Communication (BA)

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General Education Requirements

The university’s general education program provides a coherent, integrated introduction to the breadth of knowledge you will need to consider yourself (and to be considered by other people) a generally well-educated person. This program requires six courses in different categories, plus writing, foreign language and diversity requirements, which together comprise the USC Core. See The USC Core and the General Education Program for more information.

Course Requirements

Required Courses

Select 16 units from the following list:

COMM 200 Communication and Social Science Units: 4
COMM 201 Rhetoric and the Public Sphere Units: 4
COMM 202 Communication and Technology Units: 4
COMM 203 Communication and Mass Media Units: 4
COMM 206 Communication and Culture Units: 4
COMM 207 Economic Thinking for Communication and Journalism Units: 2 and
COMM 208 Media Economics: Perspectives on Communication Industries Units: 2

And two of the following three:

COMM 204 Public Speaking Units: 4
COMM 301L Empirical Research in Communication Units: 4
COMM 322 Argumentation and Advocacy Units: 4

Electives

Upper division COMM courses Units: 16
Lower or upper division COMM or ASCJ courses Units: 4
One 400-level non-cross-listed COMM course (excluding COMM 443 , COMM 490 , COMM 494 , and COMM 499 ) Units: 4

Additional Requirements

Students must maintain a minimum 2.0 overall GPA in upper division course work applied toward the major. Further, no more than 16 upper division elective units may be taken prior to completion of the entire core. No more than 4 units of COMM 380 may be counted toward the department major. The School of Communication is committed to ensuring that all declared communication majors follow the necessary requirements. Mandatory advisement is required of all communication majors each semester prior to registration. All students taking communication classes are held to the highest academic integrity standards and may be denied admission or have admission revoked as a result of conduct violations.

Qualified non-majors (generally, students with junior/senior status, a minimum 3.0 GPA and a declared major elsewhere at the university) with appropriate academic preparation may be permitted to enroll in communication electives without fulfilling prerequisite requirements. Application for a waiver should be made to an undergraduate adviser.