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Best PhD Communications Degrees

Quick Highlights:

• Our #1 ranked school for a PhD in communications is  Temple University , followed by  Purdue University .
• These programs prepare students for advanced careers in academia , research, and various industries.
• Many programs offer interdisciplinary study options , allowing students to combine communications with other fields.
• Graduates are equipped for diverse roles in marketing, government, education, and more.

Communication is one of the broadest areas of study that can lead to numerous well-paid and secure careers, and earning your PhD in this discipline could help you to reach the most coveted roles.

With a PhD in Communications, you’ll be ready to pursue rewarding careers in academia, research, and numerous other fields. Your strong understanding of how meaning is conveyed across different contexts, social groups, and technologies means you could also find great success in marketing careers, government organizations, and many other industries. Let us help you make a decision abut doctoral programs.

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What Are the Best PhD in Communications Degrees?

At CollegeRank , we strive to do our best to guide you and your family toward a fruitful academic career. The pursuit of knowledge is a noble one, and we want to help you reach your goals. Please feel free to visit our dedicated methodology page for a step-by-step breakdown. For questions, comments, badge downloads, or data corrections, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

Whether you are studying communication theories, strategic communications or an interdisciplinary field, there are doctoral programs for you.

Best Communication Doctoral Programs

Temple university.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Average Net Price

Founded in 1884 as a night school for working professionals, Temple University has advanced to become one of the leading institutions in the nation, with around 40,000 students attending annually. Both undergraduate and graduate programs are available at the Philadelphia campus, with a total of around 500 programs offered. 

Temple University’s top PhD in media and communication degree program integrates studies in a range of areas, including social sciences and the humanities. This doctoral program will prepare PhD students for careers in education, consulting, finance, and others. In addition to working closely with your peers, PhD students will contribute to faculty research and publications.

Courses and areas of study will cover research areas like:

• Political communication
• Laws and policies relating to the media industry
• Emerging media and technology
• Global media
• Information and communication technologies
• Strategic communication

You’ll also have access to and benefit from guest speakers and events such as Best Practices for Publishing Journal Articles. Temple University was ranked among the 100 Best Values in Public Colleges by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance in 2017.

Purdue University

West Lafayette, Indiana

Ranking highly among the nation’s most innovative universities, Purdue University was founded in 1862 and continues to celebrate its rich history and traditions to this day. Examples include the institution’s on-campus, annual Grand Prix event, in addition to the official song sung by students: “Hail Purdue”. 

PhD students may earn a non-thesis or thesis-based master’s degree in addition to their dissertation-based doctorate. This can be in one of five specializations and research areas, including:

• Health communication
• Interpersonal communication
• Organizational communication
• Media technology & society
• Public relations

What’s more, there are opportunities available for cross-discipline study. Purdue’s School of Management allows you to combine your communications program with studies in human resource management. Other options include:

• gerontology
• information security

This highly flexible doctoral program structure allows you to tailor your program to your career aspirations. 

Rutgers University

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Rutgers was established in 1766, making it the eighth oldest institution of higher education in the nation, with a study body nearly 70,000-strong. Based at the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University, the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) was established in 1982. It has one of the top communication doctoral programs.

The top PhD in communication, information, and media at Rutgers University offers three areas of concentration:

• Communication
• Library and information science
• Media studies

The curriculum focuses on information and media organizations and their processes, policies, and technology, in addition to how these organizations and processes relate to society and individuals. 

The communication concentration focuses on research connected to five research areas: 

• Communication and technology
• Language and social interaction

Faculty members include nationally and internationally recognized experts, many having received article, book, and career awards for their research areas.

Louisiana State University

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Louisiana State University first opened its doors to students in 1860 under the name Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana. Programs are offered at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and over $300 million in financial aid is given to students each year. In fact, around two-thirds of the student body graduates without student debt. 

LSU’s PhD program in communication is offered via the LSU department of communication studies. In addition to the PhD and several master’s degree options, prospective students can enroll in the M.A. to PhD fast track program, which results in both qualifications. Upon acceptance into the doctoral program, PhD students will work with the graduate committee to develop your individualized curriculum. 

The standard PhD track comprises 72 credit hours, including examinations and a dissertation; it’ll take around 4 years to complete or 7 years maximum (part-time). Through required core courses, PhD students gain a foundation in subjects such as:

• research writing
• communication theory
• strategic communication

Ohio State University

Columbus, Ohio

Prospective PhD students wishing to attend Ohio State’s doctoral program must already have a four-year bachelor’s degree or equivalent from an accredited institution. You’ll also need to evidence a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, in addition to providing transcriptions and evidencing successful completion of the GRE or GMAT. 

The coursework you’ll complete in this top communication PhD program focuses on providing a solid foundation in communication theory, in addition to how this existing knowledge can be used to generate new learning through research activity. You will have the opportunity to attend professional conferences, and you will design, plan, execute, and publish your own research findings. 

You’ll be mentored by distinguished scholars and guided in creating your own personalized program of study, emphasizing areas where your own interests meet those of the faculty. During your doctoral studies, you will also be encouraged to collaborate with world class faculty members and contribute to both journal articles and papers.

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The University of Minnesota has one of the top doctoral programs for communication. It has an annual enrollment of around 50,000 students, supported by 20,000 dedicated staff and faculty. Founded in 1851, the main campus – Twin Cities – is located on the banks of the Mississippi and is one of the only five universities in the country to boast dedicated schools for engineering, medicine, law, and veterinary studies on a single campus. 

While this communications PhD program is designed to be completed in five years, you may be able to complete the doctoral program in four years if you hold a master’s degree in communication studies. The PhD curriculum focuses on the connections between each subfield in the discipline of communication. 

Your first year of study will focus on foundation knowledge and central concepts and theory in communication. In year two, you’ll take courses related to your specific research interests and write a literature review to a publishable standard. Year three requires completion of the remaining coursework, with your final two years dedicated to dissertation work.

University at Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Students at the University at Buffalo benefit from a huge range of opportunities outside of the classroom. Student clubs and organizations are vast, with more than 600 available to choose from. There’s also a Division I athletics program, regularly scheduled music concerts and other events, and frequent guest speakers present on a range of topics. UB has one of the best communication doctoral programs.

Coursework in this doctoral program focuses on research methodologies and the theory of communication, with students prepared to take on research-based positions in a range of industries. Unlike other doctoral programs that specialize in areas such as mass communication or speech theory, this curriculum is aligned with the faculty’s research interests. 

Graduate students are required to complete a minimum of 36 credit hours of coursework beyond the master’s program curriculum, maintaining a QPA (quality point average) of at least 3.0. You will also be expected to complete research electives, department electives, and free electives, in addition to producing two publication-quality research papers.

University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign

Champaign, Illinois

Founded in 1867, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign today welcomes around 47,000 students annually from around the globe. It has risen to become one of the top 15 ranked public universities and was the birthplace of the first graphical web browser. UIUC also counts 29 Pulitzer Prize winners among its alumni. 

The faculty at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Communications Research (ICR) come from three academic departments:

• Advertising
• Media and cinema studies

They’re also engaged with numerous interdisciplinary activities across campus, meaning you’ll receive a broad and well-rounded program of study in this program. 

Admission to the PhD in communications and media requires that prospective students  have either a bachelor’s or master’s degree that relates to an area within the humanities, physical sciences, or social sciences. The program itself requires the completion of 64 credits of dissertation research and coursework for those who already hold a master’s degree. 

University of Oklahoma

Norman, Oklahoma

Students at the University of Oklahoma have a choice of more than 400 clubs and organizations, organized events on-campus, and broad athletic programs. With a campus located close to the welcoming community of Norman, OK, and just a half-hour outside of Oklahoma City, you’ll never be short of activities outside the lecture hall. 

This PhD communication program allows specialization in one or more areas of interest. These research areas include:

• Intercultural/international communication
• Interpersonal communication and social influence
• Political/mass communication
• Communication technology

The PhD program requires a minimum of 90 semester hours beyond the bachelor’s degree level. 

PhD students enrolling in this program are required to take a number of core courses, in addition to earning 32 hours of coursework within a concentration of their choosing. Core courses include:

• Quantitative Research Methodology
• Advanced Statistics
• Qualitative research methods
• The History and Theory of Communication
• Information and Communication Technologies
• Strategic Communication

Florida State University

Tallahassee, Florida

Florida State University (FSU) has been ranked a top 10 university for best value by Kiplinger’s Best College Values. It’s also known for having the highest four-year graduation rate among the state’s public universities. The institution excels in particular in the arts and sciences. 

Including 48 credit hours of graduate coursework and at least 24 hours of dissertation project work, this PhD communication program provides you with a core set of common courses that will provide a broad understanding of the field of communication, and the methodological, philosophical, and theoretical aspects of communication scholarship. 

Florida State’s doctoral program offers supervised teaching opportunities, often including teaching at an undergraduate level in communication. You’ll also gain training in essential skills such as classroom management and research skills, which would be invaluable for any future university instructors. Regular workshops are also offered, which focus on innovation in e-learning methods.

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, North Carolina

North Carolina State University at Raleigh (NC State) is part of the University of North Carolina System and was founded in 1887. The student body comprises more than 35,000 learners and the institution specializes in programs in the humanities, social sciences, and teaching and research, making it an excellent choice for communications majors. 

NC State’s communication and English department is located within the Research Triangle, a growing community and highly regarded location of innovation and research in Raleigh, North Carolina. In this program, you’ll gain both teaching and research experience, and you’ll benefit from a flexible curriculum of core elective courses and seminars. 

The communication, rhetoric, and digital media (CRDM) faculty engages with other research departments and organizations within the Research Triangle, providing a wealth of expertise and experience for you to benefit from. You’ll cover subfields including:

• new communication media
• the cultural, political, and social aspects of information technology

Indiana University – Bloomington

Bloomington, Indiana

Indiana University Bloomington has over 700,000 graduate alumni who have benefited from nearly 400 study abroad programs and more than 750 student organizations. The university participates in 24 sports, with students known as Hoosiers. They also have a choice of more than 200 undergraduate programs and nationally recognized graduate programs. 

This PhD in media arts and sciences comprises 90 credits and provides a broad and customizable curriculum that can lead into many varied careers. It’s one of the top research doctoral programs in media and communication, featuring small class sizes and a leading faculty. 

As part of the admission requirements, you’ll need to have a four-year bachelor’s and two-year master’s degree with a minimum GPA of 3.5 at the master’s level. You will also need:

• recent GRE scores
• three letters of recommendation
• a statement of purpose
• a writing sample
• a copy of your curriculum vitae

The closest estimate you can get for tuition and fees at Indiana University Bloomington is by looking at the previous year’s expenses. Alternatively, you can get a reasonably accurate idea of your tuition and fees by using the university’s costs calculator on their website .

North Dakota State University

Fargo, North Dakota

Ranked within the top 100 public research universities, North Dakota State University (NDSU) features within the National Science Foundation’s top 100 for numerous areas of study, including the sciences, business, and communications. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, the institution has a total enrollment of around 13,000 students. 

The NDSU doctoral degree in communication is highly competitive. You’ll enroll in:

• as many as 12 credit hours prior to completing an application
• 60 credit hours beyond master’s level
• 30 credit hours in research theory or other content within your concentration
• 15 hours relating to research methodology

You will also be expected to complete a dissertation (15 credits). 

By graduation, doctoral students have typically published two to three papers or journal articles, in addition to having presented at more than one convention. This doctoral program will also give you a solid understanding of learning and teaching, making it ideal for those looking to secure a role as a university instructor. 

The University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The University of Alabama was the state’s flagship university, having been founded nearly 200 years ago in 1831. Situated on a stunning 1,200-acre campus, the university boasts more than 600 student clubs and organizations, plus a broad range of opportunities for volunteering or completing an internship. 

PhD students enrolling in the PhD in Communication and Information Sciences can select from one of three signature research areas of the faculty:

• Emergent media
• Sports communication

Alternatively, you can opt to partner directly with members of the faculty, focusing on research activities pursued by these instructors. 

What’s more, you can tailor your coursework to specific areas of concentration that include:

• applied communication
• book and publishing studies
• health communication
• interpersonal communication
• media studies

There’s more information about each of these concentrations and their focus on the university’s program page. 

The University of Illinois at Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

As a freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago, you’ll receive an introduction to campus life at orientation, and you’ll need it; located minutes from the Windy City, there’s always plenty to get involved in. More than 33,000 students attend this best value and most diverse university annually. 

For admission into the PhD in communication, you must already have a master’s degree in communication or a similar field, in addition to holding an average GPA of 3.0, or 4.0 for your final 60 semester hours. Other requirements include the need to submit GRE general scores and provide three letters of recommendation. 

