On behalf of the Graduate Affairs team at the College of Communication (COM), congratulations on your admission, and welcome to Boston University!
Welcome to our Admitted Graduate Student Open House site! We hope that these snippets of graduate life at COM give you a sense of our vibrant community of storytellers. This site replicates the information provided in your personal URL (PURL) page included in your acceptance letter – sent to you from comgrad@bu.edu.
A welcome from our Dean, Mariette DiChristina (COM ’86)
COM’s Career Services video from Heather Fink, Director of COM Career Services
While our Zoom meetings and videos will cover key topics like academics, student life, and financial aid, we also invite you to join us in person for a weekend of exciting opportunities to connect with fellow admitted students, professors, and admissions staff in a more casual setting!
Graduate Student Welcome Weekend:
📅 April 4th – Current Student Panel, College Tour & Welcome Reception
📅 April 5th – Boston Trolley Tour & Red Sox Game at Fenway Park 🚍⚾
Get ready to explore campus, experience Boston, and start building your COMmunity before grad school even begins! We can’t wait to welcome you!
COM Dean, Mariette DiChristina (’86), shares a welcome message with our newly admitted COM students. Before arriving in 2019, Dean DiChristina was the editor-in-chief and executive vice president of Scientific American, as well as executive vice president, magazines, of the magazine’s publisher, Springer Nature. The first woman to head Scientific American since its founding in 1845, she led the editorial team to honors including the coveted National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Previously, DiChristina served as president of the National Association of Science Writers and as executive editor of Popular Science, where she was named Editor of the Year by the magazine’s publisher, Times Mirror Magazines. She also served as a part-time associate professor and visiting scholar in the graduate Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism and a science writer in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Boston University recognized her work in 2016 with a Distinguished Alumni Award. Beyond her role as dean, DiChristina chairs the Steering Group for the “Top 10 Emerging Technologies” for the World Economic Forum and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Graduate Affairs
Join the team from COM’s Office of Graduate Affairs to learn more about graduate student life at COM, housing around Boston, transportation, and the next steps to becoming a BU Terrier!
Contact Graduate Affairs
Please feel free to reach out to the COM Grad Affairs team at comgrad@bu.edu. You can also contact your COM Graduate Ambassadors. These are current students who have volunteered to answer your questions. You are welcome to contact any ambassador, even if they aren’t in your program of study.
Graduate Program Overview – Watch to learn more!
Career Services
Heather Fink, Director of Career Services for the College of Communication (and COM alum), shares with you how she and her team engage students in career development and experiential learning that empowers them to successfully pursue their educational and professional goals during and beyond their time at BU.
Financial Aid
Jackie Cummings, COM Graduate Affairs’ Admission and Financial Aid Counselor, shares information about financing your graduate education, from graduate assistantships and educational loans to on-campus and off-campus employment opportunities. Make an appointment with Jackie Cummings to discuss any financial questions.
International Graduate Student Welcome
At Boston University, we want you to succeed. And we want you to feel at home. That’s why we bring together graduate and professional students from around the world to work with our award-winning faculty in our state-of-the-art facilities. Once you join the BU community, limitless opportunities await you in Boston and across the globe. We also invite you to visit BU’s International Student Experience webpage, as well as International FAQs and interviews with current international graduate students.
Explore COM
“Visit” COM through the eyes of our COM student ambassadors! These student-created videos give you a quick overview of COM Student Services, Clubs and Activities, and our academic departments:
