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.

Student Services

Directed by the College’s Assistant Dean, the Student Services office 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 Student Services office 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 Student Services office before such problems interfere with academic performance.

College is a major undertaking that affects the entire family.  The Student Services office 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 Student Services office to help ensure a positive experience throughout the undergraduate years.

Academic Advising

All COM undergraduates receive academic advising from the Student Services office. 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 Student Services office works with the students in arranging these programs.

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Career Services

College of Communication Career Services office 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 Career Services office 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 Financial Assistance office, 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 & 
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 Silber Way
Boston, MA 02215

1 October 2008
Boston University
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