Undergraduate Program

Objectives:

The undergraduate degree program will:

1. Prepare graduates of the program to meet the growing demands for entry level positions in the biomedical industry or continuing studies in graduate programs and medical schools
2. Respond to the rapidly growing biomedical industry and meet its employment needs for the state of South Carolina
3. Meet the goals of the University of South Carolina in emphasizing the health sciences area.

Admission Criteria:

The same admission criteria as those required of the University of South Carolina students will be followed in order for a student to enroll in Biomedical Engineering. In addition, in order for students to enroll in any BMEN 200 level course (likely to be taken during the sophomore year), a student must have completed Biological Principles I and II, General Chemistry I and II, Calculus I and II, and ENGL 101 and 102. Furthermore, the student must have earned a GPA of at least 3.0 in the basic science and mathematics courses listed above.

Curriculum:

The four year curriculum for a BS degree in Biomedical Engineering is given in the table below. Courses in yellow are currently taught at USC. Courses in pink are new courses for this program. Courses in blue are elective courses.

Included in this curriculum are courses required to satisfy all USC requirements. In particular, slots are allocated for two English classes (ENGL 101/102), one history elective, and one Fine Arts elective. Additionally, there is room in the curriculum for students to take foreign language courses in order to satisfy the university wide foreign language proficiency requirement.

This curriculum also allows for a pre-medical/pre-dental student to satisfy all requirements associated with their respective professional school. In particular, the curriculum calls for at least one year of English (ENGL 101/102), one year of chemistry with lab (CHEM 111/112), one year of physics with lab (PHYS 211/212), one year of biology with lab (BIOL 101/102), and one semester of organic chemistry with lab (CHEM 333); a second semester of organic chemistry (CHEM 334) is available as a technical electives in year 3. Roughly one-third of undergraduate BME students nationwide pursue medical or dental degrees.

A number of elective courses are included in the curriculum. Biomedical Engineering electives include at least nine credits which must be taken during the degree program. Available technical electives, at least 21 credits of which must be taken, include all of the Biomedical Engineering electives as well as BIOL 530 (Histology), Chem. 334 (Organic Chemistry), and BIOL 541/CHEM 550 (Principles of Biochemistry).