The MAT includes a component in professional education and is designed for individuals seeking initial certification. The IMA is designed for college graduates who already hold a professional certificate in French and who wish to earn the master's degree. The department also oversees the annualproduction of a French-language play . Financial assistance is available to eligible graduate students in the form of assistantships. All application materials, sent directly to the Graduate School, must arrive by March 1 to ensure consideration for an assistantship in the following academic year.
Assistants normally teach coursesduring the second year and are closely supervised by the faculty.
The University of South Carolina's Columbia campus has 10,000graduate students and is the university's main campus. Columbia,the state capital, is located in the Midlands region of SouthCarolina, about halfway between the Atlantic coast beaches and themountains, both of which can be reached by car in less than threehours. It has a short, moderate winter, a warm and pleasant springand fall, and a very warm summer, permitting outdoor recreationalactivities year round. Graduate housing, whether on-campus or inthe community, is relatively inexpensive and plentiful. University libraries in Columbia house more than 7,000,000processed items, including more than 2,500,000 volumes and approxi-mately 3,971,000 units in microform.