You’ll choose one or more specializations in common subfields of communication, and it’s also recommended that you enroll in two courses in research techniques that are specific to your chosen specialization. After graduation, you can also choose to enroll in further concentrations to complement your degree, including:

• Black studies
• Gender and women’s studies
• Latin American and Latino studies

University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Amherst, Massachusetts

Situated in Amherst, Massachusetts, UMass Amherst is regularly ranked within the top research institutions in the country. It was also recently ranked at number 26 in a list of the best national public universities by U.S. News & World Report . More than 13,000 students attend UMass Amherst annually. 

For successful completion of this doctoral program, you’ll be required to complete a minimum of 60 credits beyond the bachelor’s level, in addition to a further 6 or more credits in research tools or methodologies. You will also be expected to plan, research, and complete a dissertation project of your own choosing. 

This communication studies doctoral program offers a particularly large number of specializations to choose from—14 in total—which include unique specializations such as feminist studies and performance studies. For more information on the potential specialization options, check out this page on the university’s website. 

The per-credit rate for tuition and fees at the University of Massachusetts Amherst depends on the number of credits being taken. For example, a single credit is only marginally cheaper than two credits, as the rates work on a sliding scale. Non-residents typically pay around twice what state residents will pay.

Michigan State University

East Lansing, Michigan

Michigan State University has been welcoming students through its doors for more than 160 years. Ranked as a top public U.S. university, top 100 global university and receiving a gold sustainability rating, MSU produces highly competent graduates who have a 93% placement rate, almost 12% higher than the national average. 

According to the program page, this doctoral degree in communication is considered one of the most prestigious programs of its kind in the world. Designed to last for four years, the PhD program requires the completion of a dissertation and regularly sees graduates offered roles in research centers, government organizations, and higher education institutions across the globe. 

After completion of the core courses, doctoral students typically specialize in:

• social media
• social influence and persuasion
• communication analytics
• organizational communication

Alternatively, you can also choose to specialize in hospitality research and hospitality program teaching.

George Mason University

Fairfax, Virginia

Founded in 1972, George Mason University is a private research institution that has fast become a respected university within the state of Virginia. The student body hails from 130 different countries and totals around 37,000 students. Around $150 million in research takes place each year and 80% of graduates find employment within 6 months of graduation. 

While a master’s degree in a related field is a prerequisite for this program, it means that you can graduate with the doctorate after successful completion of just 60 credits. Otherwise, the PhD program comprises 90 credits and involves the completion of a dissertation research project. 

You’ll work alongside faculty members to develop essential research relating to health and strategic communication. You’ll study:

• the consumer-provider relationship
• crisis communication

The program-specific requirements for this PhD include:

• submission of college transcripts
• an updated resume
• three recommendation letters

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Founded in 1889, The University of New Mexico offers more than 90 undergraduate degree programs and is within the top 20 for two of its programs. Over $70 million in scholarships were awarded to students in the recent incoming freshman year, for which you may qualify after completing the FAFSA . 

This PhD program applies the study of communication and culture, and how the two interrelate. Specifically, you’ll look at media studies, health communication, and critical intercultural studies. You’ll complete coursework such as Strategic Communication and Research Methodologies totaling 36 hours, in addition to committing a further 18 hours for your dissertation project. 

Upon acceptance into the program, the world-class faculty will help you to design a program of study that closely relates to your aspirations and interests. Faculty members include award-winning instructors whose work has been recognized on both the national and international stage, so you’ll be guided well throughout your program. 

University of Colorado Boulder

Boulder, Colorado

Part of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the University of Colorado Boulder was established in 1876 and has since grown to include its own natural history and art museums. Among its alumni are three U.S. Supreme Court justices, five Nobel Prize winners, and five National Medal of Science winners. 

This PhD program has been designed to follow a master’s degree, preferably within the same discipline. Assuming that you have completed a master’s within a related area, you could complete this doctoral degree in as few as 3 to 4 years. 

Through this doctoral program, you’ll gain a broad understanding of four subject areas. You’ll gain:

• a broad foundation in communication
• develop advanced knowledge of a specific specialization area and one primary research methodology
• expertise in a secondary specialization

University of North Dakota

Grand Forks, North Dakota

The University of North Dakota was founded in 1883, which was six years prior to the state of North Dakota being established itself. Sitting on a 521-acre campus, the institution has more than 250 student clubs and organizations, welcomes around 13,600 students annually, and is the largest university in North Dakota. 

Comprising 90 credit hours and taking an average of 3 to 5 years to complete, this communication doctoral degree is led by a faculty with expertise in:

• interpersonal and persuasive communication
• risk and crisis communication
• communication across digital channels including social media

As part of your application, you will be expected to submit your GRE general scores. You will also need to provide a statement of goals that outlines your motivations and career aspirations, in addition to submitting an original academic paper of around 10 to 15 pages in length.

Wayne State University

Detroit, Michigan

Wayne State University heavily emphasizes diversity and inclusion among its students, or Wayne State Warriors. Multiculturalism is encouraged, with students representing more than 75 countries around the world. In fact, this university has the most diverse student body of any other institution in Michigan. 

This PhD program offers specialization in five areas:

• Democratic participation & culture
• Identity & representation
• Media, society, & culture
• Risk, crisis, & conflict
• Wellness, worklife, & relationships

You will choose either one or two areas of specialization in which to focus more of your studies and research activity. 

Throughout this doctoral program, PhD students are required to complete a minimum of 30 credits of PhD coursework; at least two-thirds of these must be gained from the department of communication. And you’ll need to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 to successfully graduate from your program. 

University of Oregon

Eugene, Oregon

Situated a short distance from the Cascade Mountains and situated in the Willamette Valley, the University of Oregon comprises 9 schools and colleges and welcomes around 22,500 students annually. A third of freshmen are first-generation college students, holding an average GPA of around 3.65. 

When you enroll in this PhD communication program, you’ll work directly with the faculty as a co-author and teacher, contributing your own research alongside recognized names in the communications and media industry. Under the guidance of this R1 research institution, you’ll have expert instruction in areas like:

• global media
• journalism studies
• technology and society

This is also a fully funded research degree, meaning the institution will take care of your tuition. You’ll be funded for four consecutive years of study. Funded students receive a monthly stipend varying between $1,400 and $1,575. As part of this benefit, you’ll contribute 16 hours per week towards teaching and research activities.

New York University

New York City, New York

Founded in 1831, New York University (NYU) welcomes students from almost every state in the nation and more than 130 countries worldwide. The institution has campuses in both Shanghai and Abu Dhabi, in addition to 11 other study-abroad sites across the globe. In total, NYU has more students studying abroad than any other university in the United States. 

This heavily technology-driven doctoral program will prepare you for leadership or academic careers in the areas of research, education, and technology. You’ll employ the use of multimedia learning scenarios and conduct research into the learning processes that relate to groups and individuals that work with these environments. 

Available as a part-time or full-time program, and comprising 57 credits, this program features coursework in the areas of learning sciences and cognitive sciences. PhD students have the opportunity to work closely with preeminent scholars in this discipline, while conducting their own, original research on how technology is employed for learning purposes. 

University of Pennsylvania

Founded in 1740, the University of Pennsylvania employs a faculty nearly 5,000-strong, which helps keep class sizes low; there’s a 6:1 student-faculty ratio. Students participate in everything from clubs and organizations, to Greek society, and a student government. Penn State is also a member of the Ivy League, with many athletic pursuits available. 

According to the university’s website, the Annenberg School for Communication has been ranked for the nation’s best doctoral program due to a world-class faculty and well-designed curriculum that allows for highly individualized study. Many PhD graduates are already known nationally or internationally upon graduation. 

This communication research degree program lasts for five years and will require you to take introductory courses in both statistics and research methods, in addition to completing the core courses. You’ll need to complete a dissertation proposal and comprehensive examinations in order to progress to the dissertation phase. 

Drexel University

Drexel University is among the nation’s largest private institutions with a student body of around 25,000 learners. Comprising a 74-acre main campus, the university is located in a bustling urban city and has numerous other campuses and partnerships elsewhere. Drexel was founded in the 1890s, but began conferring degrees in 1914. 

This PhD in communication, culture, and media covers key subject areas that include:

• social justice problems
• the media’s treatment of immigrants
• political communication with a focus on war and conflict

Every admitted student takes the same five core courses, in addition to at least five courses within culture and communications. 

The remainder of your doctoral studies will comprise 10 courses geared towards your research needs and unique interests, in addition to having an option to take graduate courses offered outside of the department. You’ll also complete a dissertation and independent research and study to make up the remainder of your 90 required credits. 

Howard University

Washington, D.C.

Howard University comprises 13 schools and colleges and was founded in 1867. Students choose from programs in over 120 disciplines, with over 120,000 degrees in the arts, sciences, and humanities having been conferred to-date. As a student based on-campus, you’ll be studying on a campus that’s set in scenic natural beauty atop a hill in Northwest Washington. 

Howard University’s PhD in communication, culture, and media studies (CCMS) has a curriculum that’s centered around the emergence of communication issues in a developing multicultural and digital world. Key areas of study include competency in research methodologies and the advancement of under-served communities through social justice and multiculturalism. 

As a Howard PhD student, your studies will be focused in one of three specialization tracks:

• Media and cultural studies
• Technology, policy, and society

There are also teaching assistantship opportunities available, which you can make an application for once you have been admitted to this communication, culture, and media studies program.

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California

The University of Southern California (USC), a leading private research university, is known for producing a high caliber of graduates. There were more than 310 National Merit Scholars in the 2020 freshman class, and the average GPA for incoming students is around 3.70-4.00. 

Graduates from this program are thoroughly prepared for and commonly pursue careers as university instructors. Your program will see you conduct your own, original research that advances the field of communications and contributes to the ongoing success of media and governmental organizations in the public and private sector. 

PhD candidates choose from seven tracks of specialization:

• Rhetoric, politics, and publics
• Media, culture, and community
• Health communication and social dynamics
• Groups, organizations, and network
• Information, political economy, and entertainment
• Political economy of global communication
• New media and technology

Columbia University in the City of New York

Columbia University was founded in 1754, making it the oldest higher education institution in the state of New York. The student body comprises around 40,000 learners of varying levels, with students participating in a broad variety of athletics and arts programs. And unlike many other universities, each club has its own webpage so you can find what interests you ahead of time. 

This PhD program in communications examines the relationships between society and the media from a cultural, political, historical, technological, and social point of view. Doctoral graduates will be expected to evidence their understanding of the broad field of communications overall, while gaining a more in-depth understanding of a specific concentration area. 

You’ll produce a dissertation that comprises your own original research, and you will defend your research in front of the graduate committee. Each academic year, you will also be expected to submit progress toward your dissertation to your faculty advisers, after which they will discuss and approve the work for continuation.

Stanford University

Stanford, California

Opened in 1891, Stanford University has a total enrollment of around 16,000 students annually. Its central campus is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and the university today comprises seven schools. 

The core focus of Stanford’s communication program is on communication processes, including how they were conceived and their impact on psychology, politics, and culture. PhD candidates typically share research interests in one of three key faculty specializations:

• Media psychology
• Journalism, media, and culture

Most PhD students choose one area of emphasis from the above, while studying the other research areas at a high level. Core courses focus on areas such as:

• qualitative and quantitative research methods
• mass communication theory

Throughout your communication studies, you will develop a research specialization, including the development of research projects and time spent teaching, culminating in an examination. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, a PhD in communications can open many doors for your career. You can work in research or academic settings, in advertising or business, and in sociological settings, to name a few. And with a terminal degree, you can likely earn the highest salary in your field. A degree like this offers other benefits, too: you’ll have a high-level set of skills, a detailed understanding of the principles of communication, and you’ll have the resources you need to be an effective communicator whether you’re writing or speaking. It’s a field with good growth potential, too – 8 percent or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, depending on the specific field in which you work.

The average cost of a PhD is $106,860, according to the Education Data Initiative. The cost of your communications PhD program depends on many factors, including the length of the program, the school you attend, and your residency status. The amount of financial assistance you get also affects the cost of your PhD. With grants, teaching assistantships, or both, you can significantly reduce the overall cost of your degree.

It’s common for universities to require a high GPA (e.g., 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale) for your previous college coursework, official transcripts from the universities you’ve attended in the past, and multiple letters of recommendation from professional colleagues or previous professors. It’s also standard for PhD programs in communication to require a personal statement, essay, curriculum vitae, resume, or some combination thereof. In  top communication PhD programs , you are typically asked to participate in an admissions interview in person or online.

Communications is not considered a difficult field of study, at least not compared to other areas that require a lot of math and science. However, any PhD program comes with some difficulty, considering the level of study. You will explore complex topics like global media, speech theory, and strategic communications. You will also be required to conduct original research and write a dissertation, which you must defend before your degree is conferred. Be prepared for a lot of work over the course of several years.

