Keck Academic and Career Advising

The Office of Student Affairs at the Keck School of Medicine of USC provides a comprehensive, integrated academic and career advising program. In conjunction with the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Careers in Medicine program, faculty and staff advisers provide the resources necessary for students to understand themselves and their career goals, explore the wide variety of career options in medicine, choose a specialty, successfully apply for residency and participate in the Match.

Years One and Two – Understanding Yourself and Exploring Options

Individual appointments  with advising staff are available to help students assess their interests and goals and pursue opportunities to strengthen their future residency applications.

Careers in Medicine workshops introduce students to the AAMC’s Careers in Medicine program and help them explore the many resources available on the CIM website.

Curriculum Vitae workshops help students update their CVs before applying for scholarships or summer opportunities.

Lunchtime career talks, hosted in conjunction with the student interest groups, bring in faculty and residents to answer questions about some of the most popular specialties that our students pursue.

Class advising meetings provide information about career development opportunities during the summer, dual degree programs and structuring third-year coursework to meet students’ career goals.

Years Three and Four – Choosing a Specialty and Getting Into Residency

Intersession programming allows third-year students to meet with advisers from different specialties, learn from the experiences of fourth-year students and gain an understanding of the specialty selection, residency application and match processes.

Clinical faculty advisers are assigned to students in the specialties they plan to pursue. These faculty members are available to answer specialty-specific questions, as well as general queries about the application process. In addition to individual meetings, students have the opportunity to meet with advisers during specialty open houses in January of the third year and during each intersession.

A series of workshops in the spring of the third year and summer of the fourth year introduces students to important information regarding their personal statements, curricula vitae (CVs) and the Electronic Residency Application Service.

Staff advisers in the Office of Student Affairs help students choose courses, review graduation requirements and prepare personal statements, CVs and other application materials.

An Interviewing workshop, led by a panel of residency program directors and residents, helps prepare students before they begin interviewing at residency programs.

A Rank Order List workshop explains how to prepare the list of programs that will be used for the Match.

The Match at Keck

In 2022, 97% of Keck seniors received positions in the Match. The most popular specialties for the Keck Class of 2022 were as follows: Internal Medicine (22%); Psychiatry (10%); Pediatrics (8%); Anesthesiology (7%); Family Medicine (7%); Emergency Medicine (6%); and General Surgery (6%).

Every year, our students tend to prefer life in California, and 122 members of the class of 2022 will pursue all or part of their postgraduate training in state, with 45 training at Los Angeles General Medical Center for at least a year. Also, 46 students will complete at least part of their training out of state, with students matched in 11 other states and the District of Columbia.

Besides Los Angeles General Medical Center, the most popular training sites for 2022 Keck graduates were UCLA Medical Center, Stanford Health Care, UC San Francisco and affiliated hospitals, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, UC Irvine Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, University of Washington Affiliate Hospitals, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, and University of Miami/Jackson Health System.

Read more about Match Day 2022 here.