The Course of Study


The formal portion of the Ph.D. program involves a series of courses and fellowship assignments designed to help students become experts in a chosen area of communication research. The informal part of the program involves the experiences students share as part of the Annenberg School and Penn intellectual communities. This blend of directed study and research, combined with the broader activities of academic citizenship, helps provide an exciting, expansive way for students to reach their professional and personal goals.

Annenberg’s curriculum is structured around courses designed to help the student become an expert in a chosen research area. A total of 20 course units are required before starting the dissertation; up to five of these may be transferred from a previous Master’s program with approval from the student’s academic advisor. All students are required to take a noncredit proseminar as well as introductory courses in research methods and statistics. Students are also expected to achieve milestones along the way, including the Qualification Evaluation, the Comprehensive Examination, and the Proposal Defense.

At the beginning of the program, students typically take survey courses to learn about different areas of communication (such as Political Communication or Media Industries). As students become interested in specific issues, they choose courses that allow them to focus their efforts accordingly and conduct original research. By the end of the second year, each student will have completed at least one research project independently and will have formed a preliminary dissertation goal. To help students deepen their research interests, the School has designated three broad areas: Communication Influence, Communication and Culture, and Communication Institutions. The student must complete at least two courses in each of these three areas to gain an understanding of communication research and to identify topics for more specialized inquiry. By the end of the fourth year the student will have finished coursework and will be on a trajectory to research and write the dissertation.

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