Undergraduate Communication Studies

As a Communication Studies major, you’ll have the opportunity to learn how people communicate, how to listen, how to better persuade, and how to engage in civic life. You'll study communication in personal relationships, in businesses and other organizations, in media, and across genders and diverse cultures. In addition, you'll get valuable hands-on experience through our internship program and community-based class projects.

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Program Highlights

Communication is everywhere and everything: It’s at the root of every human interaction and endeavor. Our goal is to make sure our students get a taste of every aspect of this broad field—from rhetoric to interpersonal, organizational, and intercultural communication to mass media—so they can find their niche and develop expertise in it.  

We offer several concentrations, including an individually designed option, and a public relations certificate to help focus students’ studies, and we provide faculty-student mentoring and support. 

 We also require two research courses, which is unique for undergraduate programs; our students regularly present their projects at our campus-wide research showcase and have even presented (and won awards) at regional conferences.  

Finally, we require all our students to complete at least one internship and encourage more than one, with class credit available, to make sure our graduates leave our program with hands-on, real-world experience.  

Career Outcomes

A Communication Studies degree can lead to a career in Public Relations, Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, Event Planning, Fundraising/Development, Social Services, Counseling, Media, Advertising, Publishing, and more. 

Madison has a thriving professional communications community that offers many opportunities for students to try out a career path via internships and job shadowing, along with making connections through the community-based courses and class projects built into our Communication Studies program. 

Faculty Spotlight

Links of Interest
Full Catalog
Communications Fact Sheet
Communication Studies