Student Affairs

Intellectual, personal, and professional development are the primary concerns of the College and its faculty and staff. Academic, personal, and career counselors are available to help students make full use of the opportunities and adjust to the challenges of college.

Office of Student Services

Directed by the College’s Assistant Dean, the Office of Student Services provides academic advice, curriculum information, and personal counseling for undergraduates. Academic advice is provided through summer and fall orientation, registration information meetings and seminars, and through printed instruction guides.

The office also operates several volunteer student service programs including Peer Advising, Dean’s Hosts, Champions, Peer Tutoring, Sophomore Series, and COM Student Assembly. Special programs offered throughout the year involve undergraduates in seminars, workshops, and professional experiences to expand their knowledge.

Students can meet with an academic advisor by coming to the Office of Student Services or calling 617-353-3471 (if out of state, 1-800-992-6514) to make an appointment. Students are also encouraged to talk with COM faculty and their faculty advisors.

The College has a wide variety of advisors and services, and it is the responsibility of the student to take advantage of them. Students are expected to use e-mail for correspondence, to subscribe to COM electronic bulletin boards and a newsletter, to attend meetings, and, if problems arise, to seek assistance at the Office of Student Services before such problems interfere with academic performance.

College is a major undertaking that affects the entire family. The Office of Student Services staff conducts a seminar for parents that explains the challenges of college and the changes it will bring, and discusses with them their role in their son’s or daughter’s college education. These seminars are conducted during summer orientation and registration. Parents are encouraged to become involved and to stay connected with the Office of Student Services to help ensure a positive experience throughout the undergraduate years.

Academic Advising

All COM undergraduates receive academic advising from the Office of Student Services. As students prepare to enter their junior year, they declare their major and are then assigned faculty advisors in their chosen department. Students and faculty should meet a minimum of once each semester to choose courses that fulfill requirements in the major area or in a concentration. This meeting also provides an opportunity to discuss the ways in which courses relate to programs and to careers.

Increasingly, students are taking advantage of special programs, including Study Abroad, the Boston University Collaborative Degree Program (BUCOP), and the Washington and Los Angeles Internships. The Office of Student Services works with the students in arranging these programs.

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Career Services

College of Communication Office of Career Services provides a multitude of services and resources available to COM students and alumni. Career counseling is available to assist students and alumni in exploring and researching communication careers, discussing their findings and proposed career goals, and receiving professional input on the appropriate steps toward those goals. A variety of workshops and seminars are offered throughout the school year to enhance students’ upcoming internship and job searches, including: résumé and cover letter writing, job search strategies, job interviewing skills, portfolio preparation and presentation, Internet job searching, negotiating salary, and understanding benefits. Special events held throughout the school year include two Boston University Career Expos, an Internship/Summer Jobs Fair, and several alumni-student networking events. Résumé services include open hours for résumé critiquing.

Internships play a vitally important role in exposing students to the day-to-day operations of television and radio stations, advertising, marketing and public relations agencies, newspapers, magazines, productions houses, and Internet and design firms, among others. Additionally, students gain valuable experience to list on their résumés. COM Career Services provides an internship database that contains hundreds of current listings and company information. To take an internship for credit, students must consult their Internship Director for specific requirements within each department.

The COM Career Services contains up-to-date information on office hours, services, and staff, as well as links to our alumni spotlight page, communication company links, other career and job links, and most important, our listing of jobs— COMJOBS. Available only to COM students and alumni, COMJOBS, a feature-packed, secured database on the web, provides over one thousand current job listings from entry-level to highly experienced, in a wide variety of industries. It is sortable by geographic location, type of position, or date of posting. It is also “keyword” searchable.

The Career Resource Library allows students to research career fields, compile company and industry information, and review trade publications and annual reports. The video library includes videos on résumé and cover letter writing, job search strategies, and job interviewing. Computers are also available to conduct online job searches.

The Boston University Office of Career Services coordinates on-campus recruiting; for more information, call 617-353-3695. For information concerning COM Career Services, contact the Director at 617-353-3490 or e-mail comjobs@bu.edu.

COM Undergraduate Restricted Scholarships

There are a number of scholarships available to undergraduate students:

The Edward L. Bernays Primus Inter Pares Award
The J. Robert Breen Memorial Scholarship Fund
The Harold G. Buchbinder Scholarship Fund
The Christina Clark Fund
The Nancy S. Druker Scholarship
The Bruce Feirstein Scholarship Fund
The Steve Hill Scholarship Fund
The Dennis Kauff Memorial Fellowship
The John Koch Scholarship
The Ted Koppel Family Scholarship Fund
The Kotcher-Ketchum Scholarship Fund
The Stephen James Lilly Scholarship
The Nathan H. Miller Award
The Jack B. Sacks Prize
The Hugo Shong Scholarship Fund
The Stern Spector Prize
The Gerhart D. Wiebe Scholarship

Descriptions of these awards may be found in the Financial Aid section of this bulletin.

For information concerning undergraduate financial assistance, contact the Boston University Office of Financial Assistance, 881 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215.

Division of External Programs

The Division of External Programs meets the educational and training needs of individuals, corporations, and organizations in all areas of communication. Because of its flexibility, the Division of External Programs can meet the needs of outside groups in a timely, on-demand basis. Workshops, short courses, seminars, and conferences have been held on such topics as media training, advanced public relations practices, corporate video, women in communication management, writing for publication, computer communication, and film and psychology. External Programs also sponsors the Institute for Television, Film, and Radio Production (ITRP) for high school students, and special programs for foreign universities or foreign midcareer communications specialists.

Corporations have worked with the Division of External Programs to train their employees in writing, public relations, marketing, public appearances, and nonbroadcast video. Executive training programs have been organized for public utilities, agencies, and professional associations. The Division of External Programs maintains affiliations with professional organizations in the communication fields and has jointly sponsored programs with the New England Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, the Boston Ad Club, the International Television Association, and the New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Organizations with communication interests and concerns should contact the Division of External Programs at 617-353-5015 to discuss programs specially designed to meet their needs.

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Published by Trustees of Boston University
One Sherborn Street
Boston, MA 02215

28 September 2007
Boston University
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