A PhD in communications typically takes about five years to complete, including a master’s degree along the way. If you already have a master’s degree, you can likely complete a PhD program in three or four years. The exact amount of time you need to complete your PhD in communications depends in large part on how many courses you take each semester and whether or not you already have a master’s degree.

Yes. Many communications PhD programs accept students with just a bachelor’s degree. In some cases, you will earn a master’s degree as you progress toward your PhD. In other cases, there is no master’s component; you graduate with just a PhD.

A popular career with a PhD in communications is to work as a college professor. Doing so allows you to teach and conduct research on communication topics of interest to you. Other popular choices with a PhD in communications include the following: • Art director • Editor • Graphic designer • Interpreter or translator • Photographer • Reporter • Technical writer • Author

You can earn around $80,840 per year as a PhD-level communications professor, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Starting wages are lower at about $47,000 per year. But as you gain experience and tenure, your salary can eclipse $170,000 per year. Other options and their median annual wages are as follows: • Technical writer ($79,960) • Editor ($73,080) • Interpreter or translator ($53,640) • Graphic designer ($57,990) • Writers and authors ($73,150) Your salary depends on many factors beyond your specific occupation. You stand to make more money as you gain experience. The same is true if you complete additional training, specializations, or certifications after you complete your PhD.

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Phd in communications: requirements, salary, jobs, & career growth, what is phd in communications.

A PhD in Communications is a doctoral degree program that focuses on communication theory, research methods, and applications in a variety of fields, including media, journalism, public relations, advertising, organizational communication, political communication, and interpersonal communication.

It is a higher level of education that educates students to become communication academics and researchers.

A PhD in Communications normally entails coursework, independent research, and dissertation completion.

Communication theories, research methodologies, media and society, communication ethics, communication technologies, and strategic communication may all be included in the courses.

Students may also be able to specialize in a specific field of communications based on their research interests.

How much money do people make with a PhD in Communications?

PhDs in Communications can expect to earn attractive incomes, particularly if they work in academia, research organizations, or other specialized industries.

According to BLS data, the median annual wage for postsecondary communication and media studies lecturers, which often includes those with PhDs in Communications working in academia, was $69,170 in 2020.

Postsecondary instructors’ pay, on the other hand, might vary greatly based on the type of school (e.g., public vs. private), level (e.g., assistant professor vs. full professor), and years of experience.

Salaries for those with a PhD in Communications might vary substantially in various industries, such as research institutions, government agencies, or commercial enterprises, depending on the nature of the work, level of competence, and location.

Communication professionals in leadership or specialized jobs may make more money, especially if they have experience and competence in areas like as strategic communication, media management, or digital communication.

What is expected job growth with PhD in Communications?

Individuals with a PhD in Communications have a generally optimistic work outlook, with opportunities for advancement in a variety of fields.

Job growth in academia, a major career path for those with a PhD in Communications, is often driven by factors such as student enrollment, research funding, and institutional finances.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment of postsecondary teachers, particularly communication and media studies teachers, is expected to expand 9% between 2020 and 2030, faster than the national average.

However, tenure-track positions in academia are competitive, and opportunities vary by institution and location.

Job growth for individuals with a PhD in Communications may be influenced by factors such as technological advancements, changes in the media landscape, and evolving communication practices in fields other than academia, such as research institutions, government agencies, think tanks, private organizations, and consulting firms.

For example, when the demand for expertise in strategic communication, digital media, or data-driven communication strategies grows, individuals with a PhD in Communications may have more chances in these areas.

Furthermore, as the communication field continues to expand and integrate into various industries and sectors, individuals with a PhD in Communications may find opportunities in non-traditional communication roles such as marketing, advertising, public relations, corporate communication, and social media management, among others.

What can you do with a PhD in Communications?

Graduates with a PhD in Communications can work in academia, research institutions, government agencies, think tanks, corporate companies, consulting businesses, and other sectors. Individuals with a PhD in Communications may pursue the following careers:

1. Professor/Researcher: Many PhDs in Communications pursue professions in academia as professors or researchers. They can teach and do research in communication departments at universities and colleges, as well as write academic articles and books and contribute to the growth of communication knowledge. They may also supervise research projects, mentor students, and attend academic conferences.

2. Research Scientist: PhD in Communications graduates can work as research scientists in research institutes, think tanks, or government agencies. They have the ability to undertake study on communication theories, media effects, audience analysis, communication technologies, and other pertinent areas. Their study findings could help shape legislation, influence communication tactics, or enhance the area of communications.

3. Communication Consultant: Individuals with a PhD in Communications can work as consultants, advising organizations, corporations, or government agencies on strategic communication. They may assist in the development of communication plans, the implementation of communication audits, the analysis of communication practices, and the recommendation of solutions to improve communication effectiveness and meet organizational goals.

4. Communication Strategist: PhD in Communications graduates can work as communication strategists in a variety of sectors, including advertising, public relations, marketing, and social media management. They are capable of developing and implementing communication campaigns, doing market research, analyzing customer behavior, and employing communication methods to reach organizational goals.

5. Policy Analysts: With a PhD in Communications, you can work as a policy analyst, assessing communication policies and their impact on society, organizations, or individuals. They may work in government, non-profit, or think tanks, providing insights and recommendations on communication-related laws, legislation, and practices.

6. Leadership Roles: PhD in Communications graduates can pursue leadership positions in communication-related industries such as chief communication officer (CCO), director of communications, or communication manager. In organizations, they may lead communication teams, establish communication strategy, manage communication activities, and monitor communication initiatives.

7. Independent Researcher/Entrepreneur: Individuals with a PhD in Communications may choose to work as independent researchers or entrepreneurs, conducting their own research, writing books, providing specialized training or consulting services, or developing innovative communication products or technologies.

What are the requirements for a PhD in Communications?

The specific requirements for obtaining a PhD in Communications can vary depending on the institution and program, but generally, the following are common requirements:

1. Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree: Applicants to most PhD programs in Communications must have a Bachelor’s degree from a recognized university. Although it is not usually required, certain schools may accept applicants with a Master’s degree in a related discipline.

2. Academic Transcripts: Applicants are usually expected to present certified transcripts of their undergraduate and graduate education, which demonstrate their academic performance and achievement.

3. Statement of Purpose: Applicants are typically expected to provide a personal statement or statement of purpose detailing their research interests, academic ambitions, and reason for pursuing a PhD in Communications.

4. Standardized Test Scores: Applicants to many PhD programs may be required to submit scores from standardized tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or other related assessments.

5. Letters of Recommendation: Applicants to PhD programs in Communications are frequently required to provide letters of recommendation from academic or professional sources who may speak to the applicant’s academic talents, research potential, and eligibility for a PhD program.

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How long does it take to get a phd in communications.

The length of a PhD program in Communications varies by country, university, and individual circumstances. A PhD program in Communications can take 4 to 6 years to finish on average, although it might take longer depending on the research requirements and development of the individual student.

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Do you need a masters in communications to get a phd in communications.

A Master’s degree in Communications is not always required to enroll in a PhD program in Communications. It may, however, differ based on the university or program requirements.

Some PhD programs in Communications may prefer or require applicants to have a Master’s degree in a similar discipline, but others may accept students with only a Bachelor’s degree.

What are the Best PhD in Communications Degree programs?

1. university of pennsylvania – annenberg school for communication 2. stanford university – department of communication 3. university of texas at austin – moody college of communication 4. university of illinois at urbana-champaign – college of media 5. university of michigan – department of communication studies 6. university of california, santa barbara – department of communication 7. northwestern university – school of communication 8. university of southern california – annenberg school for communication and journalism 9. indiana university – media school 10. university of wisconsin-madison – school of journalism and mass communication, leave a comment cancel reply.

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Communication (PhD)

You will acquire the leading-edge theory and research methodologies you need to shape a more ethical and just world. 

Whether you seek a career in academia, the industry, or governmental and non-governmental organizations, you will become a critical educator and researcher of communication through rigorous coursework, independent and collaborative research projects, and teaching opportunities.

You will work side by side with your peers and our distinguished faculty to advance knowledge in the field while creating interdisciplinary solutions to complex societal and organizational problems. At the same time, you will build a professional network of worldwide and lifelong connections with fellow scholars and practitioners.

USC Annenberg’s location at the heart of a top-tier research university and in the dynamic city of Los Angeles provides you with the ideal setting to explore ways to inventively fuse your scholarship and expertise in communication studies with disciplines such as political science, international relations, sociology and information sciences as well as gender, media and popular culture studies.

Program Information

• Learning Objectives
• Research and Teaching
• Areas of Study
• Current Doctoral Students
• Class Profile

By the numbers

Student and faculty work.

Changing the world through better communication

Former U.S. Navy Blue Angels team member Amber Lynn Scott became interested in studying high-reliability organizations for her dissertation to make a positive impact for military and first responders.

Requiem for a meme

Alexandria Arrieta researches how the intersection of memes and music are having a profound impact on people’s communication and connection across social media.

Making social media a better tool for political activism

With his lifelong interest in politics, Alfonso Hedge realized Annenberg’s doctoral program would be the perfect place to study how grassroots political organizations use social media.

From music to AI

Event promoter and DJ Stephen Yang examines the on-the-ground practices of technologists and media professionals as they reshape the culture of production.

Jermaine Anthony Richards named 2023 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow

The merit-based program provides funding for Richards to explore his research on how transmedia storytelling animates human security politics, security cultures, and political movements.

Exploring identity through social media

Samah Sadig shares her passion for identity, expression and education — and how it all brought her to USC Annenberg.

Work on groundbreaking research with expert faculty

As innovations in information and communication technologies continue at a rapid pace, USC Annenberg remains at the forefront of efforts to explore these social, cultural, rhetorical and organizational processes. You will work and collaborate with fellow doctoral students, our world-class faculty, and industry and public/private sector professionals to advance research and insights across a wide range of interdisciplinary areas of study. You will also have the opportunity to lead research endeavors that impact scholarship and practice across the contemporary communications landscape.

Explore the research of USC Annenberg faculty and students. View the areas of study available to our PhD students.

Get to know your fellow students

The communication doctorate program enrolls students from diverse backgrounds, nationalities and educational experiences. Connect with fellow students by viewing their profiles and get to know USC Annenberg through their eyes.

Communication (PhD) faculty

Doctorate in Communication

With one of the nation's premier doctoral programs in Communication, the Annenberg School is a tight-knit, supportive community of scholars committed to advancing knowledge of our media environment.

Founded through the generosity and vision of publisher, diplomat, and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, the Annenberg School for Communication is devoted to furthering our understanding of the role of communication in public life through research, education, and service. Our five-year doctoral program has a strong reputation as one of the best in Communication, based on Annenberg’s unparalleled combination of world-class faculty , students , and alumni , as well as access to the larger intellectual and cultural resources of the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia .

In an inherently interdisciplinary field, Annenberg researchers are engaged with a spectrum of topics related to health, politics, media systems, networks and digital culture, journalism, race and gender, and more, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Our Ph.D. program allows students to tailor a curriculum to suit their specific interests, and provides them the financial resources to launch their academic career. 

In addition to a full tuition waiver, our students currently receive an annual stipend as well as a budget for research and travel and health insurance for all five years.

Annenberg is the smallest of the 12 schools at Penn, and it functions as close-knit community of scholars whose doors are always open to one another. Our students also appreciate our staff , who routinely go above and beyond to support them.

Please note that we do not have a standalone master’s degree program at this time. All students are admitted directly into the doctoral program.

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Our Students By the Numbers

Here are some fast facts about our students and the admissions process . Get to know Annenberg!

Students currently in the program

Different nationalities represented by our students, applicants each year, students accepted each year, average undergraduate gpa of applicants, average toefl of admitted candidates, of students came from a previous graduate degree program, of students worked in a career before joining annenberg, of students came straight to annenberg from an undergraduate degree.

Our Faculty

Our graduate faculty is at the heart of the school. Their innovative work, often in collaboration with students, pushes the field of Communication forward.

Students on Video

Hear from some of the Annenberg School's doctoral students as they talk about their work and what brought them to Annenberg.

What is it like to be a doctoral student at the International Communication Association annual conference? We followed four students to find out.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctoral candidate Kelly Diaz used her phone to document the many signs displayed in yards and windows around her West Philadelphia home. She has now collected that body of work into a  photo essay .

Doctoral Candidate and artist Roopa Vasudevan studies the ways that the everyday technologies shape our daily lives.

What is it like to be a Ph.D. student? We followed five of our students through their daily activities.

Prateekshit Pandey works with the Communication Neuroscience Lab to study how the brain reacts to humor. 

Buenos Aires-native María Celeste Wagner looks at how gender influences credibility in news. 

Jennifer Henrichsen studies the way that journalists adopt information security technologies to protect themselves and their sources.

Our Students

Annenberg's doctoral students represent a broad spectrum of interests, methodologies, and backgrounds. Here are just a few of our incredible students.

