The undergraduate major in Communication leads to the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree and is designed to prepare students for careers in corporate or mass communication. Communication majors are instructed in both written and visual communication. The major exposes students to a broad range of communication skills to reflect today’s era of integrated media and includes credit-based internships to provide students with work experience in their desired fields.
A minimum of 120 semester hours of applicable college credits is required for the bachelor’s degree in Communication; of these, a minimum of 48 credit hours must be at the upper level. Because degree plans are subject to change, all students should meet with their faculty advisers during their first semester at UHCL to sign a Candidate Plan of Study in order to secure the degree plan in place at the time of their enrollment. Students majoring in Communication are strongly encouraged to complete WRIT 1302 in partial fulfillment of the “Communications” component area of UHCL’s core curriculum.
Entrance and Exit Requirements
Students in the Communication plan must take the Grammar-Spelling-Punctuation (GSP) test and score 70 or better before they may enroll in COMM 4061 or COMM 4379 . Some courses in the Communication major require successful completion of the GSP test as a prerequisite. Students may take the GSP test up to 5 times, after which they will be ineligible to enroll in those courses and thus ineligible to complete the major. Students are also required to build a professional portfolio using a collection of their best written and graphic work as an exit requirement for the major.
For additional information about the GSP tutorial/test dates as well as advice regarding course recommendations and lower-level transfer requirements, please visit the Communication program’s website. In addition, the student organization Communication and Digital Media Association (CDMA) serves as a great networking opportunity for communication students.
