Program Notes
- No GRE required.
- Merit scholarships available. No additional application required. See tuition.
- International students: This program is eligible for the OPT STEM extension.
Why an MS in Marketing Communication Research (Media Science)
Bring the best insights to communications—master quantitative and qualitative methods, tools, and techniques to better understand audience values, likes, needs, and wants.
Double your value with business + communications expertise—while many masters in consumer behavior or consumer insights masters provide a solid analytic skillset, they lack the communications strategies of BU COM’s master’s in marketing research and communication concentration. Get both here.
Be the boss—alumni of the master’s in marketing research and communication (a concentration within Media Science) climb high. They hold titles like manager, director, CEO, and even founder.
What You’ll Learn in This MS in Marketing Communication Research (Media Science)
Boston University’s Marketing Communication Research (MCR) concentration (within the Media Science master’s program) is three semesters. It prepares you to master quantitative and qualitative methods, tools, and techniques to match audience needs to communication strategies.
This BU COM master’s in marketing research and communication stands out from business school masters in consumer behavior or consumer insights masters. Here, you’ll build advanced business insights within a hands-on communications framework, even incorporating psychometrics. Your understanding of data will be unmatched—and so will your communications strategies.
You’ll learn advanced research methods through eight core courses to gain consumer insights, predict purchasing behaviors, evaluate the impact of media consumption, and analyze consumer decision making processes. You’ll understand consumer behavior in relation to brands, services, products, and more.
From UX research to social media expertise, you can build the remaining four courses of your master’s in marketing research and communication to fit your interests. Learn how consumer behavior impacts health initiatives, political candidates, and more. Understand how interactive experiences can affect consumer behavior. Master advanced data analytics. You decide.
You’ll build all the skills of a business school masters in consumer behavior or consumer insights masters—plus the communications strategies of BU’s world-renowned College of Communication.
This master’s in marketing research and communication concentration (through Media Science) gives you the option to select a sequence of courses focusing on analytics and earn an additional Certificate in Data Analytics. You’ll learn data visualization, machine learning techniques, web mining and graph analytics, data mining, and more.

What You Read and Watch Is Changing Media Forever
Like most stories about data science, this one begins with a very big number: 150 million. That’s roughly how many…
Students combine this curriculum with learning opportunities outside of the classroom, such as research with professors, internships, and participation in student-led agencies such as AdLab and PRLab.
The MS in Media Science: Marketing Communication Research (MCR) prepares you to succeed in the burgeoning fields of marketing research and consumer insights research. These are fields that offer lucrative entry-level positions, ranging from marketing research and consumer data analysis to market planning, data visualization, and analytics, among others.
Teachers, Researchers, Mentors
COM boasts faculty steeped in both research and practice, large in number and diverse in expertise. They are internationally recognized thought leaders in the fields of advertising, consumer insights, public relations, media law, psychology, political communications, design, and more.
Faculty members serve as mentors for students by working alongside them in conducting original research. Together, they leverage the technology at COM’s Communication Research Center, COM’s primary research hub to examine communication phenomena, and the state of-the-art social media tools offered at the Zimmerman Family Social Activation Center. Your faculty are a great resource to help you position yourself for success after graduation.

Zimmerman Family Social Activation Center
The Zimmerman Family Social Activation Center offers the opportunity for advertising, public relations and journalism students to work in COM’s…
Benefit from Boston
One of BU’s greatest resources is its location. Consistently ranked among the most livable cities in the world, Boston is “America’s college town,” a city rich in history while remaining on the cutting edge. Boston is a Top 10 U.S. media market, and home to some of the world’s best agencies, media companies and leading employers — offering boundless opportunities for internships and careers.
Purpose Driven
COM stands out from our peers. Our faculty offers a mix of researchers and practitioners who endorse a cross-discipline, hands-on approach to learning. Our location lies at the heart of an electric, media-savvy city.
But it may be COM’s shared values that matter most. We believe that communication requires diversity, critical thinking, and creative expression. We believe that communication must be grounded in truth, authenticity, effectiveness, and purpose. We believe that communication builds understanding among people and across society.