Info for Students
UnderGRADuate / OVERVIEW OF THE Major

The Communication Major

Communication majors at Cornell University learn how communication interacts with media, science, and technology, while developing skills to succeed in complex work environments. The communication curriculum offers students opportunities to experience the breadth of the field and to develop a depth of understanding in a chosen focus area.

Specific topics that Communication majors study are as diverse as the faculty and students who explore these areas in research projects and courses. The core curriculum provides majors with a foundation in fundamental communication theories and concepts, allows them to develop oral and written communication skills, and instructs them in common communication research methods. After completing the core curriculum, all majors must complete an additional 18 credits in communication courses distributed among advanced writing and presentation courses, electives, and focus area requirements.

The Focus Area

In consultation with their advisers, students choose one of four defined focus areas:

• Communication in the Life Sciences (CILS) - Students focusing in CILS will investigate how communication influences public understanding of science, environmental, and risk-related issues. While exploring conceptual and theoretical issues, sstudents will learn specific skills for communicating science, environmental, and risk information to a variety of audiences. Possible career paths include public information officer, science writer, environmental educator/outreach specialist, environmental or health-risk communicator, and business, legal and other graduate study.

• Communication Media Studies (CMS) – Students focusing in CMS will investigate the forces that shape media in contemporary society, investigating how what we see and hear comes to be. They will also analyze and understand the psychological, social, and cultural processes that are in turn affected by media, from politics to entertainment to news to the very question of what we understand as real about ourselves and true about the world around us. Students may pursue careers in the media industries, in designing the laws and policies regarding media, in business, legal or other graduate study, or in the service of making media better; most of all, they will be more informed and astute citizens in a highly mediated world.

• Communication and Information Technologies (CIT) – Students focusing in CIT will explore the social and psychological dimensions of the design, use, and evaluation of communication and information technologies, how people form and manage impressions and relate to each other in cyberspace, the uses of language in online interaction, and how people coordinate work in virtual teams, as well as people’s interface and information needs. Possible career paths include information systems designer, research analyst, user interface designers, software designers, usability specialist, technology writer, and business, legal and other graduate study.

• Communication and Social Influence (CSI) - Students focusing in CSI will use communication principles to analyze issues and situations involving groups, organizations, and selected audiences to design, implement, and evaluate appropriate communication programs. Courses stress the positive, ethical, and effective uses of communication in human affairs. This focus area would be appropriate for students interested in using communication to bring about change at the individual and societal level. Possible career paths include public relations, marketing communications, polling, human resources, governmental affairs, and business, legal and other graduate study.

>> To download a more comprehensive guide to the major, please click here.

Don't have Adobe® Reader®? Click the icon to download the free software now.

>> For students accepted into the undergraduate program prior to Fall 2006, please click here.