USC 2009-2010 Applicants

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
just got my invite as well!!! see you guys there :)
Members don't see this ad.
 
lxh0131 said:
I got one too! The only thing was I was hoping for a January spot. Do you think I will be able to select a different interview date?
Click to expand...

was wondering why you want to postpone your interview?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Anyone NOT get invited? I am getting worried.
 
just got my interview invite today for nov. 21!! @ 9am.
 
prepharmdude said:
was wondering why you want to postpone your interview?
Click to expand...
I just have a lot of stuff going on.. I don't think I'll be rescheduling after all. It looks like they only do it under extreme circumstances.
 
Teva said:
Anyone NOT get invited? I am getting worried.
Click to expand...


I just called USC and the lady said all November invitations were emailed out yesterday......
really upset right now, feels like a rejection......
 
Last edited:
trackstarPharm said:
I just called USC and the lady said all November invitations were emailed out yesterday......
really upset right now, feels like a rejection......
Click to expand...

When did you send out your applications?? Maybe those who got the applications were early applicants? Hopefully we will be in the second round.:oops: * Still hopefully waiting *
 
HOOSIERx said:
FIGHT ON!!!

got the 11:40 am interview

any idea as to how many get interviews/get accepted?
Click to expand...

Estimated number interviewed for fall 2009 Entering Class:
460
• Estimated number accepted:
240
• Estimated fall 2009 entering class size including early assurance & transfer seats:
190



I got accepted off the waitlist in May after a November interview (don't worry if you don't get a November interview, many people who interviewed after me were accepted before I was!)
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I'm just curious when everyone submitted their applications. I thought I submitted mine pretty late (Aug 25th?) for the supplemental.
 
arcticrevolver said:
I'm just curious when everyone submitted their applications. I thought I submitted mine pretty late (Aug 25th?) for the supplemental.
Click to expand...
I submitted my supplemental the first week of September. I really didn't think this was early, but I guess it was early enough.

Does anyone know how many applicants they accept in each interview spot? I think I heard it was 40, but I'm not sure.
 
50 is a pretty good number, I think they interview about 100 each interview date. So 50/50 chance? Hopefully all goes well. :D
 
Anyone know when the next interview is? After the one in November?
 
Wow. I guess we won't be expecting any more interview invites then till end of December the latest huh?
 
Hey guys! I need some advice. I also got an invitation for an interview on November 21st, however, this date happens to be my sister's wedding date as well. This date has been set since well over a year ago and I was really hoping to get a different interview date. I understand that they only offer re-scheduling under medical circumstances, but I only have one sister that is only going to get married once in her lifetime and I am her maid of honor. It would break her heart if I missed it. I live in Canada, so to fly there and back in one day would be impossible. Any advice???

Thanks :)
 
Teva said:
When did you send out your applications?? Maybe those who got the applications were early applicants? Hopefully we will be in the second round.:oops: * Still hopefully waiting *
Click to expand...

I submitted mine in the beginning of September, got my checklist on 9/30, still have not gotten the lack letter ( hopefully that's why they didn't invite me for the November interview........)
 
pharmgirl77 said:
Hey guys! I need some advice. I also got an invitation for an interview on November 21st, however, this date happens to be my sister's wedding date as well. This date has been set since well over a year ago and I was really hoping to get a different interview date. I understand that they only offer re-scheduling under medical circumstances, but I only have one sister that is only going to get married once in her lifetime and I am her maid of honor. It would break her heart if I missed it. I live in Canada, so to fly there and back in one day would be impossible. Any advice???

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

We had an actual admissions person from USC come in to our pre-pharm meeting. He told us about sister's wedding, etc. He said they dont re-schedule since the dates were posted long ago, and to keep them open. You can try and speak to the office, but I am pretty sure they cannot do it.
 
I also got a spot in 11/21 at 9:35AM. However, one of my coworker (a 3rd year pharmacy student) told me that besides things (GPA, pharmacy knowledge...) that all pharmacy schools consider, the chance that USC accepts someone is highly depends on their (family/self) economis status. This freaks me out so I just want to ask if anyone know anything about it????
 
thienhan said:
I also got a spot in 11/21 at 9:35AM. However, one of my coworker (a 3rd year pharmacy student) told me that besides things (GPA, pharmacy knowledge...) that all pharmacy schools consider, the chance that USC accepts someone is highly depends on their (family/self) economis status. This freaks me out so I just want to ask if anyone know anything about it????
Click to expand...

