Master of Arts - Communication Studies

Course Requirements

All students enrolled in the program are required to complete core courses in their first year.

Degree Requirements 

1. A student must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of approved course work plus six hours of thesis credits. The classes may include six credits outside the Department of Communication Studies. An oral examination on the thesis is required.
2. Graduate teaching assistants are required to take COM 725 – College Teaching in Communication during their first semester.
3. The Graduate Studies Coordinator will be the advisor for all entering students. Before completing 16 credit hours, the student should select a permanent advisor. The permanent advisor will work with the student through the completion of the program. The student’s advisor must approve all course work.
4. Acceptable course work is defined as any class in which a student receives a grade of B- or higher. Any required course graded C+ or below will not be included in the candidate’s degree program.
5. In consultation with his/her advisor, a student will organize a thesis committee of at least three departmental members. In addition, a fourth member from outside the department, known as the Graduate College Representative, must be appointed. An additional committee member may be added at the student and department’s discretion. Please see Graduate College policy for committee appointment guidelines.
6. The defense of the thesis may result in any of three decisions: pass, pass with further edits, no pass. The most common of these three results is the pass with further edits decision. These edits may range from simple editing of style, grammatical errors, and so forth, to extensive rewrites of entire sections of the thesis. The committee may decide to either “sign off” on the thesis or not at the time of this decision depending on the extent of the edits. The committee may also want to see the final edits or not. Signing off on the thesis means that the committee agrees to sign the appropriate forms for the completion of the thesis. Again, they may do that at the time of the defense, or at a later time after edits are completed.

a. If the thesis passes outright, then the student will have no further edits except those that the Graduate College may request. The committee signs off on the thesis at the time of the defense.

b. In the event that the student’s thesis is not passed, the student will, at that time be severed from the program and will not be granted a Master of Arts degree.

Graduation Requirements

1. The student must submit all required forms to the Graduate College and then apply for graduation up to two semesters prior to completing his/her degree requirements.
2. The student must submit and successfully defend his/her thesis by the posted deadline. The defense must be advertised and is open to the public.
3. After the thesis defense, the student must electronically submit a properly formatted pdf copy of their thesis to the Graduate College for format check. Once the thesis format has been approved by the Graduate College, the student will submit the approved electronic version to ProQuest. Deadlines for thesis defenses, format check submissions, and the final ProQuest submission can be found here. 

Course Requirements

All students enrolled in the program are required to complete core courses in their first year.

Degree Requirements

1. A student must complete a minimum of 36 credit hours of approved course work. No more than six hours may be taken outside the Department of Communication Studies.
2. Graduate teaching assistants are required to take COM 725 – College Teaching in Communication during their first semester.
3. Students must pass a comprehensive written examination. The examination lasts eight hours and is given over two consecutive days. A Graduate Education Portfolio is also required of exam track students (the specifics of the portfolio are outlined in the Department of Communication Studies Graduate Handbook, which is available upon request).
4. The Graduate Studies Coordinator will be the advisor for all entering students. Before completing 16 credit hours, the student should select a permanent advisor. The permanent advisor will work with the student through the completion of the program. The student’s advisor must approve all course work.
5. Acceptable course work is defined as any class in which a student receives a grade of B- or higher. Any required course graded C+ or below will not be included in the candidate’s degree program.
6. The oral defense of the examination must take place within one week of completing the written examination.

a. In the case where a student receives a Pass with Conditions involving a minor rewrite, these rewrites must be completed within two weeks of notification. Examination Committee members will again have the same time limits as specified above.

b. A student must retake a failed examination within one year and successfully pass it to receive his or her degree. A second failure on the examination automatically results in the student’s termination from the program.

Graduation Requirements

1. The student must submit all required forms to the Graduate College and then apply for graduation up to two semesters prior to completing his/her degree requirements.
2. The student must pass a comprehensive written examination.

Course Requirements

All students enrolled in the program are required to complete core courses in their first year.

Degree Requirements

1. The Scholarly Research Project Track entails the completion of 36 credits of course work, construction of a Graduate Education Portfolio, and development of an original research project for submission to a scholarly meeting and/or scholarly journal.
2. Graduate teaching assistants are required to take COM 725 – College Teaching in Communication during their first semester.
3. Students select a four-person committee: three departmental faculty, one of whom serves as chair, and one Graduate College representative. Students prepare and defend a prospectus by September 15 of the second year of their program, work primarily with the committee chair through development of the paper, and meet with the full committee by April 1 for a formal presentation and defense of the project.
4. The Graduate Studies Coordinator will be the advisor for all entering students. Before completing 16 credit hours, the student should select a permanent advisor. The permanent advisor will work with the student through the completion of the program. The student’s advisor must approve all course work.
5. Acceptable course work is defined as any class in which a student receives a grade of B- or higher. Any required course graded C+ or below will not be included in the candidate’s degree program.
6. Scholarly Research Projects may be assessed as Pass, Pass with revisions, or Not Pass. Revisions may include—but are not limited to—minor stylistic changes, investigating Committee members’ questions about substantive claims, revising sections of the argument, and so on. In some cases Committee members may want to see the final revisions; in other instances they may entrust the Chair to act on the Committee’s behalf. In both cases, and when the initial judgment is Pass, Committee members will sign the required Graduate College documents the day of the Presentation. In cases that require more elaborate revision, or when a performance is assessed as Not Pass, the Committee will delineate the necessary course/s of action before the student leaves the Defense.

Graduation Requirements

1. The student must submit all required forms to the Graduate College and then apply for graduation up to two semesters prior to completing his/her degree requirements.
2. The student must successfully complete and defend a scholarly research paper.