The Keck School of Medicine of USC MD program

The science comes as a sequence of courses rather than separate subjects. Introduction to Medical Sciences (IMS) fills the first 19 weeks with foundations, from biochemistry, genetics and histology to immunology, pathology and microbiology. Body-system courses follow, each teaching the anatomy, physiology, disease and drug treatment of one system, such as the heart, lungs or kidneys. The curriculum pages still list an Integrated Case Series closing the third semester, but the degree requirements for the Classes of 2028 to 2030 and the current calendar do not include it.

Three longitudinal courses, which run across semesters rather than in a single block, sit beside the science: ICM, EPIC and HJSC. In the clerkship phase teaching moves to wards and clinics, with classroom courses at the start, middle and end. A Humanities, Ethics, Art, and Law (HEAL) thread runs through all four years, from ethics discussions in EPIC to the Narrative Medicine Senior Seminar.

The school caps pre-clerkship instructional time at 28 hours a week, averaged over each course. The cap includes required work assigned outside class and is meant to leave you time for independent study and reflection.

The longitudinal courses fall on set days. On the 2026-27 calendar, first-years have ICM on 36 Tuesdays, EPIC from 1 to 3 pm on 16 Mondays and HJSC from 10 am to noon on 16 Wednesdays. The science courses run in consecutive blocks around them.

The pattern changes in the fall of year 2. The Class of 2029 calendar puts ICM on 12 Thursdays, ending with an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) on November 12, and HJSC on five Wednesdays. An OSCE is a timed exam with standardized patients. EPIC holds no sessions that fall, because it continues as coaching only.

The Division of Integrative Anatomical Sciences teaches gross anatomy, histology and neuroanatomy. The division's training page, which shows no date (its page data records a March 2025 update), says cadaveric dissection remains a mainstay of the first year. That means students dissect donated bodies themselves, and the page calls the donors their first patients. It also says the gross anatomy lab was recently renovated to add digital resources to dissection.

Gross anatomy is spread through the courses rather than taught in one block, and a first-semester wellbeing session introduces you to the lab. The 2026-27 calendars set practical exams in IMS I, IMS IV, GI/Liver and Reproduction in year 1, and in both Brain, Behavior and Movement (BBM) courses in the fall of year 2. In the latest syllabi, practicals count for 10 percent of the IMS IV grade, 15 percent of GI/Liver, Reproduction and BBM I, and 25 percent of BBM II.

A 2019 USC News feature described the anatomy course as it ran then: first-years were assigned a team and a donor at the start of the year. It also described a yearly ceremony honoring the donors, to which their families are invited. The division's page says histology uses virtual microscopy, with digital slides studied on your laptop in lab rooms of 25 students. The Learning Enhancement and Academic Development (LEAD) unit offers gross anatomy tutoring for practicals.

From the first few weeks, set ICM sessions take you to affiliated hospitals, mainly Keck Hospital and LA General, to interview and examine real patients. Your ICM instructor watches and gives feedback on the spot. Skill-building sessions add practice in working with interpreters, writing notes in the electronic health record and presenting cases.

ICM moves from history-taking to physical examination to assessment, planning and case presentation over three semesters. In semesters 2 and 3, standardized patients also join the learning communities to help demonstrate and practice physical examination.

Supervision rules apply throughout. You always have a named faculty supervisor, orders you enter need approval before they take effect, and sensitive examinations and most procedures require a supervisor in the room. You may decline to take part in care if you do not feel properly supervised.

Every pre-clerkship course is graded pass/fail. Science courses end with a computer-based multiple-choice exam on your own laptop, sometimes with a gross anatomy practical or team-based readiness tests. You pass with a composite of 70 or above, and a first failure brings an Incomplete and one retake. Weekly Performance Checks, quizzes released on Friday afternoons, do not count toward grades, but LEAD coaches use them for individual feedback.

OSCEs end each ICM semester and are video recorded so you can review them. ICM instructors also write a narrative paragraph each semester, and a summary of your ICM performance goes into the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), the dean's letter that accompanies residency applications.

