Undergraduate Advising in Communication Studies
Upon acceptance into the CMS major (either as a freshman or as a transfer student), students are assigned an academic advisor who specializes in the Communication Studies degree plan and is available to answer any questions and concerns regarding degree progression. While students are not required to see an advisor prior to every registration period, students are highly encouraged to make contact at least once a semester to keep current on their degree-planning.
Contacting Your Advisor
Students can make an appointment to see their advisor one of three ways:
- Online via STAR (STudent Appointment Reservation system)
- By phone at 512-471-1553
- In person in CMA 4.140
In addition, advisors maintain a Blackboard page for their advising communities that is frequently updated with information to assist students with a variety of degree-planning issues. E-mails are also frequently sent out to students by advisors to disburse important information. These emails are sent to whatever email address students have officially listed with the university. Students are asked to make sure and keep their email addresses updated to the one that is checked on a regular basis.
Reasons you should see your Undergraduate Advisor
• You need degree planning for the next semester’s registration.
• You are interested in taking the internship class for the upcoming semester. Your advisor will verify that you meet the following prerequisites: Senior status; 12 hours of Comm Studies courses completed (at least 3 hrs upper division); an overall GPA of at least 2.50; and a communication GPA of at least 3.00.
• You have questions regarding Communication Studies-specific issues such as CMS classes offered or CMS class combinations
• You want permission to concurrently enroll for the semester.
• If you are graduating this semester and want to verify that your schedule fulfills your final graduation requirements, you can do this yourself by running a degree audit via the Interactive Degree Audit (IDA). Make sure the audit is counting your current schedule. If you do this and you're still doubtful or if something you see causes you to panic, visit with your advisor
• You can apply for graduation online or in person with your advisor.
Getting Advised when you're not a Communication major - yet
Non-communication majors seeking one-on-one advising before their acceptance into the college must FIRST attend an Internal Transfer Information session. Dates and times of upcoming sessions can be found here.
Students who have not yet attended an information session will NOT have access to advising in the College of Communication. There is no exception to this. If you have attended an Internal Transfer Information Session, you may call 471-1553 to schedule an appointment with the college prospective student advisor, Xavier Oaks.
