Appendix 2
Master of Science Program in the Department of Communication Studies at TCU
TCU’s mission is to educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible
citizens in a global community. In our graduate program, we hope to further the university’s
mission statement by offering a close working and mentoring community. We focus intensely
on a small number of in-residence graduate students, and our students develop fundamental
understandings of communication theory and research. We offer a Master of Science degree in
Communication Studies, with emphases in interpersonal and family communication,
organizational communication, and instructional communication. For a list of graduate courses,
see http://catalog.tcu.edu/current_year/graduate/ We are committed to the integration of
these areas of study, and our students develop both the content knowledge and the research
tools necessary for conducting independent research projects (e.g., a publishable academic
study, a well-designed corporate attitude survey, or a communication audit).
Student Recruitment, Retention, and Placement
In order to recruit students, the Graduate Director has created a welcome letter that is
distributed to the professional networks of faculty each fall. The letter can be found at:
http://www.commstudies.tcu.edu/graduate/
These networks have helped broaden the pool of undergraduate institutions that students
come from and increase the diversity of backgrounds represented with the program. Within the
last ten years, for example, we have admitted students from the west coast (e.g., San Diego
State University, Western Washington University, Cal State Fullerton, Southern Utah
University), from the midwest (e.g., Wheaton College, University of Missouri, University of
Nebraska, University of Iowa), from the south (e.g., Clemson, Texas, Baylor, Texas A&M) and
from the east coast (e.g., Stonehill College, College of Wooster). We also distribute an
advertisement for our graduate program in the annual convention program of the Central
States Communication Association. We did investigate the possibility of hosting a graduate
booth at the National Communication Association’s graduate fair each year (i.e., during the
national convention), but the majority of students who attend the fair are looking for doctoral
programs and the personnel and physical resources needed to host the booth were cost
prohibitive given the current size of our program.
In terms of recruitment initiatives and financial aid, we offer one of two financial packages to
incoming graduate students that are awarded on a competitive basis. The first package for
graduate teaching assistants includes an annual stipend of $11,000 per academic year and a full
tuition waiver (valued at $24,120 per year). We currently offer nine such assistantships that
involve teaching two sections of our basic communication course. For students who do not wish
to serve as GTAs or who were not as competitive as the other applicants in the pool for a given
academic year, we offer a full tuition waiver. Finally, for those applicants who would like to visit
TCU before making the decision to accept our offer, we provide modest travel support as it
becomes available from the College of Communication.
In terms of course advising, mentoring, and career advisement, the Graduate Director practices
an open door policy with all graduate students and encourages them to stop by anytime they
need help or advisement. He is on campus five days a week between the hours of 8:00am and
2:45pm. Given the small size of the graduate program, we have typically offered only three
graduate courses each term so that all of the classes make, and thus, there is far less course
advising that occurs than what might occur in larger programs.
Regarding placement, our students typically seek either professional employment in a variety of
fields after graduation, or continued education in doctoral programs. For instance, we currently
have graduate alumni working as: a project manager at Cisco Systems, a communications
analyst at Bell Helicopter, a communications specialist at BNSF Railway, a sales director at
Sterling Health Services Administration, a community organizer at Hope for Humans, a
marketing director at Epic Health Services, and a senior human resources coordinator for
Biogen, to name a few. Within the last five years, we have also placed seven graduates from our
masters program into doctoral programs at Cornell University, the University of Nebraska, the
University of Kentucky, and the University of Denver. Two of our graduates from 2009 are
currently employed as assistant professors, including one at the University of Montevallo and
one here at TCU. For a list of current employment and contact information for all graduates
within the last three years, please see the Appendix.