Step 1 tests the sciences that underpin medicine and has been reported only as pass or fail since January 26, 2022. A first CBSE score below 50 Equated Percent Correct means joining the three-week Pathways to Achieve Step Success (PASS) Program and taking a second CBSE. You take Step 1 within the designated study and exam period, and you get at most three attempts at each Step exam.

In August 2026 the USMLE program announced a move to designated testing dates from January 2029, with Step exams offered less often each year. An earlier June 2026 notice had set the change for 2028. The USMLE has also urged schools to review rules on when students must test, so Keck's timing rules may change.

On the current schedule, shifted two years from the Class of 2029 calendar, a 2027 entrant would study for Step 1 from about late November 2028 to late January 2029, straddling the switch. Transition to Clinical Practice would follow in late January and February 2029, then seven six-week clerkship blocks from about February 2029. You must have taken Step 1 to start clerkships and passed it to enter the post-clerkship phase.

Step 2 CK, which still gives a three-digit score, is due by June 30 after the clerkship phase, about June 30, 2030 for a 2027 entrant. You must pass Step 1, Step 2 CK and the Clinical Performance Examination (CPX), a clinical skills exam, to graduate. Keck's skills center belongs to the California consortium that runs an annual CPX shared by eight California medical schools.

• Clerkships are graded Honors, High Pass, Pass or Fail. Each grade combines faculty and resident evaluations of your clinical work (55 percent), the shelf exam (25 percent), a clerkship OSCE (15 percent) and professional accountability points (5 percent).
• You must score above the 3rd percentile of national data on the shelf exam to pass a clerkship. Cut points are reviewed with a goal of 30 percent of students earning Honors in each clerkship.
• Clerkship OSCEs have three stations, each a 15-minute standardized patient encounter followed by a 10-minute note; your best two cases count.
• Failing a shelf exam on the first try means an Incomplete, a required retake and no Honors. Failing three on the first attempt stops you continuing in the clerkship phase, and the Student Performance Committee considers dismissal or other action.
• The registrar's current transcript legend lists Transition to Clinical Practice, Intersession, the HJSC Seminar, the sub-internship, Senior Seminar and Transition to Residency as Credit/No Credit, like electives. The last posted sub-internship syllabus, for 2024-25, used Honors to Fail grades with an NBME exam, so check the grading for your year.
• LCME accreditation makes you eligible for Step 1 and Step 2 CK; DO students and graduates of eligible schools abroad qualify through other routes.
• You have six years from matriculation to finish the MD, including up to two years of approved leave; dual-degree years extend the limit.

Your clinical base is the school's three primary teaching hospitals. Keck's site documents describe LA General as a 600-bed public county safety-net hospital and a Level I trauma center. Keck Hospital of USC is the private academic one, with 343 beds according to Keck Medicine of USC, the university's health system. Keck's site descriptions say Children's Hospital Los Angeles was founded in 1901 and has 374 beds.

You submit preferences through a lottery, the registrar sets your track and sites, and you learn your site at least four weeks ahead. Local sites lie within 40 miles of the Health Sciences Campus.

Distant required clerkships are in Bakersfield, Santa Barbara and Ventura, where the school provides housing. You are assigned at most one distant clerkship unless you ask for more. If health needs or caregiving mean you must stay in one area, you request that in writing with your lottery preferences.

Electives run in blocks of two to four continuous weeks, or up to eight weeks for research, across the clerkship and post-clerkship phases. Each is designated core clinical, clinical or non-clinical, and some run online with approval.

The Classes of 2028 to 2030 need 40 weeks of selectives and electives, 30 of them clinical: a 4-week Selective A, 8 weeks of Selective C from two different departments and 28 further weeks. No more than 16 weeks of similar rotations, including aways, and no more than 12 weeks of away rotations count toward graduation.

The Class of 2027 followed an older form: 12 weeks of core clinical electives at the primary teaching hospitals and an emergency medicine or critical care elective of at least three weeks. The rest was 18 more clinical weeks and 10 clinical or non-clinical weeks. The curriculum-description page and the 2026-27 catalogue still show that version.

