Directed by the College’s Assistant Dean, the Student Services office provides academic advice, curriculum information, and personal counseling for undergraduates. Academic advice is provided through summer and fall orientation, registration information meetings and seminars, and through printed instruction guides.

The office also operates several volunteer student service programs including COM Ambassadors, Champions, Sophomore Series, and COM Student Assembly (COMSA). Special programs offered throughout the year involve undergraduates in seminars, workshops, and professional experiences to expand their knowledge.

Students can meet with academic advisors by coming to the Student Services office or calling 617-353-3471 (if out of state, 1-800-992-6514) to make an appointment. Students are also encouraged to talk with COM faculty and their faculty advisors.

The College has a wide variety of advisors and services, and it is the responsibility of the student to take advantage of them. Students are expected to use email for correspondence, to subscribe to COM electronic bulletin boards and a newsletter, to attend meetings, and, if problems arise, to seek assistance at the Student Services office before such problems interfere with academic performance.

Questions? The COM Student Services website is a great resource with video and print information to answer most of your questions. Feel free to email us at comugrad@bu.edu with any questions or follow us on Twitter: @comugrad.

All COM undergraduates receive academic advising from the Student Services office. As students prepare to enter their junior year, they declare their majors and are then assigned faculty advisors in their chosen departments. Students and faculty should meet a minimum of once each semester to choose courses that fulfill requirements in the major area or in a concentration. This meeting also provides an opportunity to discuss the ways in which courses relate to programs and to careers.

Questions? The COM Student Services website is a great resource with video and print information to answer most of your questions. Feel free to email us at comugrad@bu.edu with any questions or follow us on Twitter: @comugrad.

The College of Communication Career Services office provides a multitude of services and resources to COM students and alumni. Career counseling is available to assist students and alumni in exploring and researching communication careers, discussing their findings and proposed career goals, and receiving professional input on the appropriate steps toward those goals. A variety of workshops and seminars are offered throughout the school year to enhance students’ upcoming internship and job searches, including: résumé and cover letter writing, job search strategies, job interviewing skills, portfolio preparation and presentation, Internet job searching, negotiating salary, and understanding benefits. Special events held throughout the school year include two Boston University Career Expos, an Internship/Summer Jobs Fair, and several alumni-student networking events. Résumé services include open hours for résumé critiquing.

Internships play a vitally important role in exposing students to the day-to-day operations of television and radio stations, advertising, marketing and public relations agencies, newspapers, magazines, productions houses, and Internet and design firms, among others. Additionally, students gain valuable experience to include on their résumés. COM Career Services provides an internship database that contains hundreds of current listings and company information. To take an internship for credit, students must consult their Internship Director for specific requirements within each department.

The COM Career Services website at www.bu.edu/com-csc contains up-to-date information on office hours, services, and staff, as well as links to our alumni spotlight page, communication company links, other career and job links, and most important, our listing of jobs—COMJOBS. Available only to COM students and alumni, COMJOBS, a feature-packed, secured database on the web, provides over one thousand current job listings from entry-level to highly experienced, in a wide variety of industries. It is sortable by geographic location, type of position, or date of posting. It is also searchable by keyword.

The Career Resource Library allows students to research career fields, compile company and industry information, and review trade publications and annual reports. The video library includes videos on résumé and cover letter writing, job search strategies, and job interviewing. Computers are also available to conduct online job searches.

The Boston University Career Services office coordinates on-campus recruiting; for more information, call 617-353-3695. For information concerning COM Career Services, call 617-353-3490 or email comjobs@bu.edu.

The Division of External Programs meets the educational and training needs of individuals, corporations, and organizations in all areas of communication. Because of its flexibility, the Division of External Programs can meet the needs of outside groups in a timely, on-demand basis. Workshops, short courses, seminars, and conferences have been held on such topics as media training, advanced public relations practices, corporate video, women in communication management, writing for publication, computer communication, and film and psychology. External Programs also sponsors the Academy of Media Production (AMP) for high school students, and special programs for foreign universities or foreign midcareer communications specialists.

Corporations have worked with the Division of External Programs to train their employees in writing, public relations, marketing, public appearances, and nonbroadcast video. Executive training programs have been organized for public utilities, agencies, and professional associations. The Division of External Programs maintains affiliations with professional organizations in the communication fields and has jointly sponsored programs with the New England Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, the Boston Ad Club, the International Television Association, and the New England Chapter of the National Academy of  Television Arts and Sciences.

Organizations with communication interests and concerns should contact the Division of External Programs at 617-353-5015 to discuss programs specially designed to meet their needs.

The Communication Research Center (CRC) was established in 1959 as a part of Boston University. It was a pioneer in conducting systematic analyses about the effects of television on children and measuring political opinions and voting intentions. This early work led the CRC to develop a specialty in survey research methodology.

In 1994, the CRC was reorganized, and now it specializes in a wide array of survey research designs in addition to focus group strategies. It emphasizes an integrated approach that utilizes the right mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques for solving research problems and reaching conclusions. In 1999, the CRC underwent a $500,000 expansion. The CRC prides itself in being a leader in applied communication science.

The CRC offers COM students a unique opportunity for getting involved in real problem-solving tasks using the latest in research methodologies and techniques.

Capabilities and clients: CRC research teams carry out all of the phases of a research project. The CRC services on-campus and off-campus clients. On-campus clients have included University scholars and administrative entities. Off-campus clients have included government agencies, corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

Survey research specialties: The CRC’s research specialties include telephone, mail, and web surveys. The phases required for executing these studies include developing customized quantitative measuring instruments, examining the psychometric properties of measuring instruments, sampling, collecting data, analyzing data, writing quantitative reports, and presenting the results.

