Undergraduate Admissions

The SJMC admits up to 120 students each semester (240 total for the academic year).

Once students are admitted to the SJMC, it takes a minimum of three semesters to complete the journalism-specific degree requirement courses.

Students are required to take J202: Mass Communication Practices and J203: Information for Communication in their first semester admitted to the SJMC.

Students applying to the spring semester will hear decisions by early January. Students applying to the fall semester will hear decisions by early June.

We recommend students carefully consider their credit total and overall workload during their first semester in the SJMC. If you have any questions about your specific schedule and course load, please reach out to our undergraduate academic advisors Sandra Kubat and Lauren Anderson.

Examples of courses students enroll in while waiting to hear on admissions decisions include: Natural Science breadth, Literature breath, Humanities breadth (intermediate), Social Science breadth (intermediate) and 500/600 JOURN classes (open to all majors of junior credit standing).

If we have a large number of qualified applicants, deferred admission offers may be extended to students to start the SJMC in the following semester. (i.e. a student applied to begin in the spring semester, but can be offered a fall semester spot). Students who are offered deferred admission will take J202 and J203 in the semester they officially start the program. Deferred admitted students do not reapply to the program – they will automatically start in the semester in which they are offered admission. Students who are offered deferred admission can work with our undergraduate academic advisors, Sandra Kubat and Lauren Anderson, for advising guidance before they officially begin the program.

Students can take the 500 and 600-level Perspectives, Topics and Advancements courses before officially starting the program.

Yes! Most SJMC students elect to go abroad in the spring semester of junior year.

Please note – students are not permitted to study abroad in their first semester in the SJMC (they must be physically on-campus to take J202 and J203). For more information on studying abroad, please visit the Study Abroad Office’s website.

Yes! We frequently have students earn a second major within the College of Letters & Science. For a full list of majors in L&S, please visit the L&S website.

The JBA/JBS is a special degree program; it is not considered a major. The JBA and JBS degrees are not available to students who intend to earn a degree outside the College of Letters & Science. (i.e. School of Business, School of Human Ecology, etc.) If you are majoring outside of L&S, please consider one of our certificate programs: Sports Communication, Digital Media Analytics or Digital Studies.

SuccessWorks is a great place to have resumes reviewed before applying to the SJMC. Visit their website to check out their resume resources.

If you are not admitted on your first try, you are welcome to apply again. Please consult with our admissions chair about the reason for denial and how to improve your future application.