General Graduate Program Requirements

Graduate School policies and standards can be found on the Graduate School Policies page. 

The minimum GPA for any graduate program is 3.0. Individual programs may require more than a 3.0 to remain in good standing. 

The minimum grade for a course to be accepted toward any master’s or doctoral requirement is C. The minimum grade for a course to be accepted toward a certificate program is B-. Individual programs may require higher grades for specific courses.

Master of Arts - Communication Studies

• Students enrolled in the M.A. in Communication Studies program can select one of two options to complete their degree: the thesis option or the professional paper option. 
  • A thesis is a scholarly project conducted and written to an academic audience.
  • A professional paper is an applied scholarly project oriented toward a non-academic audience.
  • Both may be theory and/or research based. 
• A full 70% or more of the student's required course work (excluding research and thesis credits) must be taken in Communication Studies (COMX). Advisor permission is required to take courses outside of the department that may apply toward the program of study.
• A full 70% or more of the student's required course work (excluding research and thesis credits) must be taken at the 500-600 level.
• Students who did not earn an undergraduate major in Communication Studies may be required to take additional Communication Studies (COMX) coursework (not including thesis or professional paper) to ensure sufficient knowledge of the discipline.
• Students who did not complete a statistics course during their undergraduate career are required to take one during their first year in the program, preferably prior to or concurrently with COMX 460/COMX 461. The credits for any undergraduate statistics course do not count toward the credit requirements for the Master of Arts.

• All graduate students are expected to attend proseminar meetings, usually held Mondays 3:30-4:30 pm. This proseminar meeting is required for students during their first two semesters in the program. The proseminar supports scholarly and professional development through discussion and workshops (e.g., history of the discipline, CV preparation, submitting papers to conferences and journals, thesis and professional paper preparation, and applying for jobs and doctoral programs.)

Course Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Core Courses
Complete two credits of the following course:		2
COMX 594	Topical Seminar (taken for one credit in each of the first two semesters)
Complete at least two of the following courses. Students are encouraged to take all three.		6
COMX 460	Research Methods
COMX 561	Qualitative Research Methods
COMX 555	Seminar in Rhetoric, Criticism, & Theory
Thesis or Professional Paper
Complete the following:
18 credits of Communication Studies (COMX) electives or other courses chosen in consultation with your advisor.		18
COMX 599	Thesis/Professional Paper	9
Total Hours		35