Bachelor of Science in Advertising
To be awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science in Advertising, the candidate must complete 120 semester hours of coursework and must fulfill the University's General Requirements for graduation and Core Curriculum requirements, the college graduation requirements given in Special Requirements of the College , and the requirements given in Special Requirements, Prescribed Work, and Major Requirements below.
Areas of Study
Students majoring in advertising specialize in one of three programs: Texas Advertising Management, Texas Creative, or Texas Media. Admission to the Texas Creative and Texas Media programs is by an application process; students who are not interested in or accepted into either of these programs will complete the Texas Advertising Management program. All advertising majors must complete the requirements of their specialization, as well as the requirements listed in the preceding paragraph.
Texas Advertising Management Program
This program is designed for students interested in a variety of professional careers, including account planning and advertising management positions in a wide range of advertising, sales promotion, direct response, promotional products, and related agencies. Students planning to work for advertisers, such as manufacturing or service companies, rather than for agencies, may also meet their goals through the Texas Advertising Management program. The program focuses on an integrated approach in which communication problems are addressed with a variety of tools, including advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and direct response. Students must complete Advertising 378 (Topic 20: Account Planning); three hours from Advertising 378 (Topic 4, 17, or 19); three hours from Advertising 377M (Topic 1, 2, or 3); and three additional hours of coursework in advertising.
Texas Creative Program
This program is designed to mold talented students into skilled advertising copywriters and art directors. To achieve that goal, it focuses on the creative and strategic thinking required to make the highest quality advertising messages. The program consists of Advertising 343K, Portfolio I; 468K, Portfolio II; and 468L, Portfolio III. In these three courses, students are expected to learn conceptual and critical thinking skills, computer design and page layout skills, and copywriting. The sequence also helps students develop the portfolio of creative work that is required of those seeking jobs in advertising.
Students who complete Advertising 325 with a grade of at least B may apply for admission to the Texas Creative program. Applications are generally distributed during the last week of class, and decisions are posted the following week. Students who are accepted into the program may enroll in Advertising 343K the following semester; those who are not accepted may apply again the following semester, but students may apply only twice. Student work is reviewed each semester, and advancement through the program is contingent upon the quality of portfolio development.
Texas Media Program
This program is designed to help students develop the characteristics that define success in advertising media planning, buying, sales, new media development, and metrics. Because advertising media is a broad and quickly evolving industry, the program offers a variety of courses, allowing students to focus their training and allowing the program itself to adapt to industry developments.
Students who complete Advertising 345J with a grade of at least B may apply for admission to the Texas Media program. Applications are distributed during the last week of classes. Admission decisions are made at the end of the semester and students admitted to the program are notified by a Secure Academic Note prior to the next add/drop registration period. Those who are not admitted may apply again the following semester, but students may apply only twice.
All Texas Media students must complete Advertising 377 (Topic 1: Advanced Media Strategies), Advertising 377 (Topic 3: Digital Media), and Advertising 377M (Topic 7: Media Negotiation). In addition, Texas Media students may choose to take at least one additional media upper-division course, which can be counted as an Advertising elective. Advertising 377 or 377M may be taken concurrently if all prerequisites are met. Most students complete the program in two semesters.
The Consent Procedure
Part of the prerequisite for some advertising courses is consent of the instructor received prior to registering. To be able to register for such a course, a student must first ask for and receive the instructor’s consent. The student may be invited to an interview with the instructor or may be asked to provide supporting materials, such as an application or an essay. The student is responsible for knowing the deadline to apply. Consent forms are available from the student’s adviser and in the Department of Advertising.
Special Requirements
To enroll in upper-division advertising courses, a student must have completed Advertising 318J in residence with a grade of at least B, and must have a University grade point average of at least 2.25 and a grade point average in courses in the College of Communication of at least 2.00. Students who do not fulfill these requirements will be dropped from upper-division advertising courses, normally before the twelfth class day. The grade point average requirement is waived for the transfer student during the first semester of coursework, while he or she is establishing a University grade point average. Students may enroll in Advertising 318J no more than twice.
In addition, advertising majors must have a grade of at least C in each course taken in the College of Communication that is counted toward the degree and a grade of at least C in each course counted toward the major requirements; if the course is offered on the pass/fail basis only, the student must have the symbol CR.
Core Curriculum
All students must complete the University’s Core Curriculum , as well as the requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Advertising listed below under Prescribed Work. In some cases, a course required for the BSAdv may also be counted toward the core curriculum; these courses are identified below.
Prescribed Work
- Three semester hours in English or rhetoric and writing in addition to the courses required by the core curriculum.
