On June 1, applicants to four of MUSC's colleges began following a newly adopted, two-stage admission application process designed to simplify and standardize the way prospective students seek entrance to the colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, Graduate Studies, and Health Professions.

First Stage

Adoption of the proposal, presented to the university's deans in April, means applicants for admission to these colleges are now first able to file a newly designed, simplified two-page all-university general application as early as June 1 of any year, which might be as long as 15 months ahead of matriculation.

Initial self-reported demographic information, such as state of legal residence, program of interest, grade point averages, and test scores in the all-university general application, guides the university in making a substantive initial response to applicants. By having such information available much earlier to MUSC's admission officers in the four colleges, these officers are able to get a preliminary look at their applicant pool.

Applicants to the colleges of Dental Medicine and Medicine were excluded from the proposal as they already apply first to a general national admission service and then are invited to complete a supplemental MUSC application.

Second Stage

The all-university general application is supplemented in the months following June 1 with a more comprehensive program-specific application, made available only to those who have already filed (or are simultaneously filing) the all-university general application. At this second stage, letters of reference, personal statements, and official copies of test scores and transcripts are received. Eligibility for interview and admission will be determined in the winter and spring by faculty at the program level during this later second phase.

This two-step process, somewhat similar to what is already practiced in MUSC's colleges of Medicine and Dental Medicine, is also employed in other health professions admission programs at universities such as UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Iowa, University of Washington, University of Florida, University of California at San Francisco, and the Medical College of Virginia (all of which are considered to be peers of MUSC). It also anticipates a plan being discussed in Columbia to make available a state-wide standardized and electronic application for admission designed to satisfy the general requirements of any of the South Carolina public colleges and universities.

The process is easy for applicants to understand and offers several distinct benefits to the university:

• Earlier access to MUSC by applicants. Typically, most MUSC programs are not able to make their program-specific applications available until early fall. However, the all-university general application is available beginning June 1 each year. This means an applicant can identify herself/himself to MUSC six-to-eight weeks earlier than ever before. This gives the university a decidedly competitive edge in the admission marketplace.
• Wider availability at lower cost. The all-university general application is more adaptable to worldwide Internet access as a web page where there are no printing and mailing costs involved. (Note, however, that the general application is also available in printed form and on diskette for those who prefer to have it delivered in either of these modes.)
• More responsive, quicker communications between the applicant and the university. Within 10 days of receiving the all-university general application, MUSC will respond to the applicant. This early response will be succeeded by a series of supplemental responses. Studies show that applicants respond favorably to frequent and substantive communications from the universities to which they are applying.
• Preliminary screening. Applicants who are unusually gifted can be identified at once. Applicants far below the admission standard of the university can also be advised at once of more realistic options available to them.
• Image. The all-university general application will foster the image of MUSC as an integrated campus with a first-step process that is uniform, publicly visible, inclusive, and responsive.
• Tracking. All potential applicants to the university will be identified earlier and tracked longer because the first step in the process requires the applicant to identify herself/himself first to the university and then to the program.

The all-university general application for admission is available on the Internet from the Office of Enrollment Services. It can be found on the MUSC site at <http://www.musc.edu/es/>.

Health professions advisors throughout the state will be receiving this information so that applicants for 1999 admission can begin at once to apply to the university. Flyers of information are being prepared for statewide distribution. Potential applicants browsing the Internet will also find both the instructions for making application and the all-university general application itself.