• Admissions and Financial Aid
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• Graduate Student Manual

Admissions and Financial Aid

At the time of admission a student should have an excellent command of Spanish. Decisions on admission and financial aid are based on all available information: letters of recommendation, undergraduate record, GRE scores or TOEFL, and a cassette.* Graduate assistantships (requiring teaching service) are regularly available ($10,000 in 2001-2002) and they are highly competitive.

Students seeking admission to the Graduate Programs in the Department of Languages Literatures and Cultures should normally obtain the following minimum scores on the GRE examination:

	Verbal	Analytical
Native English Speakers	480	4
Non-Native English Speakers	400	3.5

Those applying to MAT programs may take the Miller Analogies test and be admitted with a score of 40 or above.

Students submitting GRE scores from before October 1 2002, should normally have obtained the following minimum scores on the GRE examination:

* Send a five-minute recording of your voice in Spanish directly to the Graduate Advisor of the Dept. of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. (If you are a native speaker of Spanish, please send a recording in English.) Express your interests, why you want to pursue a graduate degree, and what you hope to accomplish.

The Department offers the following degrees:

1. MA (The Master of Arts) Designed for in-depth study in Hispanic language, cultures, and literatures. Requirements: 33 hours of study in Spanish, including a written thesis; demonstrated reading knowledge of a second language.

2. MA (The Master of Arts - non-thesis option) Designed for in-depth study in Hispanic language, cultures, and literatures. Requirements: 33 hours of study in Spanish (at least 18 hours of which must be taken at the 700 level or above). Students must demonstrate a reading knowledge of a second language and successfully complete a comprehensive examination.

For certified teachers of Spanish the program of study consists of 21 credit hours of Spanish graduate courses and 12 hours of graduate electives approved by the department. Students must demonstrate a reading knowledge of a second language and successfully complete a comprehensive examination.

3. M.A.T. (The Master of Arts in Teaching) Requirements: 21 hours of study in Spanish, 31 hours in Professional Education, including a semester-long supervised teaching practicum. No thesis required.

4. MT (Master in Teaching) Offered in collaboration with the College of Education. Applications should be directed to the College of Education and The Graduate School.

5. Other Degrees Offered In collaboration with Comparative Literature, the Department offers an MA and a Ph.D. Contact the Program in Comparative Literature for more information on the Ph.D.

Also, in collaboration with the Linguistics Program, the Department offers an MA in Spanish with concentration in Hispanic Linguistics and a Ph.D. in Linguistics with a minor specialization in Hispanic Studies. For more information on the Ph.D., contact the Linguistics Program.

The Department encourages study abroad and sponsors programs in Spain and Spanish-America.

The Library System The University libraries in Columbia house over 7,000,000 items, including 2,300,000 volumes, approximately 2,400,000 units on microfilm, and some 19,200 periodicals. Spanish holdings are continually updated.

The City of Columbia The main campus of the University of South Carolina is located in Columbia. Enrollment is 23,430. The master's degree is offered in 175 fields and the Ph.D. in 70. Columbia, the state capital, is located in central South Carolina with easy access to both beaches and mountains. It is approximately 4 hours to Atlanta and 2 hours to Charleston by car. Columbia has a short, moderate winter, warm and pleasant spring and fall seasons, and a warm summer. Outdoor recreational activities are possible year round. With a culturally-diverse population of more than 470,000, the city provides a wide variety of cultural activities.

Correspondence
For more information on programs or for application forms, please write or e-mail:

Graduate Advisor, Spanish Program
Department of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803) 777-4884
mabrey-maria@sc.edu

For more information and an electronic application, please visit The Graduate School's web site at http://www.gradschool.sc.edu

Checklist:
Send the following materials to the Graduate School (do not send them to the Department of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures):

1.the completed application form;

2.a transcript of your previous undergraduate and graduate work;

3.three letters of recommendation from professors and/or other instructors-- who can comment meaningfully on your academic preparation/qualifications for pursuing a graduate degree in Spanish;

4.an official report of your GRE test scores; M.A.T. students may substitute Miller Analogies instead of the GRE scores (we prefer the GRE). Non-US-citizens whose native language is not English must submit TOEFL scores.

If you are interested in an assistantship, you should also send directly to the Graduate Advisor, (not to the Graduate School) a taped recording of your voice reading a brief autobiographical sketch in English and Spanish (5 minutes for both).
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University of South Carolina
Department of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures
Columbia, SC 29208

Telephone: (803) 777-4884
Fax: (803) 777-0454