Curriculum and Graduation Pathways

Graduate students are required to maintain timely progress towards degree completion. Students need to complete a minimum of 30 semester hours. No more than 6 hours of coursework may be taken from programs outside of the School of Communication Studies. Only the graduate level courses are counted towards completion of coursework, and among these courses, only up to two classes of 50000 level will be permitted.

Timely progress includes the following actions:

1. Successful completion of required courses (9 credit hours).

1. Foundations of Communication Inquiry (COMM 65000)
2. Quantitative Research Methods in Communication & Information (CCI 61000) or Qualitative Research Methods in Communication & Information (CCI 62000). Your academic advisor may direct you to take one or more additional courses that pertain to the research methodology to be used in a thesis, project, or internship.
3. Theories of Communication (COMM 65652)

2. Successful completion of one of the four available graduation options:
   1. Thesis option: Students are required to complete a minimum of 24 semester hours of coursework (required + elective). In addition, students must register for 6 semester hours of COMM 60199, Thesis I.
   2. Coursework option: Students will complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of coursework (required + elective). No more than 2 classes within the minimum of 30 credit hours can be taken from outside of School of Communication Studies.
   3. Project option: Students will complete a minimum of 27 credit hours of classes and are expected to begin and complete 3 credit hour project (COMM 61198) during the final semester in the program (i.e., the semester in which they plan to graduate).
   4. Internship option: Students will complete a minimum of 27 credit hours of classes, and are expected to begin and complete the internship (3 credit hours) during the final semester in the program (i.e., the semester in which they plan to graduate).