Arlene C. Fernández

Azsaneé Truss

Antoine Haywood

Danielle Clark

Neil Fasching

Tom W. Etienne

Congratulations to Annenberg’s 2024 Ph.D. and M.A. Graduates

Thirteen students earned their doctoral degrees, and fifteen students received M.A. degrees.

Student Profile Video: Kate Okker-Edging

Proust, Smith, and Truss Win 2024 James D. Woods Award

Azsaneé Truss Receives Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching

Three Annenberg Doctoral Candidates Awarded 2024 Sachs Program Grants

Explore the Program

Learn more about life in the Annenberg Ph.D. program.

Financial Support

Curriculum & Milestones

Student Life

Applications for 2025-2026 will open by October

More in doctorate in communication.

Communication College of Letters and Science Graduate Degrees

The Department of Communication offers Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in Communication. We do not offer a terminal M.S. in Communication. Students can earn their M.S. while completing the requirements for a Ph.D. All graduate students entering the Department of Communication at UCLA are expected to complete the Ph.D.

Check out our recent video about the new program  here .

Doctoral Degree

Faculty Advisor:

• Academic advising for graduate students in the department is primarily conducted on an individual basis by a student’s faculty advisor because, beyond basic requirements, each student’s program of study is unique. The role of the faculty advisor is to assist the student with a plan of study, to oversee the student’s progress during the pursuit of the PhD and to supervise the student’s research activity that culminates in the written dissertation. Moreover, the faculty advisor will help students identify funding opportunities, including relevant fellowships for their area of research.

Vice Chair:

• The Vice Chair oversees the Communication graduate program as well as graduate student life more broadly. The Vice Chair is directly involved in the annual student progress reviews, as well as the department TA assignment processes. Moreover, if a student feels they need to talk to a faculty member other than their advisor and/or outside of their dissertation committee, the Vice Chair is ready and able. They also welcome more general questions, comments, and concerns related to the program.

Graduate Advisor:

• The Graduate Advisor is here to assist students with all sorts of academic, administrative, and financial questions. Of course, this includes academic requirement advising, ASE inquiries, enrollment questions, as well as student funding and university policy clarifications. Students are also encouraged to conceive of the graduate advisor as a resource guide for the department and to the larger university community. If a student has a question or issue but doesn’t know where to start or whom to ask, the graduate advisor is here to help!

Department Manager:

• The Department Manager is here to assist students with questions pertaining to Rolfe Hall facilities requests, space planning, and other building-related issues. They also oversee the Communication Department schedule of academic courses each quarter. Moreover, the Department Manager is the point of contact for student researcher (including GSR) hiring questions.

The Communication PhD program has three broad subareas of study- Communication and Cognition; Political Communication; Computational Communication . For more information on each area, as well as the Communication faculty member affiliation to those areas, please visit the Research Areas page on our department website.

The normative time to complete the requirements for the doctoral degree is five years (15 quarters). Advancement to candidacy (ATC), including written and oral qualifying examinations, must be completed by the end of the fourth year, with normative time to ATC at 3 years (9 quarters). Maximum time to degree will be seven year (21 quarters), with extension granted by petition for an eighth year if necessary.

DEGREE: Ph.D.

NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters): 9

NORMATIVE TTD: 15

MAXIMUM TTD: 21

The official Communication PhD Program Degree Requirements are listed in a single-page format on the UCLA Graduate Division website . Sections four through fourteen of this handbook will elaborate on each requirement in varying degrees of detail. If students have any questions or need clarification on specific requirements, they should contact the Communication graduate advisor.

Coursework and Registration Requirements:

The expected course load is 12 units per quarter, meaning students must register for at least 12 units every quarter, even if they’ve completed the program coursework requirement. However, if needed, the minimum course load may be adjusted downward by petition with the approval of the student’s committee chair and the department chair. Students must be registered and always enrolled unless on an official leave of absence.

Coursework requirement for PhD degree:

Students must complete 11 courses (44 units)—of which at least 9 must be 200-level graduate courses—all taken for a letter grade, with a minimum GPA of 3.0. All students are required to take seven core classes + three electives + one TA training class (ANTHRO 495):

• one communication theory and research course (COMM 200)
• one research design course (COMM 220)
• two approved statistics courses, with at least one at the 200 level (e.g., Political Science 200A-D; Psychology 250A-C; Stats 200A-C)
• three seminars that correspond to the three areas of study (COMM 230; 250; 270)
• three elective courses from within our department or elsewhere
• one TA training class (ANTHRO 495).

Any additional elective courses above the 11-course requirement may be taken for a letter grade or S/U grading. Depending on the student’s area of study and prior academic preparation and study, a student may be advised to take other preparatory courses as determined by the faculty adviser.

** It is important to keep in mind that the required stats-sequence courses are not hosted by the Department of Communication. This means there may be seat restrictions applied to the course quotas at the beginning of each quarter. To navigate around this obstacle, students should email the instructor of their respective stats course to request a PTE number. If a student is having difficulty obtaining enrollment, they should reach out to the graduate advisor for assistance.**

All students must complete original research during their first and second years, in the form of a first-year paper and a second-year paper. In general, these two papers will be related to one another, but students may elect to pursue two distinct projects.

At the end of the spring quarter of their first year, students present their research in a written paper and a brief oral presentation to the department’s faculty and graduate students. If original data has not been collected and analyzed by the end of the first year, the presentation must summarize work to date, including a proposal for data acquisition.

At the end of their second year, students present their cumulative research findings in a talk presented to the department’s faculty and students and in a paper. This second-year paper must be approved by the student’s adviser (who will submit a formal grade) and approved by a second reader from the department ladder faculty. The paper should be of publication quality in a top-tier journal in the discipline.

All doctoral students must have a minimum of three quarters as a teaching assistant for courses offered within the department. This training need not be in consecutive terms, but it must be satisfied prior to graduation from UCLA.

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other precandidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Written Qualifying Examination . Students will complete a written examination in the form of a comprehensive paper, the contents of which must be approved by their adviser and one additional department faculty member that will comprise the Qualifying Subcommittee. This paper need not be directly related to the first-year paper and second year paper, although a majority of students are likely to maintain continuity in the topic herein. In general, this paper should include a substantial review of research in the student’s area of specialization. The written examination is due by the end of the seventh quarter.

Written Dissertation Proposal and Oral Examination . 

The written dissertation proposal requires a presentation of the student’s proposed dissertation research. The proposal should include the background and significance of the area of research, the project’s goals, and the methods and tests used to address those goals. Prior to the approval of the written proposal, a doctoral committee must be established that will oversee the proposal and administer the dissertation proposal oral examination (satisfying the requirement of the University Oral Qualifying Examination). The committee is made up of the faculty advisor, at least one additional department faculty member, a third faculty member either from within or outside the department, and a fourth member that must be from outside the department. The written proposal must be approved by the end of the third year (ninth quarter) by the student’s primary advisor unless an extension is granted by the doctoral committee and approved by the department chair.  The examination committee judges the feasibility and worth of the research project and the student’s ability to undertake it in the form of pass/fail/retake (eligibility for one retake is at the committee’s discretion). The committee also may recommend changes in the research design.

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

A final oral defense of the dissertation is required. A student is not considered to have passed the final oral examination with more than one “not passed” vote, regardless of the size of the committee. In the event that this occurs, the student may schedule a second oral defense of the dissertation.

The academic year annual review process begins with each student writing a progress review and submitting it to the department around the first week of June. The finished self-review should be sent to the Faculty Mentor, Vice Chair, and Graduate Advisor. It will consist of a 1-page summary of the student’s academic and professional progress, along with a pdf of the student’s up-to-date CV. The 1-page summary should include:

• List of all courses taken with grades included (for Spring quarter, put your expected grade).
• Summary of the research projects you are currently engaged in, including your first-year project, and any other research activity.
• Other accomplishments, awards, and any concerns or additional notes you would like us to know about.

Students’ progress will then be collectively evaluated by all ladder faculty with an analysis of progress toward the degree, as well as specific areas that require improvement, if applicable.

The student’s mentor(s), in conjunction with the Vice Chair, will then write an official performance evaluation letter which will be distributed by the Graduate Advisor to each student over the summer.

First-year Paper Committee

• A student’s faculty committee for their first-year paper is a committee consisting of one member- the student’s faculty advisor . It is the sole responsibility of the faculty advisor to read, review, and approve their student’s first-year paper.

Second-year Paper Committee

• A student’s faculty committee for their second-year paper consists of two members- 1.) their faculty advisor, and 2.) an additional Department of Communication ladder faculty member . Students cannot use department lecturers or adjunct faculty members as their second reader, it must be ladder faculty.

Written Examination Committee (3 rd year, 7 th quarter)

• A student’s faculty committee for their Written Examination has the same structure as their second-year paper committee. It consists of 1.) their faculty advisor, and 2.) an additional Department of Communication ladder faculty member . Similarly, students cannot use department lecturers or adjunct faculty members as their second reader, it must be a ladder faculty member. But it can be a different ladder faculty than the second-year paper, if desired.

Written Dissertation Proposal and Oral Examination Committee (end of 3 rd year)

Dissertation Committee (4 th year, n-1)

• The written dissertation proposal and oral examination committee will likely – primarily for the sake of continuity – remain intact and serve as your Dissertation Committee, with perhaps a minor adjustment in composition here or there. But the structure is the same for both.
• A student’s committee must consist of a minimum of four faculty members . The chair must be a ladder faculty member of the Department of Communication with a >0% appointment. The second member can be a 0% joint appointment in the Department of Communication. The remaining two members can be ladder faculty from either within or outside of the department and can be from a department outside of UCLA. At least one member of the committee must be from outside of the department . Additional committee composition requirements not specified above must adhere to the UCLA Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution . The Communication PhD Program adheres to the UCLA guidelines and policies for constitution of doctoral committees developed by the Graduate Division as published in the Standards & Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA . Students should consult both their faculty advisor and the department graduate advisor prior to assembling their committee

1.) Comm PhD first-year paper_coversheet

– The first-year paper requirement can be marked as complete once the student submits a PDF of their finished paper in combination with the signed cover sheet. Both documents should be submitted to the graduate advisor. A single PDF format is preferred.

2.)  Communication_PhD_second-year paper_coversheet

– The second-year paper requirement can be marked as complete once the student submits a PDF of their finished paper in combination with the signed cover sheet (two faculty signatures are required). Both documents should be submitted to the graduate advisor. A single PDF format is preferred.

3.) Communication_PhD_written qualifying exam_coversheet

– The written qualifying exam requirement can be marked as complete once the student submits a PDF of their finished paper in combination with the signed cover sheet (two faculty signatures are required). Both documents should be submitted to the graduate advisor. A single PDF format is preferred.

4.) Communication_PhD_Degree Checklist- Full Degree Pathway

– The degree checklist does not need to be officially submitted to the department. However, students are encouraged to use it as a resource to aid in the tracking of their own progress throughout the PhD program.

5.) Communication_MS Capstone_coversheet

– This is the appropriate coversheet if a student would like to use their second-year paper as a capstone for the purpose of receiving the optional Comm MS degree. The Comm MS version of the second-year paper can be marked as complete once the student submits a PDF of their paper in combination with the signed cover sheet (three faculty signatures are required). Both documents should be submitted to the graduate advisor. A single PDF format is preferred.

Not required.

Admitted PhD students will receive a comprehensive funding package for up to 5 years. Our typical funding offer includes one or two years of fellowship funding (stipend, registration fees, and if needed, domestic student non-resident tuition for the first year), three or four years of teaching apprenticeships (TA) positions, which usually include fee remission , and potentially extramural fellowship and/or graduate student researcher (GSR) opportunities.

Academic year (October-June) fellowship stipends are comprehensive and are ordinarily scheduled for the first, and sometimes fifth, year. In some instances, first-year students with teaching experience may be offered a TA position. Students will also receive a minimum of $6K summer support (July-September) in the form of a fellowship during the summer of their first year. In summer years 2-4, the department will assist students in identifying a source of funding, most commonly in the form of a TAship, GSRship, or fellowship; sometimes a combination of two or more of these sources will comprise the summer funding package.

For each academic year of TA support (typically years 2-5), the department will offer a TA position at 50% (20 hours per week). If a faculty member offers a Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) position for one or more of these years, the GSR position will satisfy/replace the departmental support commitment. Students are encouraged to review TA salaries  for a nine-month, half-time appointment and  GSR salary scales . Under certain circumstances, TAs and GSRs qualify to have a large portion of their mandatory registration fees (including medical insurance premium) paid by the university and in more limited circumstances, GSRs may qualify to have 100% of non-resident tuition paid. For more information on UCLA’s academic apprentice personnel positions, salary rates, remission rates, and policies go to the Academic Apprentice Personnel Manual .

It is important to note that the department funding guarantee does come with some strings attached .

To remain eligible for the standard funding package described above, via fellowship, TAship, or GSRship, students must meet and maintain the following conditions:

• Minimum 3.0 GPA
• Satisfactory time-to-degree progress
• Enrollment in at least 12-units per academic quarter, unless an exception has been granted
• Not exceeding 20 working hours or 50% FTE per week (across all UCLA jobs), unless an exception has been granted
• Applying for UCLA fellowship opportunities as directed by the department
• International students must maintain valid visa and work authorization status
• U.S. citizens must apply for California residency prior to year 2 in the program

Primary types of graduate student funding:

• Fellowship funding
• Fellowships are a desirable form of PhD student funding. Being supported on a fellowship usually affords the student more time and a greater degree of freedom to focus on their research. Additionally, being awarded a competitive fellowship is an outstanding honor to list on a CV or resume.
• There are three primary internal UCLA fellowships that students are required to apply for- the GSRM, the GRM, and the DYA. Applications are due usually in the beginning of February.
• Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (GSRM) Fellowship
• Graduate Research Mentorship (GRM) Fellowship
• Dissertation Year Award (DYA)

Beyond the required internal fellowship opportunities, there are many external fellowships that students should strongly considering applying for as well. A few of the major ones are:

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship ; http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04615/nsf04615.htm . Check their website for deadlines. Application deadline for social sciences is generally in early November.
• National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program
• Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship Program for Minorities . UCLA campus application deadline is in September. For exact date please contact  [email protected] . Last year the deadline was in November.
• Google PhD Fellowship Program ; https://research.google/outreach/phd-fellowship/ . Internal UCLA application deadline is generally in mid-August.
• Fulbright U.S. Student Program (IIE)
• Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program at the Department of Education . Check their web site for deadlines.  Application deadline is generally in early October.
• The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans . Application deadline is November 1st.
• The Social Science Resource Council
• Center for the Study of Women Fellowships and Grants

In addition to the above well-known fellowships, there are many other extramural agencies that provide full and partial fellowships for graduate students. We strongly urge our applicants and continuing students to seek out external funding opportunities and apply for every fellowship for which they are eligible.

The UCLA Division of Graduate Education has an online database of extramural funding opportunities called GRAPES available at: https://grad.ucla.edu/funding .  The GRAPES database catalogs over 600 private and publicly funded awards, fellowships, and internships and allows searches by field, academic level, award type, award amount, and other criteria. In addition, there are directories of extramural support that can be found at most university libraries.  You can find a list of these directories at: http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/asis/entsup/extramrl.htm .

• Teaching Apprenticeships
• First-time TA eligibility requirements:
• All first-time TAs are required to enroll in Anthropology 495 or a similar 495 pedagogy section which includes the Professional Standards and Ethics Training (PSET) online modules and all Foundations of Teaching workshops required by the departmental 495 course. All TAs are required to enroll in their instructor’s Comm 375 Teaching Apprentice Practicum course during each term that they hold a TA appointment. Continuing TAs are responsible for taking the Professional Standards and Ethics Training online modules within their 375 course if they have not already completed it.
• First-time international student TAs must pass the Test of Oral Proficiency (TOP) or qualify for a waiver. The UCLA Academic Senate Graduate Council policy stipulates that graduate students whose first language is not English must pass a campus administered Test of Oral Proficiency (TOP) to be eligible for a teaching assistantship at UCLA. A student is exempt from this testing requirement if they have earned a prior undergraduate degree from an institution at which English was the sole language of instruction. If the student attended a university in the United States, no action is required whatsoever. If the student attended a university outside the United States where English was the sole language of instruction, please see the Requesting an Exemption guidance HERE . Registration for the TOP exam will be available HERE

Students being funded on a TAship for a given quarter will be assigned a course to TA within the department by the Vice Chair and Graduate Advisor. The department TA assignment protocol will unfold as follows:

• Step 1: The department will compile information about TA positions and create Instructor + grad student course preference forms.
• The Grad. Advisor and Vice Chair will prepare information for Department TAs about the course offerings, including course descriptions, instructor names, and lecture and section times and locations. They’ll also prepare a form which TAs will have the option to fill out, indicating their preferences and scheduling constraints.
• Similarly, the Grad. Advisor and Vice Chair will provide Department Instructors with the names and CVs (based on what the department has on file from the end of the previous academic year) of department Ph.D. students who are eligible to TA. They will also provide instructors with a form that instructors can optionally complete, indicating their preferences.
• Step 2 : Instructors and TAs will indicate their preferences to the department
• Avoid important schedule conflicts.
• Accommodate instructor and TA preferences when possible.
• Match new TAs with experienced instructors and vice versa when possible.
• Balance across quarters (or use random assignment) in cases where preferences cannot be accommodated.
• Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) funding:
• Research assistants are appointed to the title Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) and are selected based on scholastic achievement and promise as creative scholars. GSRs assist faculty with scholarly research under the direction and supervision of a faculty member.

The UCLA Division of Graduate Education

The Division of Graduate Education at UCLA is responsible for the overall quality and progress of graduate education at UCLA. The DGE serves as the administrative core for graduate recruitment and admissions. They are responsible for ensuring that departments (and their students) comply with university policy that has been established by the UCLA Academic Senate. On certain issues, a given department can request an exception to centrally established academic student policy.

Between the Graduate Welcome Reception and the awarding of a student’s degree, the DGE will participate in many milestones marking students individual academic progress, and they’ll continually work to ensure that the education students receive at UCLA is of the highest quality. Below is an abridged list of commonly helpful resources offered by the DGE. To see the comprehensive list of DGE services, resources, and policies please visit their website directly.

• Doctoral Student Forms
• Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilities
• Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study (Academic Policies)
• Graduate Student Funding Opportunities
• Graduate Student Funding Recommendations
• Graduate Student Financial Support Manual
• Academic Apprentice Manual (TA and Reader Policies)

Graduate Student Resource Center :

• The UCLA Graduate Student Resource Center (GSRC) is a Graduate Students Association (GSA) initiative that is managed by Student Affairs. The GSRC is a resource, referral, and information center for graduate and professional school students. They offer advice and assistance in dealing with the challenges of graduate school, as well as numerous workshops and programs done in collaboration with campus partners. The GSRC works with GSA to organize the campus-wide Graduate Student Orientation and the Equity, Inclusion & Diversity Graduate Welcome Day. They are also the home of the Graduate Writing Center.
• Graduate Student Resources
• GSRC Services

Graduate Writing Center :

• The Graduate Writing Center is an initiative of the Graduate Students Association, funded by a GSA fee referendum, managed by Student Affairs, and overseen by the Graduate Writing Center Oversight Committee. The Graduate Writing Center came about as the result of a fee referendum, initiated by the Graduate Students Association and approved by the graduate student body in Spring of 2006. The GWC offers the following services:

GWC Writing Consultants

GWC writing consultants are graduate students come from a variety of fields and are trained to work with graduate students from all disciplines. Graduate students may find it helpful to meet with the writing consultants closest to their fields, but this is not required. GWC consultants do not proofread/edit; they work interactively with graduate students to improve their writing skills. Visit the Consultants web page for their bios.

GWC Workshops

The Graduate Writing Center offers a variety of workshops on both general writing issues and specialized topics, such as dissertation and thesis writing. The GWC is available, time and resources permitting, to make workshop presentations for departments or in graduate courses by request. For more information about workshops, visit their Workshops web page .

GWC Thesis/Dissertation Support

GWC offers a number of programs for graduate students who are writing dissertations, dissertation proposals, and master’s theses. They offer a number of summer “boot camps” for doctoral students in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. They also offer STEM writing retreats for graduate students working on dissertations, theses, and publications. Furthermore, the GWC offers a mentoring program for graduate students writing master’s theses and doctoral qualifying papers in the humanities and social sciences. See our Thesis Support web page for more information.

GWC Oversight Committee

The Graduate Writing Center has an oversight committee with graduate student representatives from the GSA Councils as well as ex officio members representing the UCLA faculty and administration. The GWC Oversight Committee advises the GWC Director and makes recommendations about GWC services. The GSA Vice President of Academic Affairs oversees the GWC Oversight committee, so please contact vpaa [at] gsa.asucla.ucla.edu with questions about the committee.

Dashew Center :

• UCLA is home for more than 12,000 international students and scholars studying away from home. The Dashew Center is the place where domestic and international students and scholars meet. They aim to enhance the UCLA experience for international students and scholars with their multicultural programs and services. They also play an integral role in assisting UCLA academic departments with visa services. Moreover, Dashew serves as a resource and learning center for the entire UCLA community to promote global connection, international understanding and cultural sensitivity.

Center for Accessible Education (CAE)

• The Center for Accessible Education serves as a central resource on disability-related information for students, procedures, and services for the University student community. They provide expertise in determining and implementing appropriate and reasonable accommodations for academics and housing.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is here to support your mental health needs as you pursue your academic goals. Our services are designed to foster the development of healthy well-being necessary for success in a complex global environment. We are pleased to offer a variety of services to meet your needs including:

• Crisis counseling available by phone 24 hours a day/7 days a week
• Emergency intervention
• Individual counseling and psychotherapy
• Group therapy
• Psychiatric evaluation and treatment
• Psychoeducational programs and workshops for students, staff and faculty
• Campus mental health and wellness promotion

Take a closer look at the CAPS website to learn about their Services and Beginning Treatment .

For urgent matters or after-hours counseling by phone, please contact CAPS at 310-825-0768. For emergencies, please contact 911.

Case Management for Graduate Students

Students’ personal situations may negatively impact their well-being or academic life. In other instances, students’ actions may disturb campus community members. In these situations, Case Managers are available to receive reports of concern and help determine an appropriate response to assist the student and those who may also be impacted by the situation. Case Managers are available to consult with or provide training for campus community members who would like to better support students of concern. Case Managers must abide by FERPA laws, which means they are a private, not confidential resource.

The Case Managers can assist with the following:

• Academic support including notifying professors regarding missed classes, dropping a class, withdrawal, etc.
• Referrals to campus and community resources
• Emergency housing and/or exploring housing options
• Consultation for the university community regarding students in distress

Graduate Career Services

The Career Center provides many useful services and resources for graduate students as they begin to think about their professional future after UCLA:

• One on One Advising via Zoom
• Resume/Cover Letter/CV Critique
• Career Exploration & Job Search
• Mock Interviews & Negotiation

Workshops/Career Conversations/Boot Camps

• Academic Job Search series, Online Interviewing, Job Search During a Pandemic
• Employer Info Sessions & Case Competitions, Networking with Alumni and Recruiters,
• Employer Panels, Career Fairs

Every Communication PhD student is eligible to receive a department travel grant to offset the cost of presenting research at conferences. Each student will be allotted $1,000 in department funding to use after – or as a supplement to – the DGE’s Doctoral Student Travel Grants for Conferences, Professional Development and Off-Campus Research (DTG).

To learn more about the DTG from the DGE, click here . To check your remaining DTG funds, call DGE Financial Services at (310) 825-1025 or email at [email protected] .

Communication Department Travel Grant Eligibility:

• Expenses must be allowable under UCLA Travel Policies  to be eligible for reimbursement.

Expenses may include:

• Transportation
• Lodging (at a commercial venue; no stays at someone’s home)
• Meals will be reimbursed on an actual basis, subject to the prevailing campus limit (currently $62) for each full day on travel status. The Department of Communication requires receipts.  Flat rate (per diem) reimbursement is not possible.
• Conference/Workshop registration and fees (which may include meals for participants)
• Poster printing

Expenses may not include:

• Computer or other electronics or equipment (e.g., smart phone, tablet)
• Alcoholic beverages
• Transcription services
• Dissertation editing
• Tuition and/or fees for credit-bearing courses
• Recreation/social events
• Incidentals during trip
• Supplies, materials & other costs associated with the research or professional development activity (e.g., software, flash drive, etc.)
• Payment to participants or research study subjects
• Students must be registered and enrolled both the quarter that they complete the travel and the quarter that they will be reimbursed. If a student seeks reimbursement for conference travel during the summer months, they must be registered and enrolled in the previous Spring and the following Fall quarter. In Absentia students are eligible for reimbursement.
• Department travel grant funds may only be requested after, or in addition (if it’s a single trip) to the $1,000 allocation from Graduate Division is used.

Student Procedures for Reimbursement:

• Provide documentation, showing that your Graduate Division Travel Grant has already been spent, or will be spent during this trip.
• Indicate the total cost for conference travel, any other sources of funding for the travel (e.g., DTG, other research grants), and the specific refund amount requested from the department .
• Provide either original receipts or photocopies of original receipts.
• Receipts that are not in English must be translated in order to qualify for reimbursement.
• Actual daily currency exchange rates must be provided if you are submitting receipts in non-US currency; use sites such as www.oanda.com  and select the relevant dates for each expense.
• After a student’s eligibility is confirmed and their expense documentation has been verified, funds will be reimbursed in the form of a fellowship stipend.

