PRE-MED HANDBOOK

VIII. Special Programs and Policies at USC

There are a number of special programs, resources, and organizations at the University of South Carolina that may be of considerable assistance to pre-med students. In addition to the Office of Pre-Professional Advising, Academic Skills Programs, the Writing Center, the Career Center, Alpha Epsilon Delta, and the Medical Humanities Minor are discussed below.

The Writing Center
The Writing Center, located in the Humanities Classroom Building, Room 014, offers individual assistance and is an invaluable resource for personal statement writing. It also offers a Writer’s Hotline for specific questions about grammar, punctuation, and spelling. For appointments, call (803) 777-1218.

Career Center
The Career Center, located on the sixth floor of the H. William Close Building, offers career development services to students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The Center is divided into two areas: Career Development and Career Connections. The offices listed below provide direct services to USC students. Information regarding Career Center programs and services is available through the World Wide Web at www.sc.edu/career.

Career Development assists students in discovering interests, personality characteristics, values, goals, and abilities, and in using them to identify a career direction, select a major, and prepare for a job search. Computerized career guidance systems, SIGI Plus (System of Interactive Guidance and Information System) and SCOIS (South Carolina Occupational Information), are available to help students in the career planning process. Research on career fields is available through the Career Library.

Career Connections has part-time employment programs available which assist students in finding career-related work experience and in earning extra money. Opportunities are available in Cooperative Education, the Career Internship Program, and through the part-time and summer job listings. Cooperative Education provides structured, paid, multi-semester career-related positions to students in the Colleges of Applied Professional Sciences, Business Administration, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences, Journalism and Mass Communications, Science and Mathematics, and Nursing. The Career Internship Program offers students of all majors paid and unpaid opportunities to gain career-related work experience throughout the year. The part-time and summer job listings offers a wide variety of skilled and unskilled work opportunities. CareerView allows students to follow and observe professionals in the work place and get a firsthand view of careers which hold particular interest for them. Interested students may attend orientation sessions for CareerView, which are conducted weekly.

Full-time employment programs assist students in initial contact with employers. Employers interview students through the on-campus recruiting program and use USC-Search to identify qualified applicants. Students seeking assistance should plan to attend an orientation session in the second semester of their junior year. For more information call (803) 777-7280.

Alpha Epsilon Delta
Alpha Epsilon Delta, the pre-medical honor society, has a large and active chapter at the University of South Carolina. Membership in AED is extended to those students who maintain a strong academic record in a pre-medical or predental program; hence, it is meant to recognize superior scholarship. However, AED also provides a number of informative programs and services open to all students in the pre-health sciences.

In program planning particular emphasis is placed on professional school admissions. A number of admissions chairs and committee members from medical schools will visit the campus each year, sponsored by AED. Any student, whether or not a member of AED, is invited to participate in these programs.

AED also uses the bulletin board located outside of Pre-Professional Advising to communicate with students in the pre-health sciences. Notices for meetings, deadlines, field trips, etc., are posted on the bulletin board at least a week before an event. Students are urged to check the bulletin board at least weekly so as to not miss an important event.

For more information, contact the president of AED or Pre-Professional Advising.

Medical Humanities Minor
Reproductive technologies, genetic screening, life sustaining interventions-all raise difficult questions. A medical humanities minor from the University of South Carolina can build a foundation for insightful responses. The minor requires 18 credit hours and enhances study in the sciences while offering benefits such as:

• Honors College courses in medical humanities,
• opportunities for undergraduate research, and
• a stimulating curriculum including philosophy, anthropology, economics, classics, government, psychology, sociology, business, nursing, criminal justice, and others.

Students minoring in medical humanities have the advantage of taking courses in the University's Honors College, and are given priority registration in those courses pertaining to the minor. Each semester, innovative honors courses such as Health and the Human Life Cycle, The Psychiatric Revolution, and The Philosophy of Technology are offered.

If you plan to go into medicine or a health-related field, you should explore the benefits of a minor in medical humanities. Admission to the minor requires a 3.30 or higher GPA and at least 30 hours of college credit. You'll find the Web page for the College of Liberal Arts in the University's undergraduate studies bulletin at: <http://www.sc.edu/bulletin/ugrad/LibArtHm.html>

Applications are available from the College of Liberal Arts, South Carolina Honors College, the Department of Philosophy, or the College of Science and Mathematics. Completed applications should be submitted to the College of Liberal Arts, Gambrell Hall, Room 252.