MA in Professional Communication
University of San Francisco - College of Arts & Sciences
Key Information
Campus location
San Francisco, USA
Languages
English
Study format
Blended
Duration
2 years
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
USD 24,160 / per year *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
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* tuition costs per year are estimates only; costs may vary based on actual enrollment in classes
Introduction
The Master of Arts in Professional Communication (MAPC) provides the knowledge and training for superior oral, written, and visual communication skills. Our program is designed for people who seek the techniques and knowledge required to be communication specialists in a wide range of fields in an ever-shifting 21st-century workplace.
Program Highlights
The program features small class sizes, personal attention, and opportunities for applied research and professional engagement.
- The program’s convenient schedule of late afternoon and evening courses appeals to full-time graduate students and enables professionals to work while completing their degrees.
- The MAPC includes courses that meet both on-campus and in a hybrid (on-campus/online) format for flexibility and convenience while providing engagement with cutting-edge technology.
- Offering three concentrations, the program creates a community of professional communicators who have varied career interests in the fields of health, technical, and strategic communication.
Admissions
Curriculum
Program Overview
The Master of Arts in Professional Communication (MAPC) program is a 32-unit graduate program that can be completed in two years. Students complete four core and three concentration courses with one elective course. Full-time students enroll in courses each fall and spring semester. Courses are also available in the summer. The degree culminates in either a capstone or self-directed study with a culminating project, such as a reflective portfolio, analytical paper, academic research project, or relevant work or internship-related project.
Concentrations
Strategic Communication
Strategic communicators work as strategists, planners, designers, and leaders to develop results-oriented plans and target messages both within and outside of organizations to impact behavior and reputation. Students enrolled in this concentration analyze how organizations interact internally and externally with their stakeholders, industry, and traditional or digital media. Students also gain practical communication skills that give them a competitive edge in a post-pandemic work environment that is still being redefined.
Technical Communication
Technical communicators translate complex scientific, engineering, or technical information into content that users can understand and utilize. Students enrolled in this concentration learn how to communicate to the user while ensuring that the product or service has a competitive advantage. As technology advances and changes the way a number of industries gather, analyze, and integrate data, the demand for such skilled, user-centered, and agile technical communicators has never been greater.
Health Communication
This concentration equips students with the theoretical and practical communication tools needed to effectively and ethically impact public and personal health literacy through developing health awareness campaigns, improving patient relationships, and explaining health care policy. Health communication professionals are critical to making complex health care issues understandable so employers, regulators, policymakers, and consumers can be informed and take appropriate action to build healthier communities and live healthier lives.
Opportunities for Real-World Connections
The MAPC program supports students by connecting their education with industry through resources built into the program and curriculum. Students will apply their knowledge through practical, first-hand interaction, and experiences. MAPC provides extraordinary opportunities to students who have the knowledge and practical experience to succeed.
Program Outcome
The Master of Arts in Professional Communication (MAPC) provides the knowledge and training for superior oral, written, and visual communication skills. Our program is designed for people who seek the techniques and knowledge required to be communication specialists in a wide range of fields in an ever-shifting 21st-century workplace.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Core Knowledge: Graduate students will define, identify, and apply the rhetorical conventions and strategies appropriate to communicating effectively and ethically to varied audiences.
- Scholarly Communication: Graduate students will write and edit a substantial amount of revised prose, meeting standards and applying conventions defined by the field of communication.
- Professionalism: Graduate students will produce written, oral and digital communication of high quality consistent with their professional concentration and focus.
- Research: Graduate students will conduct skilled and ethical research in the field of communication and contribute original knowledge in their chosen industry and profession.
Scholarships and Funding
Our program offers a limited number of scholarships to new students. These program scholarships are merit-based, vary in amount, and cover part of tuition costs. All applicants, both U.S. and international students, are considered for these scholarships during the admission decision process; a separate application is not required. If a scholarship is awarded, it will be indicated in the admission letter.
Career Opportunities
The communication landscape has become increasingly complex given the ongoing pandemic, natural disasters, the social justice movement, and global political upheaval. Lives are much more complicated and previous models for how, when, and why we communicate are changing to reflect new ways of working. Amidst these changing times, MAPC students are learning how to pivot to the future.
Demonstrating the true nature of Changing the World from Here, our graduates enter the workforce prepared for today and for the future. Graduates of the MAPC program apply their education to vast opportunities within the world of professional communication. From our classroom location in the Financial District of San Francisco, alumni have entered the tech sphere from big software companies to fast paced start-ups. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to Biotech Bay, where alumni can lead communications for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies as well as care delivery systems. Alumni take our programs' world-class reputation and build careers in cities across America—and the world!
Graduates of our program serve as:
- Communication strategists, delivering on business goals through targeted, stakeholder relationships.
- Communication designers, able to create specialized information in multiple formats for diverse audiences using leading-edge technology platforms.
- Technical communicators, working to ensure the usability of products and services in all phases of the design process. They act as the voice of the user, advocating design features to ensure that the user's needs are met as well as working to ensure that the product or service has a strategic, competitive advantage in the market.
- Ethical communicators within organizations, bringing a thorough understanding of ethical issues and decision-making to the workplace, including organizational communication and industrial communication linking organizations to their employees, customers, and consumers.
- Health or other industry advocates within their communities, connecting vital, personal stories with the media and creating stronger partnerships and campaigns to drive action. Graduates serve as spokespersons and leaders to help create healthier communities, acknowledging health equity and other challenges and opportunities facing America and the world.
- Continued graduate work, given the MAPC program’s theoretical training and applied concepts. With critical thinking and in-depth knowledge, students will be prepared for doctoral work in communications.
English Language Requirements
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