Students can schedule an appointment with a COM Undergraduate Affairs Academic Advisor through Handshake.
To schedule an appointment, visit Handshake and then choose “COM Undergraduate Affairs” from the menu and follow the prompts. We expect that you will find Handshake to be the easiest and most efficient way to schedule a meeting with our advising team.
Additionally, students may still schedule an academic advising appointment during business hours by calling us at (617) 353-3471 or stopping by our service window in the College of Communication, Room 123.
Non-COM students can use Handshake to schedule an appointment with us too, but first they must email us (comugrad@bu.edu) and asked to be tagged as COM Undergraduate Affairs eligible before Handshake will allow you to make an appointment.
We require first-year COM students and encourage all other COM students to meet with a COM Undergraduate Affairs Academic Advisor at least one time each term. You can find information about the COM advising model and the types of questions that are answered by COM Undergraduate Affairs advisors online here. When in doubt, if you have a question and do not know where to ask, please contact COM Undergraduate Affairs (COM, Room 123, comugrad@bu.edu, 617-353-3471) and we will do our best to assist you or point you to a resource for help.
Sure! Students can email questions to comugrad@bu.edu.
COM students have a number of different types of advisors both at COM and around the University. Around COM, students have access to the professional Academic Advisors at COM Undergraduate Affairs (COM, Room 123), a COM Faculty Mentor (sometimes referred to a Faculty Advisor), COM Career Services (COM, Room 112), your major department’s Administrator, and to all your professors.
Boston University also has the additional support service of the First-Year Success Team. Their role is to supplement the academic advising at the College of Communication in an effort to further assist you with the transition to Boston University, finding community, and getting involved. Incoming COM first-year students can learn more about their assigned Assistant Director of First-Year Success here. Incoming to COM external transfer students can learn more about their assigned Assistant Director of Transfer Success here.
Additionally first-year students in their first semester and first semester transfer students entering COM from other non-BU colleges and universities are also assigned a COM Ambassador (sometimes referred to as a peer mentor).
Around the University there are a number of advising resources for you. We suggest beginning with the Provost Office’s guide to advising resources around the University. Other advising resources include the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), the International Student and Scholars Office (ISSO), the main BU-wide Center for Career Development. You also have access to faculty and administration at other schools and colleges on campus. A listing of many of the student support resources available to students is available online here.
Film and Television
COM, room 118
(617) 353-3483
filmtv@bu.edu
Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations
COM, room 124
(617) 353-3482
mcadvpr@bu.edu
Journalism
COM, room 137
(617) 353-3484
jodept@bu.edu
You can find a list of the many student support resources available on campus here. There are also a number of advising resources for you, listed in the “Who are my advisors?” question above.
If you are seeking a specific support service that you do not see listed here, please contact COM Undergraduate Affairs at comugrad@bu.edu, 617.353.3471.
You can learn a great deal about COM course registration on our Registration webpage. The page is updated each term with the latest information.
In addition, please know that the COM Undergraduate Affairs Academic Advising team is available as a resources and we encourage all COM students to meet with someone from our team at least once each term.
You can view your registration appointment time for each term on your MyBU Student account. You can also find Boston University registration dates and times by class year and BU ID number online here. We also publishes information about COM course registration on our COM Registration webpage.
Unfortunately, COM Undergraduate Affairs, our academic advisors, and the instructor teaching the COM course, cannot enroll students into a COM course that is full or closed. It is extremely important that you register at your registration appointment time each term to take advantage of any registration priority that is afforded to you.
If a COM course is full, your best course of action is to keep an eye on the MyBU Student to see if a seat becomes available as another student drops the class or switches sections. If a class is listed as closed, the department that offers the class is most likely managing the class through a waitlist. We encourage students to reach out to the department offering the COM course for waitlist information. The Film and Television Department often posts information on that process online here. The Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations Department often posts information on that process online here. The Journalism Department can be reached at jodept@bu.edu.
We encourage students to meet with the advising team either at CGS or at COM Undergraduate Affairs to discuss your path. All students who plan to continue to COM must successfully compete COM CO 101 with a minimum grade of a “C” or better. You must also complete all requirements at CGS to be eligible to continue to COM following your sophomore year.
To be eligible to IUT to COM you must first successfully complete COM CO 101 with a minimum grade of a “C” or better. If you reach that minimum grade and are in good academic standing you will be eligible to IUT to COM for one of our majors.
After you earn the minimum grade in COM CO 101, please download the COM Intra University Transfer form, fill it out, save it, and email it as an attachment to COM Undergraduate Affairs (comugrad@bu.edu). The COM IUT Form is available on our forms page.
Copies of our COM curriculum guides and degree requirements are available on our Curriculum Guides and Minors webpage. Please be sure to review the correct guide based on your method of entry to Boston University.
You can also view degree requirements not only for COM, but for other programs at BU through the online BU Bulletin.
The College of Communication offers five different minors:
Advertising
Public Relations
Media Science
Journalism
Film and Television
Copies of our COM minor guides are available on our Curriculum Guides and Minors webpage. You can also view degree requirements not only for COM, but for other programs at BU through the online BU Bulletin.
The pre-requisite to declare the Advertising, Public Relations, Media Science, or Journalism minor is successful completion of COM CO 201 with a grade of a C or better.
The pre-requisite to declare the Film and Television minor is successful completion of COM FT 201 with a grade of a C or better.
COM students may formally declare a minor through our Minor Declaration Form for COM students on our forms page.
Non-COM students will need to formally declare a minor through their home school or college.
Students MUST first complete a pre-requisite course to be eligible to formally declare any COM minor. If you have not already completed the course pre-requisite with the minimum grade, you are not eligible to formally declare a COM minor.
Please note that students cannot double major, nor major and minor, between any combination of Advertising, Media Science and Public Relations.
You can learn a great deal about the various BU student abroad offerings through the BU Study Abroad website. You can learn more about the eligibility requirements for COM student to eligible to apply to programs on our two study abroad fact sheets on our forms page
COM first year students can take a maximum of 18 units in the fall or spring term. The only exception to this rule is COM first-years who are also enrolled in the Kilachand Honor College (KHC) who are eligible to take a maximum of 20 credits in the fall or spring term.
COM sophomore and junior students who are in good academic standing, and have an overall GPA of a 3.0 or greater, may take up to 20 units in a fall or spring term at regular full-time charges without incurring an overload fee. The COM Undergraduate Affairs office will waive your overload fee for the next term after your current semester grades are posted. This means that we will waive the overload fee for the upcoming fall term in summer, and for the upcoming spring term in the early weeks of January. Note that you may need to pay tuition before we are able to waive your overload fee, so you will need to work with the Student Accounting office to receive a refund or tuition credit for any overload fee you may pay at the time tuition is due.
COM sophomore and junior students who have an overall GPA below a 3.0 will incur an overload fee for any units they enroll in over 18 during a fall or spring term.
COM students with senior standing are allowed to overload up to 20 units regardless of GPA at regular full-time charges without incurring an overload fee.
COM first year students can take a maximum of 18 units in the fall or spring term. The only exception to this rule is COM first-years who are also enrolled in the Kilachand Honor College (KHC) who are eligible to take a maximum of 20 credits in the fall or spring term.
COM student cannot take more than 20 units in a fall or spring term.
You can find the COM Overload Policy on our forms page.
We have a great deal of undergraduate COM policies and accompanying forms on our forms webpage. Many BU-wide policies are described on the University’s Academic Policies page. The Boston University Bulletin also offers a great deal of information on different requirements and policy.