do if you go over), but Dean Arias is a huge proponent of following directions lol. You'll see what I'm talking about on the interview day. She specifically says to not send thank you emails or update letters, so I imagine that she would get pretty peeved when people don't follow specifically laid out instructions.
  3. TURN IT IN ASAP!!! Keck has the fastest turn around time I've experienced in terms of how long it takes them to get back to you and tell you whether you've been invited to interview or not. It all turned out for the best in retrospect, but I made the mistake last year of turning my app in later than normal. I turned my secondary for Keck in mid-September and they gave me an interview invitation 4 days later. However, the only days that were available were for the end of January. When I looked back at last year's Keck SDN thread recently, I realized that all the applicants who interviewed past mid-January were placed on the alternate list. Basically, my theory is that by mid-January, they had already over accepted for the class I was applying for, even though they were still conducting interviews. I also think they had meant to accept a lot of us, but people weren't letting go of their spots because of COVID, which is why they have accepted quite a few of us from last cycle for the Keck MD c/o 2025. I know of at least 4 other people who were given this offer. Part of me wonders if I had submitted my secondary app earlier and interviewed earlier, whether I would have been accepted for the class I applied for, but it all worked out so I'm not complaining. I would just strongly suggest you turn in the secondary ASAP.

For those of you who have advanced to the interview stage: You will have two, one hour, one-on-one traditional interviews: one faculty and one student interviewer. The interview is closed file. Your interviewers will know nothing about you aside from your name and what you look like from your picture. What's nice though is that they try to pair you up with interviewers who have similar interests to you or come from a similar background, based on your application. Obviously they start off with the "tell me about yourself" or "tell me about your path to medicine", but after that the conversation pretty much flows naturally. They do have required questions they have to ask you during the interview, but I was honestly not surprised by any of the questions they threw at me and had thought about an answer to all of the questions I was asked while I was prepping for this interview. After your interview, your interviewers will write a one page reflection on their interview experience with you which will be submitted to adcomm and then your entire file will be reviewed with this feedback for a final decision. They got back to me two weeks after I interviewed.

Tips for Prepping for the Interview:
  1. CHECK THE SDN KECK INTERVIEW FEEDBACK FOR QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ASKED IN THE PAST! The interview feedback for Keck on SDN was SO accurate. I practiced what I would say for as many of the questions on this page that I could. I practiced saying them out loud and having a general idea of what I would say for each question without totally memorizing word-for-word what I would say. As a result, I was prepared for EVERY SINGLE QUESTION I was asked during my actual interview. Not being surprised by any of the questions I was asked definitely reduced some of my stress during the interview.
  2. PRACTICE SAYING YOUR RESPONSE TO "TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF" OUT LOUD, MULTIPLE TIMES! Personally, my story is long and I needed to be more concise so that I wasn't rambling and potentially boring the interviewer with the long spiel about myself so writing down what I wanted to say and memorizing the points I wanted to hit for this question really helped me do well on this initial question.
  3. DON'T MEMORIZE YOUR INTERVIEW RESPONSES! While you want to come across as polished and put together, Dean Arias specifically said that the most chilling feedback she could get from an interviewer is "rehearsed responses". Although you need to practice saying things out loud for conciseness and clarity, you should NOT memorize any response word-for-word and the delivery should come across well-spoken but also very natural.

Post Interview:
  • DON'T SEND A THANK YOU EMAIL OR UPDATE LETTER. Seriously, Dean Arias hates these and specifically instructs you not to do it.
  • On or after 4/30, you can send a waitlist letter of intent, which I did and that was the only communication I had with them after the interview. What's nice is that Keck screens so hard for their interviews that, unless you did extremely poorly in the interview, you will either be accepted or placed on the waitlist post-interview. Very rarely do they reject you post-interview without putting you on the waitlist first. After you're on the waitlist, it's not ranked and I'm not sure how they select people from it, but I know your interview plays a huge part in the decision to either accept you or reject you post-interview.

Best of luck to everyone! I hope some of you found this helpful! Please feel free to message me for more specific questions. I don't claim to be an expert or anything, but I am more than happy to share my experience and help you out in any way I can!
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Any idea when we should expect IIs to start coming out?
 
TinyGirlBigDreams said:
Last year, I got mine 4 days after I submitted the secondary. Literally submitted it September 14 and got an interview invite email on September 18.
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I was complete as of Friday night, but do you think IIs will be delayed due to covid this round?
 
