Fact Sheets
Enrollment 2007
| Undergraduate | |
| Primary Majors | 1105 |
| Secondary Majors | 87 |
| Graduate | |
| Master's | 7 |
| Doctoral | 67 |
Degrees Awarded 2006-2007
| Undergraduate | |
| Baccalureate | 368 |
| Double Majors | 20 |
| Graduate | |
| Master's | 3 |
| Doctoal | 5 |
Admissions by Level 2006
| First-Year | |
| Applications | 1254 |
| Acceptances | 809 |
| Enrollments | 192 |
| Transfer | |
| Applications | 170 |
| Acceptances | 68 |
| Enrollments | 33 |
| Master's | |
| Applications | 79 |
| Acceptances | 4 |
| Enrollments | 3 |
| Doctoral | |
| Applications | 97 |
| Acceptances | 17 |
| Enrollments | 9 |
Graduate Admissions by Geography 2007
| Applied | |
| Total | 179 |
| International | 93 |
| Accepted | |
| Total | 29 |
| International | 9 |
| Enrolled | |
| Total | 13 |
| International | 5 |
Other Facts
- Full-time Equvalent Instrcuted Students
- Graduating Senior Survey
- Student/Faculty Ratios (FTE Instructed Students)
- Student/Faculty Ratios (Student Credit Hours)
- Student/Faculty Ratios (Student Credit Hours by Course Level)
- Lecture Sections Taught/FTE Faculty
- Expenditures for Sponsored Activity per Faculty
- Graduate Students Appointments by Funding Department/Program
Overview of the University and the Department for Job Applicants
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a leading center for public higher education in the Northeast. The flagship campus of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts's University system, UMass Amherst is a major research university enrolling approximately 25,000 students, from all 50 United States and over 100 countries. Its 10 schools and colleges offer 87 undergraduate majors, 73 master's and 51 doctoral programs. Sponsored research activities total more than $134 million a year. Located on 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, the campus provides a rich cultural environment in a rural setting close to major urban centers.
UMass Amherst is part of Five Colleges, Incorporated, a cooperative consortium established among Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University. Five Colleges, Inc. oversees a number of cultural activities for the area as well academic speakers, conferences, and collaborative initiatives. Undergraduate students at the five institutions are encouraged to take courses from the other campuses, and the Department of Communication, in particular, hosts students from the other colleges quite often. Please see the Five Colleges, Inc. website for more information.
The Amherst area is a wonderful place to live, combining a picturesque New England landscape with a multitude of rich cultural opportunities. Amherst and the surrounding areas offer geographic beauty - including hiking, skiing, swimming and boating opportunities --as well as top-notch restaurants, locally owned bookshops and music stores, and unique art galleries and boutiques. Please visit the Amherst Chamber of Commerce site for more information.
The Department of Communication is located in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (along with Anthropology, Economics, Labor Studies, Legal Studies, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology). The Department offers an undergraduate major in Communication, M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Communication, and an undergraduate major in Journalism. Journalism was a separate department, in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, until 2004. The Communication and Journalism faculty and majors remain separate, but the Chair administers budgets and personnel decisions for both groups. There are currently 19 tenure-track faculty in Communication and six in Journalism. The Communication faculty consists of six full Professors, eight Associate Professors, and five Assistant Professors. In Journalism, there are four full Professors, one Associate Professor, and one Assistant Professor. The Department expects to add several new tenure-track positions in the new few years.
Faculty typically teach two courses each semester. Faculty serving in major administrative posts (Undergraduate Studies Director, Graduate Program Director) normally carry a 2-1 course load. The Chair has historically taught one course each semester.
Departmental governance is organized around a strong committee structure. Faculty are appointed by the Chair to serve on a variety of administrative committees. A Personnel Committee is elected each year; the Committee's tasks include annual evaluation of faculty and recommendations regarding tenure and promotion, merit pay, and (typically) new faculty hires. Please see the Academic Personnel Policies of the University.
The undergraduate major in Communication is large and popular, with over 800 majors. Entry to the major restricted. About 40% of the majors are admitted directly from high school; current UMass undergraduates wishing to become majors must take two entry-level Communication courses and establish at least a B-minus average G.P.A. in their first year or two. Unlike the Communication programs at many colleges, our curriculum is not technical or skills-based. We offer only one course in public speaking, and students can count only two courses in TV/film production toward their major requirements. We offer no courses in applied industry training such as advertising or public relations. Freshmen and sophomores are generally in lecture classes (with no discussion sections). Juniors and seniors take much smaller classes and seminars that are restricted to junior and senior Communication majors.
Although undergraduate Communication majors do not specify a "track" or subdivision (and, indeed, are required to take courses that traverse these boundaries), most coursework falls in one of the following intellectual areas: social interaction, intercultural and global communication, film studies, critical/cultural studies, technology and "new" media studies, media policy and media institutions, media effects and mass communication, and rhetoric and performance studies.
Journalism has about 400 undergraduate majors. The program emphasizes writing and editing in print and other media forms as well as courses in ethics, law, history, philosophy, and media criticism. There is no graduate program in Journalism. Please visit the Journalism Program site for more information.
There are about 75 M.A. and Ph.D. students in the Communication graduate program, with about 35-40 actively taking classes. About 85% have completed an MA elsewhere and are admitted as doctoral students. Admission to the graduate program is highly competitive. In the last five years, the Department has received as many as 190 applications in a year, and the admission rate has ranged from 10 to 20%. Incoming classes have ranged from 8 to 12 students during this period. Generally, all incoming students are funded. The department offers no fellowships, only Teaching Assistantships and an occasional Research Assistantship. The strongest candidates sometimes receive University Fellowships that do not require that the student work as a T.A.. An M.A. is required for admission to the Ph.D. program; M.A. students who wish to go on for the Ph.D. must complete a subsequent application. Graduate students come from many different countries from around the globe. A list of recent thesis and dissertation titles is available here. Data on graduate and undergraduate application and admissions can be found here through the Offices of Institutional Research and Academic Planning & Assessment.
Faculty and graduate employees are unionized. For more information, please visit the Massachusetts Society of Professors and the Graduate Employee Organization sites. The Chair is not a member of the bargaining unit.
Faculty members in the Department of Communication are active, productive scholars whose work represents a broad span of methodological and intellectual traditions and emphases. Please see the Faculty page for a for a list of faculty teaching and research interests and links to their home pages and C.V.s.
For additional information about the Department, contact Department Chair: Dr. Jan Servaes, 413-545-1307.
