Photo of COM building

Message from Tobe Berkovitz, dean ad interim

Our Catalog is likely one in your small stack as you shop to decide which university to attend. The fact that our catalog is in your stack means you already know that attending a world-class university can be an important launching pad in achieving your goals by becoming well prepared for the professional marketplace.

Boston University ranks among the world’s top universities, and many of our College of Communication programs are widely regarded as the very best nationally and internationally.

There are many reasons for this. Here we stress strong writing and speaking skills and a solid grounding in liberal arts education as the essential first building blocks to success. Undergraduates take about 70 percent of their courses in other disciplines and are required to take a concentration of courses in one other field outside our College. Any college you choose should do you this favor because, on average, you will change careers at least three times in your lifetime, and it is the richness of your liberal arts education that will take you more easily into that great unknown ahead.

Second, your undergraduate liberal arts “concentration” acquaints you with what it means to become well informed in another intellectual discipline and gives you a nodding acquaintance with what it takes to become an expert in any field. Third, we have cutting-edge technical equipment and strive to stay “ahead of the technology curve,” but we think it pointless to teach you communication skills and techniques in various media if you have nothing worth saying. Thus, we insist on making you “substantive.” Consider this broader education and the richness of our College’s course offerings as blessings; they help to explain why our graduates are in such high demand.

Graduate students must master a field within the vast and ever-growing communication industries. Here we ensure that you do that. And with diligence, you may be able to acquire two areas of concentrated professional knowledge.

The secret to our wonderful reputation is the quality and balanced blend of our faculty: to former working professionals with advanced degrees, and highly regarded academics with doctoral studies in related fields, plus the “value added” of current practitioners in media-rich Boston, who serve as part-time teachers and guest speakers. Separately, they, and our alumni across the city, the nation, and the world, play a vital role in our vibrant and valuable internship and mentoring programs. Our thousands of alumni enthusiastically guide students in these and other ways, and often hire our graduates.

That could be you. We hope so.

Tobe Berkovitz
dean ad interim