Wait so economic status as in...they reject you if you're poor? or do they reject you if you are rich?
 
thienhan said:
I also got a spot in 11/21 at 9:35AM. However, one of my coworker (a 3rd year pharmacy student) told me that besides things (GPA, pharmacy knowledge...) that all pharmacy schools consider, the chance that USC accepts someone is highly depends on their (family/self) economis status. This freaks me out so I just want to ask if anyone know anything about it????
Click to expand...

Does your coworker go to USC? Yes, many people who attend USC tend to be well-off, but I highly doubt they will reject people because they're not rich enough.. and how do they even know about your financial status before they accept you, anyway?
 
No, she is from Loma Linda. However, most of her friends go to USC, so, she is pretty sharp about it.
About the financial status, I think what she meant is that if 2 people have the same chance to get into USC, the one with better financial status will most likely get accepted; it doesn't mean that they will kick you out just because you are poor eventhough you do an excellent job in interview.
Still, I'm worried about it... So, just want to have more information on this issue!
By the way, I did some researches on their interview questions and it seemed that they would ask a lot reagarding the current trend in pharmacy; their possitive/negative aspects.
About pharmacy trend, I think that pharmacist now is more and more into clinical, kind of patient's medication advocate. This lead to one of the negative aspect since most of retailing pharmacy, with a high volume of patient, pharmacists are only allowed a certain amount of time with one patient (5 minutes max, I guess). With such a short time period, sometimes, pharmacists could not fully explain to patient all the side effects and other stuffs. The other difficulty of pharmacist when explaining to patient is that sometimes, the term is really technical.
For all the things that I mentioned above, it's still trendy for pharmacy; however, I wouldn't say that it really new since I saw it in another paper like 5 year ago. But besides this, I did not have much of other stuff to say. Anyone have better idea about this? Please HELP ME! Thank you very much!
 
thienhan said:
No, she is from Loma Linda. However, most of her friends go to USC, so, she is pretty sharp about it.
About the financial status, I think what she meant is that if 2 people have the same chance to get into USC, the one with better financial status will most likely get accepted; it doesn't mean that they will kick you out just because you are poor eventhough you do an excellent job in interview.
Still, I'm worried about it... So, just want to have more information on this issue!
Click to expand...

but how would they know which one has the better financial status?
 
Haleyzx said:
but how would they know which one has the better financial status?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. Seems next to impossible for them to have that type of information in front of them. Nothing financially related has been submitted to the school either, so they would not be able to tell.
 
thienhan said:
I also got a spot in 11/21 at 9:35AM. However, one of my coworker (a 3rd year pharmacy student) told me that besides things (GPA, pharmacy knowledge...) that all pharmacy schools consider, the chance that USC accepts someone is highly depends on their (family/self) economis status. This freaks me out so I just want to ask if anyone know anything about it????
Click to expand...

I don't know who this person is but they seem to be misinformed based on my experience. Not very many people who are accepted can afford to go, so family/economic status has very little to do with it. Quite frankly, over 1/2 the people initially accepted will have been accepted before FAFSA is due, so they'll have no indication of economic status anyway. I wouldn't freak out about the economics side of it (at least not in terms of its affect on an acceptance.)
 
Does anyone know the format of the USC interview day? I find it interesting that people are getting different time slots on 11/21. From talking to people about the interview process in previous years, the interview day started at the same time for everyone.
 
ResearchPharmD said:
Does anyone know the format of the USC interview day? I find it interesting that people are getting different time slots on 11/21. From talking to people about the interview process in previous years, the interview day started at the same time for everyone.
Click to expand...


Last year the times slot were also different. They interview in batches. As for the format.. You first talk to some USC students, then you interview, followed by a writing portion and Q & A with 3rd and 4th year students (optional).
 
NSAID01 said:
Last year the times slot were also different. They interview in batches. As for the format.. You first talk to some USC students, then you interview, followed by a writing portion and Q & A with 3rd and 4th year students (optional).
Click to expand...

