College of Medicine

 The College of Medicine, a unit of the Health
Science Center, began operations in 1956 and is
located on the south end of campus. This loca-
tion, in direct proximity to university facilities,
offers many opportunities to utilize and com-
plement resources of the university in the edu-
cational and investigative programs of the col-
lege. Joint programs exist with the colleges of
Liberal Arts and Sciences, Education,
Engineering, the Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences and the other colleges of
the Health Science Center. Also, computational
and statistical services are available through
university resources and facilities.
 The College of Medicine is responsible for
several major educational programs. Foremost
is the four-year program leading to the M.D.
degree. After graduation, physicians enter resi-
dency programs. At present, the College of
Medicine offers 470 positions in accredited resi-
dency training programs. The basic medical sci-
ence departments also offer a Ph.D. in the med-
ical sciences with specializations in anatomy
and cell biology, biochemistry and molecular
biology, immunology and medical microbiol-
ogy, neuroscience, pathology and laboratory
medicine, pharmacology and therapeutics, and
physiology. The college also offers a two-year
Physician Assistant Program leading to the
Master of Physician Assistant Studies.
 Further training is offered through positions
for postdoctoral research fellowships in all basic
science and clinical departments. The clinical
departments conduct frequent seminars as part
of a continuing education program for practic-
ing physicians. In addition, some of the clinical
departments have assumed responsibility for
community medicine programs in communities
surrounding Gainesville.
 The faculty is dedicated to a teaching pro-
gram of high quality. The design of the four-
year curriculum encourages a close faculty-stu-
dent relationship. The educational program is
structured to enable the graduate to choose any
career in medicine. Therefore, emphasis is
placed on fundamental biological principles and
their relevance to the practice of medicine.


Undergraduate Preparation
 Students intending to apply for admission to
 the College of Medicine should complete the
 requirements for a bachelor's degree.
 Preprofessional students at the University of
 Florida may major in a program offered by any
 department or college in the university. The
 Office of Preprofessional Education offers a
 variety of resources, including the university's
 Preprofessional Handbook.
 An applicant to the College of Medicine
must have personal qualities of the highest
order-character, integrity, intellectual honesty,
responsibility, maturity, initiative and aptitude.
In addition, students must have demonstrated
superior academic achievement during under-
graduate work and completed the Medical
College Aptitude Test (MCAT). College of
Medicine catalogs are available upon request
from the Office of Admissions.

Special Programs
 A Junior Honors Program exists for under-
graduate students who have chosen a career in
the medical profession and who have demon-
strated both superior scholastic ability and per-
sonal development during their first two college
years. Students are chosen for the program at
the end of their sophomore year. The third year
consists of two-thirds arts and sciences courses
and one-third College of Medicine credit. The
latter is offered in a seminar form. The fourth
year consists of first-year preclinical courses in
the College of Medicine. Since the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences grants academic credit
for all of the third-year work and part of the
fourth-year work, a participating student
receives a B.S. degree and completes one year of
medical school in a total of four years. The pro-
gram is limited in size to a maximum of 12 stu-
dents per year in order to retain the discussion
seminar format.
 Unusually gifted students may enter a com-
bined M.D.-Ph.D. program which offers a
unique opportunity for integrating clinical expe-
rience with competence in basic biomedical
research. This program reflects the increasing
dependence of the practice of medicine on scien-
tific advances in the biological sciences.


 The Program in Medical Sciences (PIMS), an
inter-university approach to medical education,
began in 1971 at the Florida State and Florida A
& M universities in Tallahassee. In this program
the two universities in the state capital along
with the University of West Florida in Pensacola
have combined efforts to provide instruction in
the preclinical medical sciences parallel with the
first-year curriculum of the University of
Florida. From among those students accepted
into the PIMS program after satisfactory com-
pletion of the required curriculum, an evalua-
tion committee, with the approval of the College
of Medicine dean, selects those students who
may transfer to the University of Florida
College of Medicine at the second-year level.
Those who make satisfactory progress complete
the remaining three years of medical education
at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Teaching Hospitals
 Shands Hospital, a modern tertiary care
facility, is part of the Health Science Center
complex and is the teaching hospital of the
College of Medicine. The College of Medicine
has responsibility for patient care, teaching and
research at the Veterans Administration Medical
Center, located next to the Health Science
Center. A formal affiliation was established
with the Jacksonville Health Education
Program, Inc. in 1969 for the purpose of provid-
ing combined educational and clinical
resources. In addition, the college is involved in
several projects concerned with community
health care.
 Further detailed information will be found
in the College of Medicine or the Graduate
School catalogs. Copies may be obtained by
writing to the Office of the University Registrar,
Box 114000, University of Florida, Gainesville,
FL 326114000.