Graduate Study in Communication Studies

Click here to read the complete graduate information letter.

Dr. Dawn O. Braithwaite,
Director of Graduate Studies

Warm greetings from the faculty and students of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln!

We know the decision on where to apply for graduate study is one of the most important you will make. There are many factors to consider when thinking about a graduate program: emphasis areas, faculty, department climate, graduate placement research and teaching opportunities, location, and cost, to name a few. Please read on for some highlights:

• We have close working and mentoring relationships between faculty members and students.
• We offer MA and Ph.D. degrees, specializing in: Instructional Communication, Interpersonal and Family Communication, Organizational Communication, and Rhetoric and Culture.
• We offer rhetorical/critical, quantitative, and qualitative/interpretive methodological research tracks.
• We also participate in an interdisciplinary MA in Marketing, Communication and Advertising program (MCA) for those interested in an applied focus. http://journalism.unl.edu/grad/mca.pdf
• Students have opportunities to work on research with faculty and several collaborative team projects are in progress.
• Our graduate students attend professional conferences and present papers and publish their work. Our students have had recent Top Papers at NCA, CSCA, WSCA and ECA and have won prestigious fellowships.
• UNL has a commitment to professional development. Doctoral students may participate in the national Preparing Future FacultyProgram, which provides hand-on experience on becoming a professor.
• Our department has an outstanding record of student placement. Every student in recent years who has completed a Ph.D. and sought academic employment has secured a faculty position.
• Graduate students at Nebraska teach a variety of undergraduate courses. Our students have won numerous teaching awards, including the Central States Communication Association Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award and the UNL Graduate Teaching Award.
• Graduate Teaching Assistants have nicely furnished offices, computers, internet hookups, and access to some travel funds for conferences.
• Our faculty and graduate students represent gender, ethnic, and geographic diversity. Our departmental Diversity Committee supports students and faculty from underrepresented groups professionally and personally.
• GTAs have low cost health benefits, free summer tuition, and can apply to teach in summer. We offer summer graduate classes that reduce the overall time to degree.
• Lincoln is a wonderfully vibrant place of 230,000 people. Lincolnites enjoy an excellent quality of life with good schools, low crime, affordable housing, parks, cultural events and clean air. We experience all four seasons, and our weather is more temperate than our neighbors to the north and east.
• Lincoln's affordability is a very desirable aspect of the city for graduate students.

Click here to read the complete graduate information letter.

Click here to see current grad students and their email addresses. Please feel free to email them and ask questions! What is the Ph.D. or M.A. program REALLY like???

Go here to see Organizations for Graduate Students.

To complete the application process, apply to both UNL Graduate Studies http://www.unl.edu/gradstud and the Department of Communication Studies http://www.unl.edu/cs/grad/pdfs (application form on website). We begin reviewing fall applications after January 15th and proceed until positions are filled. MCA admissions are done fall and spring. We look forward to hearing from you! Contact me or other UNL faculty members for information.

To receive online application materials, use our website. To receive materials or check the status of your application materials from Communication Studies, contact our administrative assistant: