Plan of Study/Commencement of Program
Upon admission to the graduate program in mass communication, each student will be assigned a faculty advisor by the appropriate department chair. In most cases, this will be the director of the appropriate graduate program. The advisor will be responsible for developing the student's plan of study, requesting applicable transfer of credit where appropriate, monitoring the student's academic progress, and ensuring the fulfillment of the requirements for the masters degree by completing the student's Program of Studies with the student. This will also include a timetable for completion of the work. Any changes in the plan must be approved by the faculty advisor and the appropriate chair. It is also the faculty advisor's responsibility to complete a Graduate GPA Course Inclusion Form for classes that are part of the masters program but were taken prior to the student's full admission and/or are lower division classes.

In addition to the development of a plan of study, the advisor must evaluate any deficiencies including, but not limited to the following areas which may require additional course work.

Competence in Statistics: Competence in the fundamentals of statistics is required. Competence is demonstrated by students showing that a course has been taken in statistics before they are allowed to register for MMC 5445 (Applied Research Methods in Mass Media). A student who has not taken a statistics course must register for and take an undergraduate course prior to taking MMC 5445.

Writing and Word Processing Proficiency: Students must pass a grammar proficiency exam with a score of 70 in order to graduate from the program. The exam is provided each semester and is a prerequisite for MMC 6950 Professional Project. Students who fail the test must re-take it. Students can schedule time in the SJMC Writing Lab which is available for self-tutoring or, as an alternative, complete the school's undergraduate writing course, MMC 3101, with a grade of B or better. (No graduate credit is given for this course.) The proficiency exam consists of multiple choice grammar and syntax questions. When Words Collide by Kessler/MacDonald and the accompanying Exercise Book may be used to prepare for the exam.

Students must have computer word processing skills. Typed work will be required throughout the program.

Course work: To earn the Master of Science in Mass Communication degree, students must meet the following requirements.

Complete a minimum of 36 hours of acceptable credit as prescribed by the graduate program; of those hours, at least 30 must be at the graduate level and, all courses in the SJMC taken toward graduation must be at the graduate level.

At least 27 hours must be in School of Journalism and Mass Communication courses.

Core Curriculum
All students, in all areas of specialization, must take nine hours of core courses as follows:

MMC 5445 Applied Research Methods in Media (3)
MMC 6402 Theories of Mass Communication (3)
MMC 6950 Professional Project (3)