Away rotations at other US medical schools or teaching hospitals are mostly booked through the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) service. Each needs your faculty advisor's approval, and only one virtual away elective counts. Students facing financial hardship can apply for up to $1,000 for an away rotation more than 40 miles away. Depending on your specialty, you may also be placed in a required home sub-internship.

International electives must be clinical or research-based, and language immersion earns no credit. You petition the Elective Review Committee at least 12 weeks ahead, and it weighs safety, supervision and access to emergency care. Routes include VSLO and listed programs such as Floating Doctors, the Himalayan Health Exchange and the Armenian EyeCare Project, with limited funding available.

The Scholarly Project is a required, faculty-mentored research project in a field of your choice that can fall anywhere in the four years; MD/PhD students are exempt. A Scientific Method and Research Curriculum supports it from the pre-clerkship phase. You must contribute across the project, not only enter data, and present your own poster at the annual Medical Student Research Forum. Most literature reviews and all case reports do not qualify.

Summer fellowships after year 1 include the Keck Summer Research Fellowship, up to $2,500 for six weeks of full-time research, and the Saban fellowship with a CHLA mentor. Others support quality improvement work, global health policy in Washington, DC, community-partnered research and projects abroad.

The Dean's Research Scholars program offers a ten-month research year. Its own page says you take it after the third year, from July to April, and students with a USC mentor can compete for a $25,000 stipend. The catalogue instead describes this fifth-year option as open once you have completed your first year.

The USC-Caltech MD/PhD takes about eight years on average: two years of the medical curriculum, the PhD at USC or Caltech, then the final two clinical years. The catalogue says it enrolls up to five students a year, all fully funded.

The MD/MPH and MD/MHA each add one year, starting in May after the clerkship phase (MPH) or third year (MHA), and you must take Step 2 CK before it begins. Pages differ on MBA timing: the MD home page puts dual-degree years between the third and fourth years, but the MD/MBA page and catalogue let the MBA year follow the second or third year. Joint master's degrees in biomedical engineering and health systems management engineering are also offered.

The Clinical Skills Education and Evaluation Center is where ICM skills are assessed, and its team manages OSCE recordings. It has 16 examination rooms equipped with standardized patients, task trainers and high-fidelity mannequins, and teaches skills from history-taking and examination to patient handover and obtaining informed consent. The center dates from 1963, and the school's history page credits Keck with leading the movement to use standardized patients in medical training. The school also runs simulation training programs for clinical, surgical and procedural skills.

Learning community rooms are teaching and study spaces reserved for medical students, used for ICM sessions, small groups, labs and orientations, and pre-clerkship students get an assigned locker. Students also share three lounges, in McKibben Hall, McKibben Annex and Bishop Hall, and a medical student lounge and call room at LA General with recliners, lockers and computers.

Large EPIC sessions are usually held in Mayer Auditorium. The Norris Medical Library gives online access to required texts and has a wellness and reflection room.

Your EPIC coach meets you one-on-one twice in semester 1 and three times in semester 2, after you submit a short reflection or preparation document. Coaching then continues toward Step 1 and clerkships. In the clerkship phase, each track cohort meets an assigned faculty mentor six to seven times, with senior students as near-peer mentors, and the mentor plays no part in grading.

The LEAD unit offers learning specialists in all four years, a pre-matriculation meeting, and Step 1 and Step 2 planning meetings. Its Keck Peer Instruction Program provides near-peer tutoring and review sessions before each pre-clerkship exam. Students whose scores suggest risk are placed on Marginal Performance status, which brings an individual support plan but never appears on the transcript or MSPE.

A full-time clinical psychologist directs medical student wellbeing. First-years are invited to optional, confidential mental health check-ins called Keck Checks, and wellbeing sessions are built into the schedule and never tested. Deans are on call around the clock. Clerkship hours are capped at 80 a week on average, with one day in seven free and a wellness day in each six-week clerkship (half a day in four-week neurology).

Career planning starts in year 1 with the Academic and Career Advising team, which builds on the AAMC's Careers in Medicine program. Student interest groups offer shadowing in many specialties, and in years 3 and 4 you are assigned a faculty advisor in the specialty you plan to pursue.