Communication Degree Requirements

The Bachelor of Arts in Communication teaches analytical, critical, and practical skills that will help students to understand and improve communication practices and systems in all types of social settings. Students learn to recognize and understand communication issues and systems in order to make decisions effectively, to solve problems.

Program Student Learning Outcomes (PSLO)

Students who graduate with a B.A. in Communication will be able to:

• Make knowledgeable and relevant contributions to intellectual conversation pertaining to communication phenomena. 
• Argue convincingly and respond constructively to positions regarding the problems, applicable standards, and communication practices, enabling improved functioning of communication processes and systems. 
• Conceptualize and appreciate the point of view of one's counterparts in communicative interaction while attempting respectfully to incorporate their viewpoints into one's own. 
• Analyze forms and contexts of communication from a variety of intellectual perspectives (philosophical, historical, theoretical, and practical). 
• Make cooperative, civil, appropriate, and timely contributions in talk, writing, and mediated discourse, to advance the direction and purpose of the communication event. 

Preparation

High school students should take four years of English, including composition. Social Science and civics courses, including History and Economics, are encouraged. 

Transfer Students

Community college transfer students may transfer a maximum of nine (9) lower-division units in Communication. Students must have earned a grade of C (2.0) or higher in the coursework to be counted for credit toward the major.

All courses counted toward the major, including Preparation for the Major courses, must be completed with a grade of C (2.0) or better.

General Education Worksheet

Major Requirements

Communication Major Worksheet/Option Checklist

Special Conditions for the Bachelor of Arts in Communication

Students must take a sufficient number of elective units to bring the total number of units to a minimum of 120 units.

• Communication majors must complete nine (9) upper-division units selected from at least two of the social sciences, including (but not limited to) Economics, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology

• Eighteen (18) additional upperdivision units in at least two of the three areas of communication (Communication Culture and Social Context, Mass Communication, Communication Theory and Methods). MDIA courses may be used to fulfill the Mass Communication area units.

• No more than six (6) hours of independent study and/or internship may be applied toward the major. Independent study may be applied to field distribution requirements at the discretion of the instructor under whose supervision the student is doing the study.

• Other introductory statistics courses may be accepted upon approval of the communication advisor.