Students and faculty in graduation regalia

All Buffalo State students must complete a minimum 120 credits to graduate. The Communication Department has specific graduation requirements that may increase the credit-hour minimum, especially for transfer students.

Department Standards

Minimum Grade

The lowest acceptable grade for a course applied to the major is C.

Maximum Transfer Credits

The department accepts 12 credits of lower-division courses from community colleges. 

These courses must be equivalent to COM 100 Media Literacy; SPC 103 Intro to Human Communication; SPC 205 Intro to Oral Communication; COM 210 Converged Media Writing; and COM 215 Intro to Visual Communication. 

Internship Credits

No more than 6 credits of internships (COM 488) may be applied to the 120-credit graduation requirement.

The department requires 150 hours of supervised work for all internships, whether 1, 2, or 3 credits.

All internships require prior approval by the department.

Students may make their own arrangements to take informal internships without academic credit.

Upper-Division Courses

All four core courses must be completed before taking upper-division COM/SPC courses.

Exceptions: Juniors and Seniors may seek permission to take no more than two 300-level required courses if three core courses are satisfactorily completed and the student is enrolled in the fourth.

Major GPA

Students must have 2.6 or higher in the major to register for upper-division required for majors:

COM 301, 302, 303, 308, 312, 322, 325, 328, 329, 336, 337, 338, 390, 400, 401, 405, 418, 428, 429, 431, 432, 433, 434 and 450.

Non-COM Courses

Students must have at least 72 credits that do not have the COM prefix (SPC courses meet degree requirements but are not COM)