Hello, I am Professor Ho from the Communication Studies Department.  
We want to especially welcome transfer students into our department and hope this video, along with the general Communication Studies video, will help make your transition to USF as smooth as possible. 

As you already know from watching the Communication Studies Video, you will need to complete 3 Foundational Courses, 2 methods courses, and 6 upper division courses. You may have taken some courses previously that could transfer over as foundational or methods level courses. As a department we normally do not transfer over 8 units of major credit. The most commonly transferred courses include: 

Interpersonal Communication with evidence that you have learned how to do a literature review for COMS 203: Communication and Everyday Life

Intercultural Communication in combination with a Cultural Anthropology class or some other ethnographic fieldwork experience for COMS 204: Communication and Culture OR

Research Methods with evidence of research design, data collection and analysis for COMS 253: Quantitative Research Methods


If you believe some of your previous courses may count for Communication Studies major courses, do not register for these courses and instead, gather your old syllabi for these courses. When you arrive at USF and meet your major advisor, you should give him or her these syllabi for initial review. Classes that seem transferable will then be forwarded to the appropriate faculty for review and on to the Department Chair for final approval. Because this approval process is not instantaneous, you will want to begin as soon as possible. In the meantime, you should register for a Rhetoric and Language Writing class that fulfills CORE A2. Those classes could include RHET 250. That class will allow you to take the Communication Studies Foundational courses. Please note that if you are registered for RHET 250 and are blocked from registration in COMS 202, 203, or 204, you should email the instructor directly through the Banner Registration system or email the Department Chair if the instructor is listed as TBA to ask for permission to waive the pre-requisite. Unfortunately, our system does not allow both pre-requisites AND co-requisites which means that you may be electronically prevented from registering for foundational courses even though you are eligible to do so. We apologize for that inconvenience, however, faculty know to let transfer students in if they are currently registered for RHET 250.

If for some reason your previous communication classes are not equivalent to USF Communication Studies classes, do not worry! They will still count as USF elective units. They absolutely COUNT toward your graduation requirement of 128 total units. When you arrive at USF, you should make a graduation plan with your major advisor so that you will know exactly what you need to complete, what classes might count as COMS major classes, and what else you need take. In some cases, taking 18 units instead of the usual 16 units reduce or eliminate the need for summer or intersession classes. We know that many transfer students want to minimize the amount of extra time they spend completing requirements and the best way to ensure this is to meet one-on-one with a major advisor to create your graduation plan as soon as you arrive on campus. 

We are looking forward to meeting with you and welcome to the Communication Studies Department at USF.