DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

• 32 credit hours are required (18 core / nine elective / six completion)
• Recommended enrollments are six hours fall and spring semesters, three hours in the summer.
• To graduate, students must have a minimum grade point average of 3.0.

Four Curriculum Areas

The Master of Arts - Communication is a degree program that consists of four curriculum areas:

• Elective courses that allow students to customize their degree and are taken by all students who enter the program.
• Core curriculum courses that provide a foundation in leadership principles.
• A concentration that is chosen by the student, and provides specialized knowledge in an area of discipline.
• Degree completion – As the final task of earning a master’s degree, students can choose to complete a thesis, a research project, or take six additional course hours with a comprehensive examination.

Core courses

COMM 5013 Introduction to Graduate Studies in Communication and one research method course from the following: 

• COMM 5003 Quantitative Research Methods or
• COMM 5023 Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods or
• COMM 5053 Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods or
• COMM 5313 Qualitative Research Methods: Participant Observation

Electives

Along with the above core courses, students must take COMM electives to meet the minimum requirement of 26 communication credit hours, which must be approved by the director. Elective hours can be a combination of COMM electives, other OU graduate classes, and transfer work. Students may only earn up to eight hours of credit from graduate courses taken in other OU programs or from transfer hours outside the University of Oklahoma from other universities. Transfer credits must be evaluated by the University and courses from other programs must be approved by the department prior to enrollment. NOTE: The combined total of transfer hours and graduate credit from other OU programs may not exceed eight credit hours.

Completion

To qualify for a graduate degree, each student must have an overall grade point average of 3.00 ("B") in all graduate work taken at the University of Oklahoma. For those students enrolled in our MA program, the two "C" rule is applied. Any student who receives a second grade of "C" will be suspended from further enrollment until the student's graduate committee reviews and approves the student's appeal.