- Two courses with a writing flag. Courses that fulfill this requirement are identified in the Course Schedule . They may also be used to fulfill other degree requirements.
- Three semester hours of coursework in the College of Communication dealing with the study of communication issues concerning at least one minority or nondominant group within the United States. Courses that fulfill this requirement may also be used to fulfill other degree requirements. A partial list of these communication and culture courses is given in the Communication and Culture Requirement
section under the College of Communication's Degrees and Programs section; a complete list is available in the college’s Student Advising Office before registration for each semester and summer session. The courses are also identified in the Course Schedule
.
- Students must demonstrate fourth-semester-level proficiency, or the equivalent, in a foreign language. Courses taken to meet this requirement may not be taken on the pass/fail basis.
Students who enter the University with a foreign language deficiency must take the first two semesters in a foreign language without degree credit to remove the deficiency. The usual course sequence is 406 or 506, 407 or 507 or 508K, 312K, and 312L. For some languages, different course numbers are used; such courses may be counted toward this requirement if they are designed to provide first-semester-level through fourth-semester-level proficiency. Credit may be earned by examination for any part of the sequence. An extensive foreign language testing program is available at the University. Students with knowledge of a language are encouraged to take appropriate tests both to earn as much credit as possible and to be placed at the proper level for further study. Students should consult the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment or the department concerned for information on testing. - Statistics and Scientific Computation 306, completed in residence. This course also meets the core curriculum mathematics requirement.
- Twelve semester hours of coursework in the McCombs School of Business, preferably three hours in marketing, three hours in accounting, three hours in either legal environment of business or finance, and three hours in management. At least six of the twelve hours must be in upper-division coursework. Marketing 338 may not be used to fulfill this requirement.
- At least thirty-six semester hours of upper-division coursework.
- No more than twelve semester hours of transfer credit in advertising may be counted toward the degree.
- Enough additional coursework to make a total of 120 semester hours. No more than forty-two hours in advertising and no more than thirty-six hours in any other single field may be counted toward the degree.
Major Requirements
In addition, the following coursework is required to complete the following programs:
Texas Advertising Management: Advertising 378 (Topic 20); Advertising 378 (Topic 4, 17, or 19); and Advertising 377M (Topic 1, 2, or 3).
Texas Creative: Advertising 343K, 468K, and 468L (note: Advertising 468L is part of the twenty-four required advertising hours for Creative students).
Texas Media: Advertising 377 (Topics 1 and 3), and Advertising 377M (Topic 7).
- At least thirty-six but no more than forty-two semester hours of advertising, of which at least twenty-four hours must be upper-division. The following courses are required: Advertising 318J, 325, 344K, 345J, 350 or 468L, 370J, 353 or 376, and 373. The student must complete Advertising 318J in residence with a grade of at least B.
- At least six semester hours of coursework must be taken in the College of Communication but outside the department. However, no student may count toward the degree more than forty-eight hours (including transfer credit) in College of Communication coursework. However, no student may count toward the degree more than forty-eight hours (including transfer credit) in College of Communication coursework.
- No College of Communication course to be counted toward the degree and no course to be counted toward major requirement 1 above may be taken on the pass/fail basis, unless the course is offered only on that basis.
Order and Choice of Work
First Year
- The student must take three courses from the following group each semester:
- Rhetoric and Writing 306.
- Courses to be counted toward the American history, American and Texas government, social and behavioral sciences, mathematics, and science and technology requirements of the core curriculum.
- Courses in a foreign language.
- Enough additional coursework to raise the student’s course load to fifteen or sixteen hours each semester. Courses should be chosen with the guidance of a college adviser.
First-year students may not take two beginning foreign language courses in the same semester. First-year students may not take more than eight semester hours in one department.
Second Year
- The student must take three courses from the following group each semester; four are recommended:
- English 316K and any three-semester-hour course in English or rhetoric and writing.
- Courses to be counted toward the American history, American and Texas government, social and behavioral sciences, mathematics, and science and technology requirements of the core curriculum.
- Courses in the foreign language, unless the language requirement has been fulfilled.
- Advertising 318J.
- Statistics and Scientific Computation 306.
- Enough additional coursework, if needed, to raise the student’s course load to fifteen or sixteen hours each semester. Basic courses in business, studio art, and computer sciences are especially recommended.
Third and Fourth Years
- Two courses with a writing flag.
- Any remaining courses in the core curriculum and the prescribed work.
- The remaining courses listed as major requirements.
- Upper-division electives chosen to support the major. Advertising majors normally emphasize economics, government, history, English, sociology, psychology, marketing, or management.