Microtubules said:
Hey everyone, I submitted my verified application (with an MCAT score) to Keck on Thursday last week (July 16). Haven't received the secondary from them yet. Totally understand that there might be a delay but just wondering how long I should before getting concerned. Thanks!
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I'm in exactly the same boat. Submitted on the same day with MCAT and haven't heard back from them yet.
 
PU7832 said:
I was complete as of Friday night, but do you think IIs will be delayed due to covid this round?
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I think she submitted at the point where people were already getting IIs last year. No one has gotten an II yet at any non-Texas MD school so I wouldn't expect a 4 d/similar turnaround.
 
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OymmoC said:
Wow, did she really say that? I'm liking her more and more every day.
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lol she didn't say that she hates them verbatim, but I read between the lines. I can tell that she gets ticked off when people do anyways. She was almost exasperated when she asked us all not to do that lol. From the adcomm perspective, I guess it gives them more to read and more to respond to when they already have enough to read.
 
PU7832 said:
I was complete as of Friday night, but do you think IIs will be delayed due to covid this round?
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asd3166 said:
I'm in exactly the same boat. Submitted on the same day with MCAT and haven't heard back from them yet.
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If you guys are worried that because you haven't heard back already, it means rejection, don't. They don't discriminate and they review them as they come in. My friend got his rejection 3 days after submitting the secondary last July and I got my interview invite 4 days after submitting my secondary.

Things could be delayed because of COVID, but regardless, ya'll need to chill lol. It has literally been 2 business days since you submitted your secondary. Almost every other school you apply to will take 4-6 weeks to get back to you regarding an II. Be patient. You'll probably hear back from Keck this week or next week.
 
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TinyGirlBigDreams said:
lol she didn't say that she hates them verbatim, but I read between the lines. I can tell that she gets ticked off when people do anyways. She was almost exasperated when she asked us all not to do that lol. From the adcomm perspective, I guess it gives them more to read and more to respond to when they already have enough to read.
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As an applicant who is vehemently opposed to adding in extra fluff and the idea of rehearsing/reciting interviews, she honestly seems really cool. Did Keck just become my top choice?
 
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TinyGirlBigDreams said:
If you guys are worried that because you haven't heard back already, it means rejection, don't. They don't discriminate and they review them as they come in. My friend got his rejection 3 days after submitting the secondary last July and I got my interview invite 4 days after submitting my secondary.

Things could be delayed because of COVID, but regardless, ya'll need to chill lol. It has literally been 2 business days since you submitted your secondary. Almost every other school you apply to will take 4-6 weeks to get back to you regarding an II. Be patient. You'll probably hear back from Keck this week or next week.
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I didn't mean for my response to come off as rushed lmao. Just wanted to let @Microtubules he wasn't alone in not hearing back yet.
 
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Does anybody's photo look really blurry when they try to upload it? The photo is really high res on my computer and phone, I just don't know what is happening here. Thanks for the advice
 
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TinyGirlBigDreams said:
If you guys are worried that because you haven't heard back already, it means rejection, don't. They don't discriminate and they review them as they come in. My friend got his rejection 3 days after submitting the secondary last July and I got my interview invite 4 days after submitting my secondary.

Things could be delayed because of COVID, but regardless, ya'll need to chill lol. It has literally been 2 business days since you submitted your secondary. Almost every other school you apply to will take 4-6 weeks to get back to you regarding an II. Be patient. You'll probably hear back from Keck this week or next week.
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Wait so do they not do the silent rejection thing?
 
natalux said:
Wait so do they not do the silent rejection thing?
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No, they're one of the schools that typically does not. You will know their decision pretty soon after you submit, whether that's an interview invite or a rejection. I think because Dr. Arias is so aware of how awful the process to apply to medical school is, she doesn't like to put people through the silent rejection thing. I think they try their best to give everyone an answer in a timely manner, except if you're on the waitlist lol then they can take a bit of time depending on how quickly things move (people letting go of their spots). At that time, it's really outside of their control but once they make a decision even then, they move quickly.
 
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Do they send secondaries to all applicants?
 
Thoughts on leaving the optional essay blank? I see that a 'Why Us' or diversity essay isn't necessarily ideal and I'm still in undergrad so my "upcoming year" essay is pretty much just a re-instatement of the activities from my primary lol
 
TinyGirlBigDreams said:
No, they're one of the schools that typically does not. You will know their decision pretty soon after you submit, whether that's an interview invite or a rejection. I think because Dr. Arias is so aware of how awful the process to apply to medical school is, she doesn't like to put people through the silent rejection thing. I think they try their best to give everyone an answer in a timely manner, except if you're on the waitlist lol then they can take a bit of time depending on how quickly things move (people letting go of their spots). At that time, it's really outside of their control but once they make a decision even then, they move quickly.
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I think they also do pre interview holds without telling you that you're actually on hold. My friend and I both got interview invites in January last year after being complete in July. With that said, if they read your app and they want to reject you, they will likely do it quickly.
 