Yeah, usually you'll be in the lobby until your interview time. There will be students in the lobby to help break the ice, give some pointers, settle nerves, etc.
Next, you'll go into a room with Jim Granderson, Director of Student Affairs (guy that sorts all your application materials, so be nice :))
That'll take ~30 min
Then, you interview (1 faculty interviewer, 1 student interviewer) for 20 minutes.
Next is the writing sample. (I think 15 minutes to read, 10 to write, something like that.)
Then the Q&A session.
Overall the interview process takes ~2 hours if you stay for the Q&A.
It's usually staggered so that each pair of interviewers sees 5 interviewees.
 
Farmercyst said:
Yeah, usually you'll be in the lobby until your interview time. There will be students in the lobby to help break the ice, give some pointers, settle nerves, etc.
Next, you'll go into a room with Jim Granderson, Director of Student Affairs (guy that sorts all your application materials, so be nice :))
That'll take ~30 min
Then, you interview (1 faculty interviewer, 1 student interviewer) for 20 minutes.
Next is the writing sample. (I think 15 minutes to read, 10 to write, something like that.)
Then the Q&A session.
Overall the interview process takes ~2 hours if you stay for the Q&A.
It's usually staggered so that each pair of interviewers sees 5 interviewees.
Click to expand...


Thanks! Do you recommend staying for the Q&A? Is it appropriate to leave in the middle of the Q&A as well?
 
Farmercyst and NSAID01,

Thanks for the information. Farmercyst, if you are a current student at USC, can you give me your perspective on the type of pharmacists that USC aims to produce? Is there more emphasis in training researchers, clinicians, or community pharmacists? It would be nice to have a student's perspective on this question. Thanks.
 
ResearchPharmD said:
Farmercyst and NSAID01,

Thanks for the information. Farmercyst, if you are a current student at USC, can you give me your perspective on the type of pharmacists that USC aims to produce? Is there more emphasis in training researchers, clinicians, or community pharmacists? It would be nice to have a student's perspective on this question. Thanks.
Click to expand...

USC's emphasis is on graduating clinically minded pharmacists regardless of field. Essentially they want you to be able to relate to pharmaceuticals from one end (R&D) to the other (patient care). We have instructors from industry, hospital, academia, etc each bringing their own slant to how they see pharmacy, but the one unifying theme is clincally-minded pharmacy practice. If a rate-limiting step in a biological process is here, what could you develop to manipulate it? What about feedback mechanisms? How could you make it better? What adverse effects could be expected? (Z would add, "How much does it cost?") How would it affect patient care? How would you explain it to your patient? Any one of a number of possible scenarios can be prepared for if you look at your drugs from different angles depending on where you are in the chain and I feel USC tries to provide those different perspectives.
 
Farmercyst said:
USC's emphasis is on graduating clinically minded pharmacists regardless of field. Essentially they want you to be able to relate to pharmaceuticals from one end (R&D) to the other (patient care). We have instructors from industry, hospital, academia, etc each bringing their own slant to how they see pharmacy, but the one unifying theme is clincally-minded pharmacy practice. If a rate-limiting step in a biological process is here, what could you develop to manipulate it? What about feedback mechanisms? How could you make it better? What adverse effects could be expected? (Z would add, "How much does it cost?") How would it affect patient care? How would you explain it to your patient? Any one of a number of possible scenarios can be prepared for if you look at your drugs from different angles depending on where you are in the chain and I feel USC tries to provide those different perspectives.
Click to expand...


wow, thanks, that was very informative. How was ur interview? was it intense or more informal flow like a conversation?
 
Thank you for all of your input farmercyst, its very much appreciated!
 
Yes, thanks farmercyst! Are you going to be conducting interviews again this year?
 
kha8 said:
wow, thanks, that was very informative. How was ur interview? was it intense or more informal flow like a conversation?
Click to expand...

Mine was pretty relaxed. Pretty much Q&A the whole way though, not much side conversation.
The interviews I've done have been primarily dependent on the Faculty interviewer I'm given for the day. 2 were very relaxed, some side conversation. The other was a little more direct. Question, then answer, then next question. Not necessarily "grilling" the applicant, but not leaving much room between questions to think about much else. It was definitely more efficient, but I don't think as relaxing. Which I'm not sure which is better. I've gone over the 20 minute limit a couple of times, but I think I get a better feel of the applicant that way.