The Communication PhD program is founded on a faculty mentorship model. This means that a student’s faculty advisor will also be their faculty mentor. The role of a mentor is centered on a commitment to advancing both a student’s scholarly and personal development. As you progress in the program, you are certainly encouraged to identify and assemble a team of mentors. Research on graduate mentoring has shown that very few individual mentors were able to meet all their mentees’ needs in all areas. Students should seek to build a network of mentors comprised of faculty, peers, staff, and professionals outside of the university working in career fields that interest them.

Still, upon admittance you will be assigned one faculty advisor who is also your initial faculty mentor. The first step to ensuring a healthy, productive relationship begins with a reflective self-appraisal of your own goals/motivations. Important questions to ask yourself are:

• What are my strengths? • What skills do I need to develop? • What kinds of research projects will engage me? • What type of careers might I want to pursue?

You should also ponder what type of mentorship style you are hoping for from your faculty mentor. This is not only a smart approach for your first mentor, but also as you build your network of mentors. Here is a useful list of qualities to evaluate in current and potential faculty mentors (that you may or may not want). Based on your intuition, experience, and of course conversations with other students, would your prospective mentor:

• assign you research topics automatically? if you asked? would they be fruitful topics for you?
• give you research and reading advice automatically? if you asked? sound advice?
• give you writing feedback automatically? if you asked? helpful, comprehensive, and timely feedback?
• chat with you about the state of the field ? if you asked? cogently?
• put you on a big project ?
• expect you to devote a certain amount of time to certain research areas? to specific research projects? to non-research activities? (funding constraints may force an advisor to do this)
• share some of your broader interests (academic or otherwise)?
• be someone you’d enjoy hanging out with ?
• Stay with the department for the next five years?
• treat your work as relevant to his or hers?
• let you be first or sole author on your papers?
• expend effort in looking out for your best interests ?
• successfully help you get a good job ?

Once you’ve conducted a thorough assessment of your motivations, strengths/weaknesses, and desired mentorship style, you’ll be better equipped to communicate your needs to your faculty mentor with a greater degree of clarity. Conversely, you should ask about and take into consideration what your faculty mentor is looking for in their mentee. When this sort of open dialogue is established, expectations will be mutually understood and are less likely devolve into a confusing tangle of frustration and disappointment. Put succinctly, it lays the groundwork for a successful, lasting mentor-mentee relationship.

However, sometimes a student and faculty member just don’t work well together, and a change is needed. This is OK . Sometimes two individuals aren’t in sync through no one’s fault. If you find yourself in this situation and would like assistance either communicating your discouragement to your faculty mentor or you would like assistance in identifying a new faculty mentor, the Graduate Advisor and Vice Chair are more than happy to assist. All you need to do is reach out.

University policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special departmental or program policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is made by the chair of the department after a vote of the faculty at the student-review each term. Before the recommendation is sent to the DGE, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to appeal in writing to the chair. The student’s appeal is reviewed by a departmental committee, headed by the vice chair of graduate studies, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the DGE.

UCLA is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and by numerous special agencies. Information regarding the University’s accreditation may be obtained from the Office of Academic Planning and Budget, 2107 Murphy Hall.

Master’s Degree

The M.S. degree is not a stand-alone, terminal degree. Students enrolled in the Ph.D. degree program may be granted a terminal M.S. degree if they do not complete the Ph.D. requirements and exit the program. To be granted the M.S. degree, students must complete all required courses for the Ph.D., and complete the second year research paper, approved by the student’s adviser and two additional ladder faculty members from the Department of Communication. If the student is continuing in the Ph.D. program, this degree is optional. See below for more details.

Academic advising for graduate students in the department is primarily conducted on an individual basis by a student’s faculty advisor because, beyond basic requirements, each student’s program of study is unique. The department’s graduate advisor is primarily responsible for counseling students in regard to program requirements, policies, and university regulations.

Students will provide their advisor and the Vice Chair a summary of their professional progress each Spring. This progress report will be collectively evaluated annually by all ladder faculty, with an analysis of progress toward the degree, as well as specific areas that require improvement if applicable. A written summary of the faculty discussion will be provided to the student by the primary advisor.

Communication and Cognition; Political Communication; Computational Communication

The expected course load is 12 units per quarter for a minimum of two years. However, if needed, the minimum course load may be adjusted downward by petition with the approval of the student’s committee chair and the department chair. Students must be registered and enrolled at all times unless on an official leave of absence.

Students must complete 11 courses (44 units)—of which at least 9 must be 200-level graduate courses—all taken for a letter grade, with a minimum GPA of 3.0. All students are required to take seven core classes: one communication theory and research course (COMM 200); one research design course (COMM 220); two approved statistics courses, with at least one at the 200 level (e.g., POL200A-D; PSY 250A-C; STAT 101, 102); and three seminars that correspond to the three areas of study (COMM 230; 250; 270). In addition, students are required to take three elective courses from within our department or elsewhere, and a TA training class (COMM 495). Any additional elective courses above the 11 course requirement may be taken for a letter grade or S/U grading. Depending on the student’s area of study and prior academic preparation and study, a student may be advised to take other preparatory courses as determined by the faculty adviser.

Most students in the program will serve as a TA beginning in year 2 of the program. Those who receive external fellowships will be expected to complete a minimum of one quarter of teaching during their time in the program.

All students must complete original research during their first and second years, in the form of a first year paper and a second year paper.  In general, these two papers will be related to one another, but students may elect to pursue two distinct projects. At the end of the spring quarter of their first year, students present their research in a written paper and a brief oral presentation to the department’s faculty and graduate students. If original data has not been collected and analyzed by the end of the first year, the presentation must summarize work to date, including a proposal for data acquisition.

At the end of their second year, students present their cumulative research findings in a talk presented to the department’s faculty and students and in a paper. This second year paper must be approved by the student’s adviser (who will submit a formal grade) and one additional ladder faculty member from the Department of Communication. The paper should be of publication quality in a top-tier journal in the discipline.

Students typically receive the master’s degree by the end of their sixth quarter in residence.

DEGREE: M.S.

NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters): 6

NORMATIVE TTD: 6

MAXIMUM TTD: 9

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NCA's Doctoral Program Guide

About the Doctoral Program Guide

The  Doctoral Program Guide  is designed to provide timely and useful information about doctoral programs in Communication for students, prospective students, and other interested parties.

Which Programs Are Listed? Many doctoral programs are included in this guide, all of which offer a Ph.D. degree in some area or field of the Communication discipline. We began with the programs that have traditionally been ranked or evaluated as doctoral programs in Communication by other sources and added a number of new programs.   

For doctoral programs in related areas of study, visit the following:

• American Library Association's Accredited Programs page  
• American Society for Theater Research's Doctoral Program Directory  
• American Speech & Hearing Association's EdFind  
• Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's Graduate Student Info page  
• Modern Language Association's Guide to Doctoral Programs in English and Other Modern Languages  
• Public Relations Society of America's Higher Education Programs Online Directory  

What Information Can Be Found in the Guide?

All information presented in this guide is publicly available on the individual department or program website and/or in other published sources. Each university is identified by its  Carnegie Classification , its membership in the  Association of American Universities , and by the number of doctorates it has conferred from 2010 to 2019, according to the  National Science Foundation's  Survey of Earned Doctorates . The guide provides the areas of study of each program, the admissions requirements for each program, a listing of each program's graduate faculty, and contact information. In addition, we also recognize a program's recipients of NCA Awards from 2000 to the present and synthesize and report on the programs' standing in a series of different rankings/ratings, including:

• The university's 2019 ranking in the Communication & Media Studies category of the QS World University Rankings . (Note: this ranking includes 200 universities; the first 50 are individually ranked, followed by category rankings for the remainder.)
• The university's 2019-2020 ranking in the "Language, Communication, and Culture" category of the University Ranking by Academic Performance measure.  

Explanation of Areas of Study

Most doctoral programs in Communication indicate research areas or special research concentrations. Such areas are usually based on the types of research conducted by the faculty members in the program, as well as by the courses offered toward the graduate degree. 

A program is listed within a specific research area based entirely upon its self-identification of research focus. Because the identification and labeling of research foci vary so greatly across programs, this list groups and categorizes research areas according to commonly understood labels. Thus, a given doctoral program may identify its research specialty as "media economics" or "media studies" or "media effects." That program would be included in the broader category below of "Mass Communication/Media Studies."

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of...

Stanford University, Department of Communication

University of California-San Diego, Department of...

American University, School of Communication

University of Oklahoma, Department of Communication

University of Colorado, Department of Communication

Texas Tech University, Department of English

Cornell University, Department of Communication

University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School for...

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Department of...

Boston University, College of Communication

University at Buffalo-SUNY, Department of Communication

University of Utah, Department of Communication

University of Texas, Department of Communication Studies

Bowling Green State University, School of Media and...

University of South Carolina, School of Journalism and...

• SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

PhD in Communication Studies - Northwestern University School of Communication

The Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric, Media, and Publics is replacing the PhD in Communication Studies (Rhetoric and Public Culture). Rhetoric, Media, and Publics is an interschool program between the School of Communication, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the Medill School of Journalism, Media & Integrated Marketing Communications; and it is based in the School of Communication.

The Rhetoric, Media, and Publics PhD program, grounded in the humanistic tradition of rhetoric, asks the fundamental question of how people influence, reflect, and transform society through mediated practices. Students learn to analyze the production and circulation of meaning in a range of rhetorical and journalistic texts, practices, and institutions through varied modes of qualitative inquiry, and to engage audiences and communities directly in the production of knowledge. The stakes of this inquiry are profoundly social and political as well as formal and aesthetic. The program teaches students to approach public media as sites for political contestation, for the representation and interrogation of ethics and power, and for imagining personhood and collective life.

PhD in Communication

We are an international, interdisciplinary, boundary-spanning graduate program with a vision of social justice.

The emergence of communication as a multifaceted social science discipline is connected to both the search for new perspectives on contemporary problems and the profusion of technologies of communication. Our graduate program approaches communication as the primary social process through which social realities are constituted, maintained, and changed. Those varied processes and contexts constitute the core of our work, with opportunities to pursue communication theory and research in the following areas:

• Film studies
• Media effects and popular culture
• Media, technology, and society
• Rhetoric and performance studies
• Social interaction and culture

Our doctoral program is known for its:

• R1-level research productivity
• Interdisciplinary, boundary-spanning scholarship
• Social justice perspective 
• Comparative and international focus

Application information & deadlines

January 2, 2024, communication.

Treat communication as a primary social process and gain knowledge of communication theory, philosophy, methodology, and research.

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PhD in Communication

In the Ph.D. program in Communication at The Ohio State University, students work closely with world-renowned faculty on current research.  In coursework, the emphasis is on understanding the body of knowledge in communication and on learning how to use what is known to generate new knowledge through research.  In addition to gaining a solid grounding in the communication literature, through our Ph.D. program students learn the skills necessary to develop solid academic careers through teaching, attending professional conferences and publishing their own research.

We offer funding to all doctoral students admitted to our program.

Doctoral students work closely with distinguished scholars as mentors in developing individualized programs focusing on the topics that intersect the interests of the faculty and the student. Over the course of their program, students are encouraged to co-author papers and journal articles with faculty members.

Through generous travel awards, the School of Communication, as well as the Graduate School at OSU, enable students to participate in national and international communication conferences. At these conferences our students become acquainted with faculty and graduate students from other universities around the world, establishing lasting friendships and professional relationships.

Through the combination of training, mentoring and socialization, our students are among the most sought-after for the top positions in the field.

Most of our Ph.D. students enter academic careers following graduation, although some enter various communication industries and use their research skills in marketing, polling, media or other industries.

For more information, contact the Graduate Program Coordinator by email at [email protected] or call (614) 292-6503.

You can read more about our graduate program requirements and our admissions procedures on the following documents:

Some links on this page are to Adobe .pdf files requiring the use of Adobe Reader. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact [email protected] .

• PhD Program
• OU Homepage
• The University of Oklahoma

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Doctor of Philosophy Communication

The Ph.D. in the Department of Communication requires at least 96 semester hours beyond the baccalaureate degree. The 96+ hours must be in a planned course of study approved and overseen by the student’s advisor and advisory committee. At least 30 hours of coursework (excluding transfer credit and dissertation hours) must be in Communication.

All transfer credit must have a grade of A, B, or S. One cannot transfer a course with a grade of B-.

