Department of Journalism

Graduate Program

Frequently Asked Questions

(questions faculty frequently wish graduate students would ask )

• How do I get in to your program?

Apply. Successful applicants will have the following:

• B.A. with 3.0 or better in the last 60 hours of undergrad work from an accredited institution; and
• GRE scores in the 75 percentile or above in verbal, 4.5 in analytic writing, or
• sufficient evidence in the overall packet that will allow faculty to put less weight on the GRE scores; and
• a detailed and convincing justification of why this degree and program is right for you; and
• three examples of your professional or academic work that show high quality artistic, analytic, academic or journalistic ability; and
• three letters of reference that testify to your ability to excel at graduate work in our department.

Deadline for Spring admission is October 15; deadline for Summer and Fall admission is March 15. Applications received outside of the admissions’ cycles will be reviewed. Applicants may be admitted throughout the academic year, depending on the availability of faculty to mentor new students, but assistantships are generally awarded in the Fall term for the academic year based on the previous March 15 deadline.

•  How long will it take me to do the M.A. degree in Journalism?

It depends on the student’s other time commitments. The degree requires 36 hours of work, which translates into 11 3-credit courses and a final project or 10 3-credit courses and a thesis. Students who can devote most of their work life to the degree can be done in two academic years.

• Do I have to take all of my classes as grad classes in the department?

No. You may take up to 12 credits outside of the department

with advisor approval. You may take up to 6 hours at the

undergraduate level with advisor approval. You will begin to

notice a pattern here of advisor approval. You shouldn’t do

anything, academically speaking, without advisor approval. You

and your advisor are expected to use departmental resources,

and campus as a whole to design a program that meets your

special interests. At least 20 of the 36 hours must come from

regular classes (not Independent Study or Internship).

• What about transfer credits?

At the department’s discretion, you may transfer in up to three

courses (9 semester hours). All courses transferred must

have been completed with the grade of B or better.

• What about credits that I take as a graduate, non-degree student?

You may transfer (with advisor approval) up to 12 hours of

credit taken as a non-degree student.

• Why would I want to take courses as a graduate, non-degree student?

Professionals or members of the community who have            undergraduate degrees may want to take a course at the graduate level and have no interest in seeking a graduate degree. These students will be permitted by  the course instructor, based on the instructor’s judgment of the suitability of the class to the student and based on availability.

Students from other institutions might wish to enroll in our courses and transfer those credits to their home institution. These students will be permitted by the course instructor, based on the instructor’s judgment of the suitability of the class to the student and based on availability.

             Occasionally, the department will allow a student who has an application for

             enrollment in the graduate program pending, or partially completed, to enroll in

             our courses as a non-degree student. Permits in these cases will be signed

             either by the Graduate Coordinator or the Department Chair and will be allowed

             based on the following criteria:

• progress the student is making in completing his or her application,
• a grade of B or better in all classes taken as a non-degree student,

3)   instructors’ judgment that the student has shown an acceptable level of

      participation in classes taken, and

• availability of space in the requested class.

          Students must complete their applications for admission before they will be

            allowed to register for upcoming semesters.

             Successfully completing 12 hours as a non-degree student does not imply

             admission to the graduate program in the Department of Journalism and

             Media Studies.

• So, aside from these technicalities, can I take anything that I want?

No. You must take three required courses to complete the

degree:

                        MMC 6401      Media Theory;

MMC 6612      Law and Mass Media;

MMC 6208      Media Ethics;

MMC 6421      Research Methods (thesis option only)

Next, no course or activity will count toward your degree unless

you have advisor approval to take it.

• How well do I have to do in my coursework?

Graduate students must maintain an overall average of 3.0 (B) in all courses, and must meet the requirements of the degree program to be considered “in good standing.”  No grade below “C” will be accepted toward a graduate degree.  This includes “C-“ grades.  All grades will be counted in computing the overall grade point average (GPA).

You will need to understand the material from the core classes well enough to pass comprehensive exams. If you cannot achieve a B in the core classes, it is not likely that you understand the material well enough to pass comps.

• Can I get credit for working?

Maybe. Paid and unpaid internship opportunities can result in

up to 3 credit hours toward your degree. However, you must

• complete 12 hours of coursework first;
• have approval from the Internship Coordinator for your expertise and the worksite expectations;
• have advisor approval.

Your internship experience will be monitored by the Internship

Coordinator.

10.  Why do I have to take comps?

All graduate students must take comprehensive exams.

Comps demonstrate to you and to the department that you have achieved a graduate-level understanding of foundational material in our field and are ready to embark on your final project or thesis.

You must have completed 21 hours of coursework and have

advisor approval to sign up for comps.