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Should I reach out if I haven’t gotten a secondary yet or just wait? I submitted 7/17 so I know it hasn’t been that long but I thought they sent to everyone
 
ripmysociallife said:
Should I reach out if I haven’t gotten a secondary yet or just wait? I submitted 7/17 so I know it hasn’t been that long but I thought they sent to everyone
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def don't reach out to them lol. you'll get your secondary soon enough, they get sent out in batches.
 
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chiagoziem96 said:
anyone else not able to login to the portal? the links are broken
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They actually sent out a second one because the first link had issues. Try to log in using the link in the second email they sent.
 
Wow, this is so embarrassing and neurotic of me, but I went back to check my status and noticed that several of the special characters changed after I submitted, so instead of dashes, there are like random question marks in the middle of my responses. They definitely weren't like that before I submitted... is there anything I can do about this? is it worth emailing the school, just so they don't think I didnt proof? yikes
 
beefeedflowermix said:
Wow, this is so embarrassing and neurotic of me, but I went back to check my status and noticed that several of the special characters changed after I submitted, so instead of dashes, there are like random question marks in the middle of my responses. They definitely weren't like that before I submitted... is there anything I can do about this? is it worth emailing the school, just so they don't think I didnt proof? yikes
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i wouldn't email, they probably know the portal does that sometimes. imo this "error" isn't as bad as a typo and plenty of people have gotten Is/As even with minor typos
 
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beefeedflowermix said:
Wow, this is so embarrassing and neurotic of me, but I went back to check my status and noticed that several of the special characters changed after I submitted, so instead of dashes, there are like random question marks in the middle of my responses. They definitely weren't like that before I submitted... is there anything I can do about this? is it worth emailing the school, just so they don't think I didnt proof? yikes
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I don’t think this would be seen as a huge deal, it clearly isn’t just a typo. Just curious, did you copy and paste your responses directly from Word/google docs, or did you convert to plain text first?
 
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garbage2048 said:
I don’t think this would be seen as a huge deal, it clearly isn’t just a typo. Just curious, did you copy and paste your responses directly from Word/google docs, or did you convert to plain text first?
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Well I'm not sure if it's clearly not a typo, thats the thing. It's just showing up as a question mark, not a random box, so it kinda looks like I ended a sentence that's not a question as a question, and then started a new one uncapitalized o_O

Yeah I copy and pasted from grammarly, didn't convert to plain text. I'll make triple sure I do that next time. Although I'm 100% sure the character showed up normally before I saved & submitted
 
OymmoC said:
You should have gotten it. I submitted on 14 and got it morning of 15. You have higher stats than me, if you're u/themicrotubules.

In any case, I wouldn't worry about it much, USC does not screen at all.
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haha yep that's me. Well guess I'll just keep waiting then. Thanks for your response
 
TinyGirlBigDreams said:
If you guys are worried that because you haven't heard back already, it means rejection, don't. They don't discriminate and they review them as they come in. My friend got his rejection 3 days after submitting the secondary last July and I got my interview invite 4 days after submitting my secondary.

Things could be delayed because of COVID, but regardless, ya'll need to chill lol. It has literally been 2 business days since you submitted your secondary. Almost every other school you apply to will take 4-6 weeks to get back to you regarding an II. Be patient. You'll probably hear back from Keck this week or next week.
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asd3166 and I aren't talking about interview invites. We haven't received our secondaries yet and its been over a week since we've turned in our verified primaries with MCAT score.
 
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So what does everyone think about how covid will affect this speedy interview invite turn around time?
 
Do ppl have any idea when dean arias plans on sending out II?
 
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has anyone else still not gotten the secondary? :/ not sure what to do but I don’t believe I would be screened out and was under the impression everyone gets one anyways
 
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ripmysociallife said:
has anyone else still not gotten the secondary? :/ not sure what to do but I don’t believe I would be screened out and was under the impression everyone gets one anyways
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I received a secondary 07/13. Trust me, if I got one with my stats, everyone will get one HAHAH. Give it time!! They don't screen, as far as I'm aware.
 
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ripmysociallife said:
has anyone else still not gotten the secondary? :/ not sure what to do but I don’t believe I would be screened out and was under the impression everyone gets one anyways
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Haven't gotten one either. I might email later this week especially since Keck seemed to run on a fast timeline last cycle.
 
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