Communication M.A. Degree Plan

The Master of Arts in Communication degree prepares students for various communication positions within organizations including media industries, careers in higher education, or continued study toward the Ph.D. degree. The department also offers courses which may be used as electives in other graduate programs.

General Degree Requirements

All students enter the program with non-thesis degree plans. After completing 9 semester credit hours of communication graduate coursework, students who wish to do so may petition the communication graduate faculty through the graduate advisor to change to a thesis degree plan.

The total number of hours required for the program leading to the Master of Arts in Communication is 36 for the thesis option and 36 for the non-thesis option. Students in the Master of Arts in Communication program may take only 6000-level course work for their degree plan.

All non-thesis degree candidates are required to pass a comprehensive examination. The comprehensive examination will include all the communication core courses required on the student’s degree plan (Communication 6302, 6303, 6312, and 6313) in addition to any graduate communication electives completed prior to the semester in which the comprehensive examination is administered. The comprehensive examination should be administered when the student is in the last semester of his/her program.

Thesis option students shall complete an oral thesis defense which may include questions regarding their course work.

All degree candidates must take a prescribed core requirement of 12 graduate hours in Communication consisting of:

• Communication 6302 Quantitative Research Methods or
  Communication 6310 Survey Research
• Communication 6303 Communication Theory
• Communication 6312 Qualitative Research Methods
• Communication 6313 Rhetorical Analysis

Thesis students: 6 hours of thesis (Communication 6399 Thesis twice or Communication 6699 Thesis).

Thesis Option

The student must complete a minimum of 36 semester credit hours of graduate work, including:

• the 12 hour communication core,
• 12 additional graduate hours in communication,
• 6 graduate elective hours taken from communication or approved electives,
• 6 hours of thesis (Communication 6399 Thesis twice or Communication 6699 Thesis).

Non-Thesis Option

The student must complete a minimum of 36 semester credit hours of graduate work, including:

• the 12 hour communication core,
• 18 additional graduate hours in communication,
• 6 graduate elective hours taken from communication or approved electives.

Electives

Students may take up to six hours of electives outside the department in consultation with the Communication Graduate Advisor.

Transfer Credits

Transfer students will be admitted to the program, but no more than six hours of 6000-level graduate credit work toward the graduate degree may be transferred from another institution. All transferred work must be equivalent to either the communication graduate classes or approved elective classes for this program. Students may apply for transfer credit through the program advisor and Graduate Dean.