General Education Course Requirements
For general education courses, students may take any of the courses listed in this catalog in the section on University General Education Requirements as satisfying that category requirement, except that the Department does require that , be one of the required Humanities courses. An orientation course, , is also required and must be taken in the student’s first semester at Tennessee State University.
Students seeking the B.A. degree must include 12 semester-hours of a single foreign language in their General Education requirements. The number of hours in the foreign language may be reduced by advanced standing in the language at the time of admission, but the B.A. candidate must earn at least 6 college-level hours of credit in the language and complete course work at least through the intermediate level (2010, 2020).
Electives, Minor, Second Major
In addition to the general education core courses and required major courses, students must take additional courses to make a total of at least 120 semester-hours. These may be electives taken inside or outside of the department, a minor outside the department plus electives, or a second major. A minor or second major is encouraged.
Upper Division Hours
At least 42 of the 120 hours required for graduation must be taken at the junior-senior level - courses numbered in the 3000-4000 range.
Upper-Division Admission
For admission into the upper-division programs of the Communication major, students must complete all of the requirements listed under the General Education Core. In addition, they must have removed all high school deficiencies, passed all required developmental courses, and earned a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0 on college-level course work. They must have earned grades of C or better in , ( and for Mass Communications) , and . Students pursuing the B.A. degree must have completed the foreign language requirement before applying for upper-level admission.
Most 3000-4000 level courses in the department are offered only once a year. Therefore, in consultation with an advisor, students will need to plan ahead in order to graduate in a timely fashion.