This is focusing on the School of Communications at Wazzu.
I am a transfer student from a Community College in California who came to Wazzu (or as President V. Lane Rawlins loves to brand it, WSU) to major in Communications. From What I have been told by many professionals and other peers, the School of communications is fantastic. It graduated some of the most celebrated media figures such as Keith Jackson and Edward R. Murrow. FYI, the Comm school here is named after Murrow.However there are some things I wonder about this school, such as while other colleges rely on the students knowledge and experience of the subject, why does this school simply rely on ones Grade Point Average as the sole admission factor for getting into the Comm School?
What I mean by that is that a student needs to obtain a certain GPA (somewhere in the ballpark of a B average) in order to get into comm during Junior Year. In addition, a student is required to take five courses (passing them all with a C or higher) in order to get in. I have listed and described these classes below
Comm 101- An introduction to mass communications, most likely lectured by Professor David Demers. This course focuses on the history and theory of Mass communications and what has become of Communications over the period of time. As I looked at several professor ratings sites, I noticed that many have criticized him as a radical leftist who uses class time to express his political perspective, but otherwise a rather easy class. If you really are interested you may learn something, otherwise, it's another one of those "memorization" classes.
Comm Studies 102- Public Speaking (the title speaks for itself, If you can speak in public you will be fine)
Comm 245- Language and Communication, unless you are interested in Organizational Comm (the major that doesn't pay) then it is a fairly interesting class, otherwise, an absolute waste of time. All you're really gonna do here is fill out scantrons and do homework, nuff said.
Comm 270- MassComm Theory- interesting subject to some,and to others an opportunity to catch up on some sleep, Once again it's all scantron.
Comm 295- Writing for Media- Now this is a good class, not as hard as most would say, but if you're gonna make it here, you gotta learn to write (with no help, whatsoever) and meet deadlines. If you have no experience in Journalism, then this class will definetly suck. (((Also note there are no spell-checkers, or grammatik's, so If you make one grammatical or spelling error you fail the assignment!))
So, basically, you must pass all those classes, and maintain a strong GAP in order to certify into communication. Don't bother asking the dean for an interview, don't bother writing a long essay, or even bringing a Hi-8 cassette of you dancing around a tree, or reading the 10 O'Clock News in front of a bedroom camera.
All you have to do, is sit through hours of boring lectures (GE Requirement, all the other depts at WSU suck! btw) Memorize a few lines, fill out scantrons and essay exams (don't bother making them stylish) and basically bore yourself in a town that is far from World Class. (Pullman Sucks!)
Personally, I highly recommend Comm at Wazzu for it's fantastic broadcasting program. You can definitely land a job on radio or tv after going here. Plus the opportunity to work at The Daily Evergreen, Cable8, KUGR, and KZZU are invaluable experiences that are tops in the industry.
However, I do not reccommend this school for Journalism or Advertising/PR. The Evergreen is a great to work, but there are not enough courses in the major to really prepare you, so if you want a better J-school go to USC, Northwestern or Oregon. I also would not recommend this school for Advertising, same situation as Journalism.Overall, an Ok experience but sub-par in other ways.
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