Master’s Degree Transfer Credits

All students will undertake the Ph.D. program after having completed a Master’s degree in communication or a related discipline. The post-Master’s student’s advisory committee will determine which courses from the Master’s program may be appropriately counted as part of the Ph.D. program. If the student is transferring in 30 hours from their Master’s and post- Master’s work toward their Ph.D., the Graduate College can accept up to as many hours of thesis as counted for their Master’s degree. If the student is transferring between 31 and 44 hours of Master’s and post-Master’s work to apply to their Ph.D., then the limit of thesis hours that can be applied to the Ph.D. is four hours. The Department of Communication allows a maximum of 30 hours of Master’s degree credit to be counted toward the Ph.D. The grades in these courses and the student’s Master’s GPA do not count toward the student’s Ph.D. GPA.

If a transfer course has the same title as a course taken at OU, the content of the course must be substantially different to count both for credit. To make this case, the student must provide a syllabus and a letter from the Director of Graduate Studies illustrating that the classes covered different content. This letter must be submitted to the Graduate College with the Admission to Candidacy form.

Master’s Degree Plus Additional Hours Transfer Credits

On occasion the advisory committee may accept some graduate coursework completed beyond the Master’s degree. Up to 44 semester hours of a Master’s degree program plus post-Master’s course work may be applied toward a Ph.D. If students have a second Master’s degree, they can transfer up to 14 hours from this degree, as long as the total number of hours transferred from one’s Master’s degrees and the post-Master’s coursework do not exceed 44 hours. The advisory committee has complete discretion in determining the number of hours that may be applied to the prospective candidate’s Ph.D. program. All graduate hours transferred from other institutions must meet the criteria concerning transfer credit. Any courses taken at the University of Oklahoma which were not part of a completed Master’s degree cannot be more than five years old. One’s time limit for completion of the degree (one’s clock) is calculated based on the earliest course listed in this section.

No more than 18 hours of Ph.D. coursework beyond the Master’s (excluding Comm 6980, Research for Doctoral Dissertation) may be S/U graded coursework. Communication courses falling in this category are Independent Study and Research Task Force. Independent Study has a maximum of eight hours, and Research Task Force has a maximum of 15 hours. Students may take more than 18 hours of S/U coursework beyond the 96-hour requirement. Directed Readings is a letter-graded course, with a maximum of nine hours applicable to the 96 hours required for the Ph.D. degree. Regardless of how many hours of Comm 6980 (Research for the Doctoral Dissertation) are taken by the Ph.D. candidate, no less than two or more than 15 will be counted toward the 96 hours of coursework required for the Ph.D. degree.

The core courses required for the Master’s degree in the Department of Communication (or their equivalent) are required of all Ph.D. students. Students must also earn 32 hours of coursework in a major concentration (such as Communication).

The doctoral candidate should be able to demonstrate proficiency in statistics, ethnography, foreign language, linguistics, historiography, electronic media production, or any other tool found by the student advisory committee to be appropriate to the student's program and research needs.  

Students must meet the  requirements in place when they entered the program. The current requirements are:

• COMM 5003: Quantitative Research Methods 
• COMM 5013: Introduction to Graduate Studies 
• COMM 5313: Qualitative Research Methods 
• COMM 6023: Research Task Force (6 hours) 
• COMM 6314: History and Theory of Communication
• COMM 5033:Advanced Statistics
• COMM 5323: Advanced Qualitative Methods

Students who enter the Ph.D. program without a completed M.A. degree have until the end of their first semester to post their Master’s degree, or a stop will be placed on their enrollment and they will lose their assistantship and tuition waiver benefits.

Doctoral students who enter an OU graduate program with a baccalaureate degree are expected to pass the general examination within five calendar years of their first graduate status registration at OU.

Doctoral students who enter an OU graduate program with a Master's degree are expected to meet this requirement within four years. After passing the general examination, the doctoral candidate is normally expected to complete all degree requirements including the dissertation defense within five years of being admitted to candidacy. When warranted, the department may extend the time required to complete the doctoral degree for up to one additional year provided the Graduate Dean is notified in writing. An extension beyond one year requires the approval of the Graduate Dean. Approval of such extension requires the department to certify the student’s knowledge to be current and appropriate to the degree to be awarded.

All Ph.D. students are required to maintain an overall 3.25 GPA in all graduate courses attempted including tool courses. One grade of C results in a warning letter from the Graduate College. A GPA under 3.00 or two grades of C will put the student on academic probation. The student will then have a 12-hour probationary period. The student must not make lower than a B or a grade of U during this time. At the end of the 12-hour probationary period, the student must have raised his or her overall GPA to 3.0. Failure to meet either of these two conditions will result in the student being unable to continue enrollment in graduate classes. Should a student receive two or more Cs, an automatic stop will be placed on enrollment. To have this stop lifted, the student must submit a plan for improving his or her performance and petition the Director of Graduate Studies to stay in the program. If the student is permitted to reenroll, the student must still obtain an overall GPA of 3.0 by the end of 12 hours after the first C.

Should a student receive two Cs or give other indication to the advisor of inability to pursue successfully the course of study to the awarding of the degree, the advisor will call a meeting of the student’s advisory committee to determine whether the student should be permitted to continue work in the Department of Communication. A student admitted conditionally (low grades, course work deficiencies, or incomplete credentials) to the Ph.D. program who does not satisfy the terms specified in the Statement of Conditional Admission will be denied further enrollment. Ph.D. students who enter the program without a completed M.A. degree are considered to have incomplete credentials and will have one semester to complete the M.A. degree or be denied further enrollment.

Graduate students can have no more than 3 incompletes (or 9 hours of “I”) in order to r etain a graduate teaching assistantship and to attain a satisfactory annual performance rating. Once a student has a 3rd incomplete, they have one semester to remove this incomplete or else jeopardize their annual performance rating and graduate teaching assistantship.

Ph.D. students entering the department’s graduate program for the first time in the fall term will be advised during the orientation meetings held prior to the beginning of classes. Students entering at other times should contact the Director of Graduate Studies for advising and can also contact Stephanie Terrazas, Academic Advisor, with any questions.

Self advising is most strongly discouraged, as it often leads to future difficulties for the student.

Permanent Advisor

Students must obtain their permanent advisor from among the department’s graduate faculty. Permission to become a faculty member’s permanent advisee must be secured from the faculty member in question. Full-time Ph.D. students should obtain a permanent advisor within their first year of enrollment. Part-time Ph.D. students should secure a permanent advisor by the end of their first twelve hours of course work in the department. The student, advisor, and Director of Graduate Studies must sign the Request for Appointment of Committee Chair form included at the end of this handbook and turn it in to the department office for inclusion in the student’s file.

The permanent advisor and the student collaborate in selecting an advisory conference/doctoral committee for the prospective candidate typically by the end of the third semester in the program. 

The advisory committee consists of a minimum of 3 departmental members and 1 Graduate College representative. The advisory committee may be more than 4 members as long as the number of department members outnumbers the members from outside the department. The student must have selected an advisor and committee members chosen prior to the Plan of Study meeting. The Graduate College representative must be at every meeting of the committee throughout the student’s doctoral program. This person cannot be from the College of Law, the Health Sciences Center, or be adjunct faculty or retired. If this person retires, he or she must be replaced. 

Students can designate co-chairs, but one person must be designated the primary chair on all paperwork. In addition, the primary chair cannot be from outside the department. On thesis/dissertation signature pages, chair and co-chair can both be listed as co-chairs by petition.

Students should offer paper or electronic copies of anything they send to their committee members (e.g., Advisory Conference form, Dissertation proposal, and final dissertation reading copy) to allow the members their preference.

Advisory Conference

The first responsibility of the advisory committee is to meet with the student to assist in planning the student’s Ph.D. program, taking into consideration the student’s strengths and deficiencies and, if necessary, suggesting ways to overcome any deficiencies. The committee members decide how much of the Master’s program credit can be applied to the Ph.D., with a maximum of 30 hours. They select research tools and determine a tentative calendar for degree completion.

At a plan of study meeting, the student and his or her committee discuss the Report of the Advisory Conference Form. This form will list all of the classes a student will apply to his or her Ph.D. program. The committee must agree on the classes that will apply to a student’s Ph.D. program. The student will need to have an advisor and committee members chosen before they can have this meeting. Very useful instructions for filling out the advisory conference report and the form itself can be found at  http://gradweb.ou.edu/docs/forms/doctoral/doctoralforms.htm.

Students should have the plan of study meeting at least by the end of their third semester in the Ph.D. program.  Otherwise, they chance either taking classes that will not apply to their program or that a committee member will request that a student take a class not originally planned, potentially lengthening a student’s time in the program.

After the advisory conference is held, the student must file the completed Report of the Advisory Conference. The report must be signed by the advisory committee, the advisor, and the Director of Graduate Studies. If any changes in the student’s program become necessary, a Request for Change in Doctoral Advisory Conference Report must be filed with and approved by the Graduate Dean. The request must be approved and signed by all members of the committee and the Director of Graduate Studies.

Ph.D. students who continue to enroll in courses not sanctioned by an advisory committee may find that they have taken courses that will not be accepted by their advisory committee or may be required to take more courses than they planned, potentially lengthening the time to their completion of degree.

Plan of Study Meetings will not be scheduled in the summer. Students can plan ahead to avoiud summer dates for these activities.

Change in Committee Membership

When a change in the membership of a student’s committee is contemplated, the student must show the signed approval of all original members and all new members on the Request for Change in Doctoral Advisory Conference Form if the outside member or chair is being replaced. Otherwise, only the chair, new committee member, and Director of Graduate Studies must sign the form. In either case, the form must be filed with and approved by the Graduate Dean.

No doctoral committee membership change is allowed within thirty days of the dissertation defense or general exam .

If a member of a student’s committee terminates employment with or retires from the university and wishes to continue to serve, that member in consultation with the student must request, in writing, permission from the Graduate Dean. This does not apply to the outside member, who must be replaced. If the chair retires, he or she can remain on the committee as a co-chair, and a current member of the departmental graduate faculty must be designated as the other co-chair for the committee.

The following criteria must be met for a member who is leaving the university to remain on a student’s committee:

• The faculty member is willing to consult regularly with the student, read the student’s dissertation, and attend the student’s final oral examination. All these must be accomplished with no cost to the university.
• The student must have passed the general examination before the faculty member leaves the university.
• The student should be in the final year of dissertation research.

When all research tools have been completed and all other course work has been completed, the prospective Ph.D. candidate should file in the Graduate College a completed Application for General Examination for the Doctor’s Degree. Application forms are available online at  http://gradweb.ou.edu/docs/forms/doctoral/doctoralforms.htm,  and must be turned submitted no later than the end of the second week of the semester in which the exam will be taken. All members of the student’s doctoral committee must sign the form. Failure to have authorization prior to the exam will require the exam to be repeated. Individuals must complete both the written and oral exam in the semester in which it is authorized.

No Ph.D. general exam may be taken until all “I” (incomplete) grades have been resolved. The exam may not be scheduled during final examination periods or when the doctoral committee cannot be assembled. Most faculty members are on 9-month appointments; therefore, summer examinations will not be scheduled. The student must be enrolled in at least two hours of graduate credit during the semester he or she takes the exam.

After the Graduate Dean authorizes the exam, the student should arrange a time and place for the examination with his or her doctoral committee. There are limited rooms for exams. Rooms are assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, so it is best to schedule it as early as possible. The student’s doctoral committee will prepare and conduct the general examination. The general exam will consist of a written portion followed by an oral portion in the presence of the entire committee.  

Topics and hours for each question are developed by the student’s advisor in conjunction with the student. The adviser will send the other members of the student’s committee a list of topics and the number of hours allowed for each question. The student should set up a time to meet with each committee member to discuss the question and receive any reading list that the faculty may wish for the student to review.

The exam criteria in the following paragraph go into effect, fall semester 2007.

The written portion of the exam is divided into two parts. These two parts together must be 16 to 18 hours in length:

• Students are tested on communication theory and methods with three to four hours of questions for each of these areas. These two sections are closed book and are fairly standardized across students.
• The second half of the exam consists of questions individually tailored for the student, considering his or her area (and sub-areas) of specialty, course work, dissertation topic, etc. These questions could be open or closed depending on the desire of the faculty member writing the questions.
• All portions of the exam will be administered in Burton Hall. Questions shall not be provided in advance. 
• The written portion of the exam should be spread over a time period not to exceed two weeks.

Generally, students should orally defend their answers as soon as possible after the faculty have two weeks to read them. Any exceptions must have permission of the Director of Graduate Studies. Written and orals must be in the same semester. Within 72 hours after the oral portion of the exam, a written report signed by all members of the committee must be submitted to the Graduate Dean. The report should indicate whether the student passed or failed the examination. If the student passes the exam, the Graduate Dean will admit the student to candidacy for the doctoral degree. If all or any portion of the general exam is failed, a report must be submitted to the Graduate Dean indicating a failure on the examination. The student, at the discretion of the committee, may seek authorization from the Graduate College to repeat those portions of the exam failed the first time in a following semester.