Comp forms are available in the front office and must be

submitted to the front office at least six weeks before Comps

Writing Day, which is traditionally the last Friday of the term

from 9-1.

Students taking comps will receive questions in foundational

fields (law, ethics, theory) one month before Comps Writing

Day.  You will be given an additional application question that

covers law, ethics and theory on the day of the exam.

No notes or books are allowed when you write your exams. You

will be supplied blue books or laptop (your choice) by the

department to record your responses.

Each question will be judged pass, revise for oral defense, or

no pass. Pass means that you have demonstrated adequate

knowledge for the question; revise for oral defense means that

you will be given a list of further questions to explore and will

respond to oral questions from the faculty member with relevant

expertise; no pass means that you try again next semester. If

you receive a ‘no pass,’ you may request a reading list to help

you prepare.

Students have three attempts to pass all comprehensive

exams. All comprehensive exams must be passed before

students receive preliminary project or thesis approval from

their committee.

11.   “Preliminary Project or Thesis Approval from

         Committee?”  WHAT’S THAT?

When you are ready to embark on your final project or thesis

you will do the following:

• With advisor’s approval, you will select and secure a committee. The committee must be chaired by a regular (not adjunct) member of the Department of Journalism.

• If you are doing a project, the second member of the committee must also come from the Department, but may be adjunct. That’s all you need for a project committee.

• If you are doing a thesis, you need two more faculty members, in addition to your faculty chair. You are encouraged to bring in one member from outside the department who works in a relevant discipline.

• Once you have a committee, write a 3-5 page (typewritten, double-spaced) proposal that describes your project or thesis.

The Project Proposal includes a

• Statement of Purpose,
• Justification,
• Approach,
• Outline and Summary, and
• Sources.

The Thesis Prospectus includes a

• Statement of Purpose,
• Justification,
• Statement of Problem,
• Methodology,
• Review of Literature,
• Definition of Terms,
• Limitations,
• Outline and chapter summary, and
• Bibliography.

Distribute your proposal to your committee members.

Schedule a committee meeting for preliminary approval. This one-hour meeting provides you with assurance that the committee approves the work about to be done and gives the committee members an opportunity to provide input for the project. A timeline for the work should also be determined at the time of the meeting.

After the meeting, you should summarize your understandings in writing, get your committee chair’s signature on the MOU (memo of understanding) and then you are ready to start your work. At this point, your committee chair becomes your advisor.

12.   Should I do a final project or a thesis?

It depends on whether you want to do exploration that is primarily a journalistic activity (project) or an academic activity (thesis).  The project is produced for a lay or trade audience; the thesis is written for an academic audience.  Curriculum design is a type of project.

Professional Projects are creative activity – they do not count as research in the

academic sense and, therefore, do not require Institutional Review Board (IRB)

approval. Professional projects can include photo essays, major print design

projects or major web design projects as well as newsletters, or a series of

investigative, in-depth, or feature stories on a  particular topic.

A thesis is academic research and should be written with the plan of publishing some or all of the material in an academic venue. Acceptable research methodologies include clinical (in-depth case presentation and analysis), historical (examination and analysis of primary documents regarding long-past events), legal (examination of existing law, statutes, regulations in consideration of some topical media puzzle), philosophical (analysis of conceptual understandings that govern journalistic work), qualitative (critical analysis based on narrative or aesthetic theory), or quantitative (survey research, content analysis, statistical studies or computer based analysis). Many theses require the use of two or more methodologies.

All theses will be produced in APA style and must have, at least, department-level IRB approval BEFORE research is begun.

Please ask for Thesis and Project Description and meet with your advisor before embarking on either one.

13.  Can I get an assistantship?

Maybe. You will need to be accepted into the program, be enrolled full-time (9 hours), and be academically competitive for a limited number of assistantships. Assistants work either 10 hours each week (1/2 assistant) or 20 hours each week (full assistant) doing a range of research or teaching activities. Assistants are paired with faculty supervisors based on mutual interest. Assignments (and supervisor) may change term to term depending on the department’s needs. In addition to a stipend for the assistantship, students are offered full tuition waiver, partial tuition waiver or no tuition waiver. Waivers may be determined on the basis of a student’s declared residency. That is, if a student declares Florida residency and turns out not to be a Florida resident, the stipend will be provided at the residency rate.

    14. How long do I have to finish my degree?

You have seven years from your first semester’s enrollment as a graduate student.

To have ‘continuing enrollment,’ you must take 6 credits over three continuous semesters (including summer).

You are also required to enroll for at least two graduate credits in the semester in which you plan to graduate.

Revised October 16, 2006