Message from the Director

A word about our students, the classes and the Columbia experience.

Candidates for the Master of Science degree are communications professionals who seek a rigorous academic experience that they can immediately apply to the workplace. We teach the critical, analytical and strategic skills necessary to help students advance in their careers.

While the coursework focuses on strategic thinking, we do not teach a singular definition of what constitutes a communications strategy or one particular process for how to develop one. The models and constructs of strategy within the program and in the larger communications context are varied and multifaceted.

Launched in the fall of 2002, the program now has over 150 alumni, many of whom have moved into senior strategy and brand roles in a variety of industry sectors. The curriculum allows students to select core strategy courses and electives that include advanced writing, political communications, communications for social change, and internal communications.

To complement the in-class learning, which draws on the broad professional experience of faculty, students develop strategies and tactics for real-life clients. Guest speakers and seminars further expose them to the wealth of industry knowledge in the communications capital of the world. On any given evening, a class may welcome the news director from a major broadcast channel, an editor from a daily newspaper, the CEO of a major agency or the head of planning at a blue-chip advertising agency.

Many students take two courses per semester, successfully balancing their studies with high-pressure day jobs, coming to class in the evenings. Others take one course every semester, preferring to absorb themselves deeply in one subject at a time and leave some room for other obligations. Just as there is no right answer to a communications challenge, there is no right way to study. We ask that students consider their lives and decide what's best for them.

We promise intellectually stimulating classes, a diverse student body and opportunities to be inspired. We welcome students who seek deeper knowledge, have the desire to take risks, and are willing to think differently.

Our students feel richly rewarded for rising to the academic challenge of a demanding curriculum and proud to be earning master's degrees from Columbia University.

Trudi Baldwin
Program Director