FAQs



Answer: All applicants must do two things:
  1. Apply to the Keck School of Medicine of USC Student Affairs using https://students-residents.aamc.org/visiting-student-learning-opportunities/visiting-student-learning-opportunities-1.
  2. Students who wish to rotate during our July through November period must also complete our online application form via the following link: https://forms.gle/xrkoWefYAWnWxKVAA

Answer: Due to the structure of our clerkship, we are unable to accommodate off-cycle start dates or shortened rotation periods.

Answer: Yes, we have had many Osteopathic rotators as well as many Osteopathic residents and chief residents.

Answer: No. We unfortunately require USMLE scores.

Answer: International students must be enrolled in a medical school that meets one of the following:
  1. Participate in the Global Health Learning Opportunities (GHLO) Collaborative.
  2. Have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Click here.

Answer: We provide a SLOE for all rotators on our Emergency Medicine Clerkship. Additionally, the ultrasound division will provide a letter of recommendation to those students who complete a four-week rotation.

Answer: Yes and no. We interview all rotators that rotate on our Emergency Medicine rotation. We have a formal interview day during the last week of the rotation. Students on our Peds EM and Ultrasound rotations will be considered for an interview like all other applicants who apply to our program through ERAS.

Answer: We unfortunately do not have the ability to provide housing for visiting medical students.

Answer: The work hours for our PGY1-3 residents are at or below average weekly work hours for other 4-year programs.  The work hours for our PGY4 residents are below the average for many other programs.

Answer: Our graduates are well positioned to choose careers in all potential practice settings. While many of our graduates have chosen to pursue private practice, many of our residents have chosen advanced training as well as directly entered academic practice.

In recent years have seen graduates pursue fellowship training in Peds EM, EMS, Medical Education, Ultrasound, International, Wilderness Medicine and Research.

Our residency program has over 600 graduates and they work all over the United States and the world providing a huge alumni network. While the majority of our graduates choose to stay in California we have graduates working in other states such as Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington DC, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Illinois, as well as internationally in Canada, Guyana, Burundi, New Zealand, Bermuda, UK, and Italy. Just because you train in California doesn’t mean you have to stay here! Your training, your reputation as a graduate, and our alumni network can help you to make your career what you want.

Answer: We do not have a specific USMLE “cutoff” for applicants. Our system for application review is designed to take in the entirety of the application and not a single score in isolation.

Answer: Rotating at our program is not required for consideration for our program. Although we do extend interviews to all students completing a 4-week rotation, a significant portion of our interview slots go to non-rotators. In fact, for our residency class of 2021, 9 of the 17 positions went to applicants who had not rotated with us.

Answer: Of course! We think applicants who have worked in a “county-style” environment will have the best idea of what training at a County hospital will be like, however, those applicants who haven’t are not at any disadvantage.