Focus group specialties: The CRC also specializes in the use of focus groups when the problem demands a more qualitative approach. Focus group tasks include recruiting participants, developing customized qualitative instruments, moderating focus group sessions, analyzing focus group results, writing qualitative reports, and presenting the results.

Research facilities and tools: CRC facilities include a cutting-edge, computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) center housing 33 workstations. The center uses Sawtooth Software’s WinCATI system. Interviewers are carefully auditioned and screened for intellectual capacity and voice quality. To demonstrate the superior quality control mechanisms in place at the CRC, the center gives clients the opportunity to remotely monitor the telephone interviewers who are working on their projects.

CRC facilities also include a state-of-the-art focus group site consisting of a meeting room, an observation room, and a kitchen for food catering. Unobtrusive audio and video pick-ups enable the recording of focus group interactions. Remote video monitoring is also available to clients. This modular facility is also connected to the Internet via Ethernet, making it suitable for testing Web interfaces and other aspects of  websites. The CRC is also currently developing a methodology for conducting virtual focus groups.

The CRC utilizes the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) as its standard tool for statistical analysis. The CRC also uses specialized software such as AMOS for carrying out structural equations modeling (SEM).

A new and exciting addition to the Journalism Program is the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University (NECIR–BU), which provides students with opportunities to work on investigative journalism projects with some of the most skilled professionals in the industry. The primary goals of NECIR-BU are to produce high-quality, high-impact investigative reports; train the next generation of investigative reporters; serve as a platform for experimenting with how to effectively deliver long-form investigative content to a digital audience; and be a model for nonprofit, multimedia, investigative journalism that could be duplicated nationwide. NECIR-BU’s reporting will reach millions of people through reports appearing in boston.com, the Boston Globe, New England Cable News, and WBUR (NPR).

This specialty center is aimed at training future generations of scientifically competent and ethically grounded science and medical journalists. Students enrolled in the journalism department’s three-­semester Master of Science program in science journalism and professionals have access to the center to learn how to identify, process, and report legitimate science and medical information to the general public. This includes developing very specific skills in the understanding of biostatistics and epidemiology.

It also offers training for mid-career reporters assigned by news organizations to cover medicine and health, and for international journalists interested in improving science and medical news coverage in their home countries. The center further serves as a global reference source for science and medical news, with a website on which journalists from around the world exchange information, sources, and perspectives on science, medical, and public health issues. The purpose of the center is to improve the quality of science and medical journalism in print, broadcast, and online news organizations. In addition to the journalism department, instruction is provided by experts from Boston University’s School of Public Health and School of Medicine.

A strong internship component exists for students at organizations such as Newsweek, Popular Science, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Discovery Channel, and National Public Radio. Coursework offers science and medical news reporting, writing, and editing. Electives are available in narrative storytelling, radio reporting, documentary filmmaking, and screenwriting. The overall aim is to broaden society’s understanding of science, medicine, and medical research.

This unique program offers seniors, and graduate and post-graduate students, the chance to develop their writing and reporting skills, focusing on covering national affairs and politics in Washington, D.C.

Boston University Washington News Service

Print and photojournalism students serve as the Washington, D.C., correspondents for New England news outlets such as the Manchester Union Leader, the Bangor Daily News, the Worcester Telegram, and the Cape Cod Times. Students have the chance to hear clips and create a portfolio and résumé reel of national stories.  TV students work as correspondents for local New England television stations. Radio students work as correspondents for New England public radio stations. The BU newsroom is also equipped with state-of-the-art television and radio equipment. The newsroom is located on the Boston University Washington Center in northwest Washington, where students also live.

Journalism Internship

Students are provided with internships in the D.C. bureaus of national news organizations including USA Today, ABC and NBC News, the Boston Globe, National Public Radio, and Congressional Quarterly. Working side by side with national journalists, students can make contacts with potential future employers and earn bylines in national publications.

Political Reporting

A course in political reporting is taught at the Washington Journalism Center. Weekly brown-bag lunches bring students together with newsmakers, editors, bureau chiefs, and top reporters. Special events include visits to the Newseum, meetings with editors and tours of the newsrooms of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and USA Today, and attend a taping of NBC’s Meet the Press.

The Washington Journalism Center is a joint program of Boston University’s Department of Journalism and the International Programs Division. Students earn 16 academic credits for the semester. Tuitions and fees are the same as those at Boston University’s Charles River Campus.

The BU Washington Center, where participants in the Washington Journalism Program live and work, has fully equipped newsroom, library, computer lab, student lounge, and classroom facilities as well as fully furnished apartments. The fall semester runs from early September to mid-December. The spring semester goes from mid-January to early May. Visit our website for more information: /com/academics/special-programs/bu-dc/.

The College of Communication Writing Center (located in Room B27A) provides free assistance to students. The center’s tutors advise students on all types of writing, but specialize in formats related to the COM departments: journalism; mass communication, advertising, and public relations; and film and television.

The tutors are drawn from the finest writers in COM’s graduate school. Working one-on-one with the student, a tutor will address whatever issues concern the student, such as organization, logic, concision, clarity, style, and grammar. A student can come in at any stage of the writing process—from brainstorming a topic to polishing a final draft.

The center is open Monday through Friday, with walk-in hours available Monday through Thursday.