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The School of Communications is recognized nationally for its deep and innovative curriculum that emphasizes engaged learning and serving the public good. The curriculum seeks a balance between concepts that lead to strategic decision-making and the skills to produce media content.
The curricular structure reflects the four purposes of communication in society: to inform, to persuade, to entertain and to discover. Students choose among four majors:
You may see the curriculum in any of the areas by clicking the links at the top right.
ACCREDITATION RULE. Elon is one of only 18 private colleges and universities in the nation to have an accredited communications program. Accreditation standards require that all students complete at least 80 credit hours outside the major, with 65 or more of those hours in the liberal arts and sciences. Elon requires a minimum of 132 credit hours to graduate, so this means up to 52 credit hours in the School of Communications may apply toward graduation.
REQUIRED INTERNSHIP. All students must complete an off-campus professional internship in communications. Students enroll in COM 381 Communication Internship for one or two credit hours, based on 80 work-hours per credit hour. Students may earn up to a total of four credit hours of COM 381. (Co-op Work Experiences credit through the Career Services Office cannot count toward the major or toward the 80 hours required outside the School of Communications.)
DOUBLE MAJOR. To encourage students to develop a second area of academic depth, the School of Communications waives eight hours of Communications electives for any student completing a double major outside the School. For example, a student double-majoring in Journalism and History would need a total of 44 COM hours instead of the normal 52 hours.
OPTIONAL EMPHASIS. To provide depth in specialty areas, students in any School of Communications major may choose to dedicate two COM electives and complete COM 381 Communications Internship in one of the following emphases:
Writing: COM 340 Feature Writing and COM 440 Public Affairs Reporting
Advertising: COM 338 Advertising in Society and COM 438 Advertising Techniques
Photojournalism: COM 328 Photojournalism and COM 428 Visual Storytelling
Documentary: COM 355 The Documentary and COM 455 Producing the Documentary
Sports Communications: COM 335 Sports and Media and COM 342 Sports Information or COM 345 Sports Broadcasting
Audio Recording: COM 354 Audio for Visual Media and COM 364 Audio for Sound Media
International Communications: COM 330 International Communications and a Semester Abroad communications course
COMMUNICATIONS MINOR. The school offers a 20-hour minor in Communications consisting of COM 100 Communications in a Global Age and 16 hours of additional COM courses, with at least four COM hours at the 300 or 400 level.