If a student fails any portion of the general exam on the second attempt, he or she will be terminated from the doctoral program. No portion of the exam may be taken a third time. If a student’s performance is marginal, but not failing, and the examining committee wishes the student to complete further readings, course work, investigations, etc., in a set time period, the results of the exam can be held in abeyance with the approval of the Graduate Dean. At the end of the time limit (usually no more than one semester), the committee must file the report with the Graduate College.

The Graduate Dean will investigate any report received in the Graduate College without unanimous vote. The Dean may choose to confer with the dissenting member(s), with the committee chair, or with the entire committee. The course of action taken is dictated by each individual case.

If the authorized general examination is not held, a report indicating the reasons why it was postponed must be submitted to the Graduate College.

General Exams will not be scheduled in the summer. Students can plan ahead to avoid summer dates for these activities.  

Preparation for Dissertation

Steps to Degree

To obtain a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, any research utilizing human participants must be approved by the University of Oklahoma—Norman Campus Institutional Review Board (OU-NCIRB), even if the individual is collecting data from participants at a location other than the University of Oklahoma. This approval must be obtained before any participants are recruited or data collected. If the dissertation utilizes participants from any other university or is affiliated with any other university, then permission must be obtained from that university’s IRB board as well.

Before one can obtain IRB approval, he or she must complete the Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI), which is required for all investigators. Students should complete this training before submitting any IRB applications, as otherwise, the applications will be returned. For further information, see  http://www.ouhsc.edu/irb-norman/training.asp.  If the student plans to utilize the Department of Communication Research Subject Pool, he or she should reference the policies listed in the Graduate Handbook.

Any graduate student traveling outside of the United States for academic purposes (e.g., research) needs to notify the Graduate College by filling out a form available on the first page of the Graduate College website known as the International Travel For Academic Purposes Form. When a graduate student intends to travel to a country for which there is a State Department warning, the student is required to meet with the Dean of the Graduate College before the trip to discuss the circumstances of the trip and to sign a statement releasing the University from liability.

At some time, usually near the end of his or her program of study, the student, in collaboration with his or her major advisor, will determine a dissertation topic. After the general examination has been passed, the student will submit a prospectus for the dissertation to his or her doctoral committee. The committee will meet with the student to discuss the proposed study. The student is required to hold this meeting, and attendance by all advisory committee members is strongly encouraged. These meetings are open, and other interested faculty and graduate students are encouraged to attend.

When any problems have been resolved to the satisfaction of the committee, the doctoral committee will give the student permission to proceed with the study. The approved document from the defense of prospectus serves as a contract between the student and the committee. A copy of the approved prospectus, signed by all committee members, is filed in the student’s folder in the departmental office.

Dissertation proposal meetings will not be scheduled in the summer. Students can plan ahead to avoid summer dates for these activities.  

Enrollment in Research for Doctoral Dissertation

Doctoral students in the Department of Communication may not enroll in dissertation hours until the general examination has been taken and successfully passed. Any exceptions must be cleared with the Director of Graduate Studies. The initial enrollment in Comm 6980 must be for at least two credit hours. Following the initial enrollment in Comm 6980, the graduate must maintain continuous enrollment in at least two hours of Comm 6980 during each regular semester until the requirements for the degree are completed or the degree candidacy is discontinued. The number of hours for each semester will be determined by the faculty on the basis of the amount of faculty and university services required by the individual student, with a minimum enrollment of two hours. A graduate assistant holding a 0.5 FTE appointment will be required to enroll in at least five hours of COMM 6980 during the fall and spring semesters in order to be considered a full-time student. A student should enroll in summer if doing at least one of the following: 1) Working on the dissertation, 2) Obtaining advice from advisor committee members, or 3) Using facilities of the university, such as the library. Regardless of the final number of hours of Comm 6980 accumulated during the period of dissertation research reading and writing, no less than two or more than 15 will be counted toward the Ph.D. requirements.

The final number of hours of Comm 6980 in which the student must enroll in the final semester of the degree program, along with the collection of the appropriate fees, is the responsibility of the Graduate College and the Bursar’s office.

Reading Copy of the Dissertation/Preparation for the Final Oral Examination

Before defending one’s dissertation, one must... 

Before defending one’s dissertation, one must…

A. Apply for graduation online by completing the Application for Graduation to the Office of the Registrar. See the Graduate College Bulletin for deadlines for each semester (current deadline: fall – Setember 15th, spring – February 15th, and summer – June 1st).

B. At least four weeks before the defense (i.e., 10 business days before submitting the Request for Authority for Dissertation Defense form to the Graduate College):

a. Complete the online Request for Degree Check form.

b. Provide committee members a reading copy of the dissertation.

i. If at least four committee members view the dissertation to be acceptable to proceed with oral defense, proceed with the planned defense.

ii. If they reject it, the student will be given another opportunity to submit an acceptable dissertation to the committee.

C. 10 business days before the planned defense submit the Request for Authority to Defend to the graduate college.

In other words, the committee members should have the copies at least a month (20 business days) prior to the scheduled defense date. This is two weeks (ten working days) before he or she plans to turn in the Request for Authority for Defense of Dissertation to the Graduate College. This form must be turned in two weeks (ten working days) prior to the actual defense date.  

This long lead-time for a defense is designed to protect the student. If the dissertation defense is unsatisfactory then: (a) the committee decision is final and a defense cannot be repeated and (b) the student will be disenrolled from the Graduate College and the student’s candidacy for the doctoral degree will be terminated. The one-month lead time allows committee members to read the dissertation prior to turning in the Request for Authority to Defend and allows the defense to be delayed until it is considered defendable by the committee rather than resulting in an unsatisfactory defense. The reading copy should be in an acceptable dissertation format and must include all figures and tables, numbered pages, and a complete bibliography. It should not contain grammatical or spelling errors. Students should consult the Dissertation Instruction Packet available from the Graduate College.

During the first two weeks after they receive it, all members of the student’s doctoral committee read and determine whether the dissertation demonstrates the student’s ability to conduct original research and makes a significant contribution to the communication discipline prior to the submission of the Request for Authority to Defend. If they reject it, the student will be given another opportunity to submit an acceptable dissertation to the committee. If they accept it and a degree check indicates that the student has completed all course work with acceptable grades, the student may schedule the final oral examination by turning in the Request for Authority for Defense of Dissertation to the Graduate College at least ten working days (two weeks) before the dissertation defense date.

Dissertation Defense

The defense must occur during the semester for which the authorization is given and no later than the last day of class (not during finals week). At least four members of the doctoral committee, including the outside member and the advisor, must be present to conduct the examination. Because faculty members are on 9-month appointments, they are not required to come into the office during the summer months. Therefore, summer dissertation defenses will generally not be scheduled. Under extreme extenuating circumstances it may be possible to schedule a summer dissertation defense if the advisor and all the committee members are willing to do so.

The final oral examination is a defense of the dissertation and is open to the public. The student is responsible for posting a notice of the impending dissertation defense several days before it is to occur.

The candidate applies to the Graduate College for the oral defense two weeks prior to the defense using the Request for Authority to Defend form. The candidate will be issued the Authority Report Form for the Dissertation Defense by the Graduate College. After the defense, the Committee must report its decision on the Authority Report Form for the Dissertation Defense to the Graduate College within 72 hours after the examination. A unanimous vote of the committee is expected. However, on occasion some dissenting reports are received. If one member of the committee dissents, the dissent is recognized as a minority report, and the student is still considered to have passed the defense. When there are two dissents, the Graduate Dean will investigate and make the final decision on the student’s performance. If more than two of a committee members dissent, the performance will be seen as a failure.

In most cases, even though the student’s committee has agreed that the student successfully defended the dissertation, the committee will request a number of changes to the dissertation prior to submitting it to the graduate school. These changes can range from very minor corrections of errors to more substantive changes in such as additional analysis or revisions of the discussion section. These changes will be specified at the defense. Once those changes are approved by the advisor and/or committee, the dissertation is ready for submission.

The instructions for submitting the final dissertation are regularly changed as the process becomes more automated. For example, printed copies are no longer accepted. As of 2018 all dissertations are submitted through the SHAREOK system. Consult with the Graduate College to make sure that you have met all of their requirements for submitting your dissertation and graduating including the submission deadline.

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May 2024 graduate's legacy includes charity work, campus and community involvement

nusimow.jpg

May 2024 SUNY Oswego graduate Zachary Nusimow helps distribute supplies and more to families in Peru during the most recent edition of his family's Angels of the Andes charity work.

May 2024 graduate Zachary Nusimow’s time at SUNY Oswego included a lot of involvement as a student as well as taking part in international charity work.

Graduating with a combined master of business administration and bachelor’s in broadcasting, Nusimow’s journey included a visit to the Peru mountains a few months ago to engage in mission work with his family.

This initiative is part of his family’s campaign, Angels of the Andes, where they help children receive needed supplies. Nusimow said that fundraising for the project began a few years ago.

“Angels of the Andes is a family initiative that my mother, Emily Nusimow, and my grandfather Daniel Angeles, created about 10 years ago,” Nusimow said.

Throughout Peru, Nusimow visited six different schools scattered throughout the mountains.

Nusimow’s campaign has been successful in serving up to 350 children throughout the region. Nusimow said  they received Christmas gifts and other essential supplies, including clothing and toiletries.

“They started to fundraise money for children in Peru for them to be able to have gifts and basic necessities like toothbrushes, backpacks, clothes, socks, shoes, food and things for the holidays,” Nusimow said.

“The overall goal is just to get as much outreach as possible to reach as many kids,” Nusimow said.

In that effort, Nusimow has found plenty of support from friends and family.

“We work with a church that I attend in my hometown in Hopewell, Junction Valley, and my grandfather’s church in the city helped out and gave generous donations, and many people of our friends and family gave generous donations to be able to afford the gifts and things we buy for them,” Nusimow said.

With many people being provided with lasting supplies, they each receive personalized materials.  The project aims to continue providing supplies to children and those in need, along with increasing the amount of supplies that they provide on a yearly basis.

The reward for Nusimow is a feeling as much as anything.

“Honestly, for me personally, it’s just the smile of the families and how grateful they really are, and that’s what I feel,” Nusimow said. “It keeps us going year in and year out [to] want to keep doing this.”

Nusimow talked about how this campaign affects him personally.

“It’s just really nice to be able to give back to people who don’t have these types of things and necessities, basic things that we might take for granted here,” Nusimow said. “They’re very grateful, and I’m just happy to be able to provide that for them.”

Nusimow said that he has personal friends that have been interested in this journey as well.

The campaign is continuous and shows more signs of expanding services over the next few years, he said.

Ongoing involvement

The work ethic reflected his time with Oswego, where Nusimow said that he made sure that he utilized his time.

“There was no moment where I said ‘no’ to an opportunity,” Nusimow said. “I made sure that my time was spent well, that I networked, [and] that I was able to do cool things. I got a few awards and met a lot of great people.”

The recent graduate has been a part of the multiple organizations across campus, which helped to expand his presence in campus affairs and activities.

Nusimow saw success in WTOP-10 TV, the campus student-run TV station “as a producer, and host of my own television series called Out On Our Own Oswego, or better known as Ox Five,” he recalled. “And that was a great success. As for our season finale, I was able to acquire my first interview with Al Roker, a very well-known alumni.”

Nusimow said he also earned “great experience” an executive for the student-run radio station, WNYO 88.9 FM, as its business and sales representative.

Nusimow has won several awards, including one from the Broadcast Education Association.

“One was an award of excellence in the film and video narrative category issued by the Broadcast Education Association’s Student creative competition, which was a video titled ‘I Gave Al Roker An Al Roker Sub In Front Of The Al Roker Studio,’” Nusimow said. “That was my second interaction I was able to have with Mr. Roker.”

Nusimow also worked for Wonzones Calzones, a popular calzone restaurant that gets many nighttime orders. Nusimow said that he was marketing his title while working for Wonzones.

“My official title that [owner Jason Shi] gave me was marketing and communications manager,” Nusimow said. “I helped with new merchandise releases and doing photography and videography and managing the Instagram account. I created it and towards the end, [I] co-ran it with Jason.”

Nusimow said that working at Wonzones Calzones blossomed into a very meaningful experience.

“Doing the creative or just doing the marketing and communications with [Jason], I was able to meet a lot of great people that way,” Nusimow said. “[With] people who just attended, people who just went there to eat, and [people that] like the stuff we’re doing on the instagram, I was able to really [get] a jump on my own.”

On campus, he also interned for the Office of Communications and Marketing, while enjoying interacting with the community in his off-campus job with Oswego Cinema 7.

Nusimow continues to further his connections and expand his portfolio as he continues his career – and encourages others to take chances and try new things as well.

– Written by Ryan Ravenell of the Class of 2024

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