And yes, I'll be interviewing again this year.
 
Farmercyst said:
Mine was pretty relaxed. Pretty much Q&A the whole way though, not much side conversation.
The interviews I've done have been primarily dependent on the Faculty interviewer I'm given for the day. 2 were very relaxed, some side conversation. The other was a little more direct. Question, then answer, then next question. Not necessarily "grilling" the applicant, but not leaving much room between questions to think about much else. It was definitely more efficient, but I don't think as relaxing. Which I'm not sure which is better. I've gone over the 20 minute limit a couple of times, but I think I get a better feel of the applicant that way.

And yes, I'll be interviewing again this year.
Click to expand...


ohh thats cool, are you gonna be interviewing on 11/21st? how is the interview formatted, 2 faculty and a student?
 
Last edited:
USC's emphasis is on graduating clinically minded pharmacists regardless of field. Essentially they want you to be able to relate to pharmaceuticals from one end (R&D) to the other (patient care). We have instructors from industry, hospital, academia, etc each bringing their own slant to how they see pharmacy, but the one unifying theme is clincally-minded pharmacy practice. If a rate-limiting step in a biological process is here, what could you develop to manipulate it? What about feedback mechanisms? How could you make it better? What adverse effects could be expected? (Z would add, "How much does it cost?") How would it affect patient care? How would you explain it to your patient? Any one of a number of possible scenarios can be prepared for if you look at your drugs from different angles depending on where you are in the chain and I feel USC tries to provide those different perspectives.
Yeah, usually you'll be in the lobby until your interview time. There will be students in the lobby to help break the ice, give some pointers, settle nerves, etc.
Next, you'll go into a room with Jim Granderson, Director of Student Affairs (guy that sorts all your application materials, so be nice :))
That'll take ~30 min
Then, you interview (1 faculty interviewer, 1 student interviewer) for 20 minutes.
Next is the writing sample. (I think 15 minutes to read, 10 to write, something like that.)
Then the Q&A session.
Overall the interview process takes ~2 hours if you stay for the Q&A.
It's usually staggered so that each pair of interviewers sees 5 interviewees.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the questions and answers. They clear out a lot of questions in my mind! :)
 
does anyone know if the interview is open or closed file? if open file, does this mean the interviewers have access to everything in our file (app, resume, supp, ps)?
 
If I remember correctly, I think it's open file.
 
So I'm basically done with the USC Supplemental but have a question on something. Nowhere so far have I seen a place to tell them which two of my three references they should read. Am I supposed to do this somewhere? Also, at the end of the supplemental, is there something to mail in, or is that all online? My transcripts have already been sent. Thanks.
 
lxh0131 said:
does anyone know if the interview is open or closed file? if open file, does this mean the interviewers have access to everything in our file (app, resume, supp, ps)?
Click to expand...

The interviewers only have access to your supplemental PS. Not the pharmCAS one, but the one that seemed redundant since you already submitted one to PharmCAS.;)

So it's not truly open, but it's not entirely closed.
We don't have access to your GPA, academic history, extracurriculars, etc unless you put it in that essay. It does bring up some interesting background to the interviewees and I always have fun reading them. I wouldn't suggest putting GPA in there since your interviewers probably will assume if it was poor you wouldn't have gotten the interview, and I personally don't care how high it is. But mentioning some of your ECs, especially if it's out of the ordinary, kind of helps make you stand out and gives us something to ask you about outside of the outline of questions we are given. A word of caution, don't mention anything you're not prepared to be asked about. Since today is the last day submit, this information really should be geared to next year's applicants, but it might be good for you all to know.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

Ninejays
  • Poll
UF vs USC Pharmacy
Replies
11
Views
3K
rxkrafted
R
S
UOP vs UCSF vs USC Pharmacy School
Replies
46
Views
11K
PharmtoCS
P
Z
UCSD and USC Pharmacy Accepted Stats and Activities?
Replies
3
Views
2K
Marzapan
M
D
  • Poll
Western University vs USC Pharmacy School
Replies
8
Views
3K
zona2016
Z
S
USC vs UCSF (and other CA Schools)
Replies
23
Views
3K
Chem7
C
Top