Quality Indicators for our Program
The following table provides GRE information, undergraduate institution, and undergraduate
GPAs for the last five classes of full-time students admitted into our graduate program:
Graduation Date
GRE-V
GRE-Q
GRE-Total
AW
Undergrad
Institution
Undergrad
GPA
May 2016
Kaitlin Dougherty
Gabrielle Barnes
156
154
150
144
306
298
4.0
2.5
3.5
3.2
Darreck LaNier
Kelsey Moore
159
154
151
148
310
302
4.0
4.5
Corley Padgett
Tyler Sinclair
154
148
141
148
295
296
4.5
4.0
William Howe
157
148
305
4.0
Baylor
Western
Washington
TCU
Texas A&M
Commerce
TCU
College of
Wooster
TCU
May 2015
Megan Leite
150
153
303
4.0
TCU
3.8
3.2
4.0
4.0
3.5
3.4
Xi Tian
Micah Haynes
144
155
158
144
302
299
4.0
4.5
Missouri
Missouri
3.6
3.6
GRE-V
GRE-Q
GRE-Total
AW
Undergrad
Institution
Undergrad
GPA
May 2014
Parker Ragland
Sydney Summers
Sam Taylor
158
162
144
156
155
151
314
317
295
3.5
4.0
4.0
3.7
3.8
4.0
Eddy Reyes
150
142
292
4.0
Gretchen Bergquist
Jordan Young
148
460
145
700
293
1160
3.5
5.0
TCU
Texas
Southern
Utah
Cal State
Fullerton
Nebraska
TCU
May 2013
Katherine Fearer
Patricia Thompson
Natalie Fech
Kaitlin Phillips
Molly Wright
Andrew Topa
500
610
600
570
670
570
670
680
540
620
530
610
1170
1290
1140
1190
1200
1180
4.5
3.5
4.0
4.5
4.5
5.0
4.0
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.2
3.2
Cayce Jones
Sharon Stahr-Fisher
560
490
550
600
1110
1090
4.0
3.5
Mariel Bongiovanni
570
540
1110
4.5
TCU
Missouri
Nebraska
TCU
Iowa
Sam
Houston
State
TCU
Nebraska –
Kearney
TCU
May 2012
Amy Keating
Morgan Bridge
570
470
590
570
1160
1040
5.0
5.0
3.8
3.8
Marjorie Buckner
Bridget Bishop
510
470
640
590
1150
1060
4.0
4.0
Susanna Hall
480
520
1000
3.0
Wheaton
San Diego
State
Clemson
University
of Texas at
Arlington
Arkansas
Graduation Date
Summary and Future Plans
3.7
3.3
4.0
3.5
3.1
3.8
3.5
3.6
3.7
In the next five to ten years, our vision for the graduate program is to steadily grow the
program until it represents the premier, terminal masters program in the field of
communication. To accomplish our goal, we will: (a) seek to expand both the number and the
content expertise of the faculty; (b) recruit a wide variety of graduate students who bring
diversity of experience and undergraduate training to the program; and (c) invest additional
resources into marketing our graduate program. According to the ComAnalytics database
produced by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship (www.cios.org), in terms of
faculty productivity, our department is currently ranked 2nd among all terminal masters
programs in the nation in research productivity, both in terms of the mean number of
publications per faculty member and mean prestige scores of the journals we publish in.
ComAnalytics provides data about the relative publication performance of individual scholars
and of departments of communication. It is the only national system that covers the
communication field comprehensively and uses metrics validated against relevant external
benchmarks (e.g., ISI journal impact ratings).
Based on the productivity of our faculty, the department has been asked on more than one
occasion to conduct preliminary investigations into the feasibility of creating a doctoral
program in communication studies. At the end of these preliminary talks, however, the faculty
arrived at the conclusion that the institutional support and resources needed to create such a
program in a manner consistent with TCU’s tradition of excellence do not currently exist.
Consequently, the faculty has decided to strengthen its status as a premier, terminal masters
program, one that equips students to pursue their professional goals while developing their
character in a manner consistent with TCU’s mission statement.
Should additional resources become available, the department has a series of priority actions
that it would take to grow and strengthen the graduate program. First, we would increase the
number of GTAs in the program so that we could add additional courses for students to choose
from each semester. This would also enable us to reduce the number of part-time instructors
teaching basic communication. Second, we would increase the financial offer of our
assistantships to make them more competitive with competing institutions. For example, our
current funding offer is $3000 less than what is currently offered at Baylor University. This
would enable us to attract and recruit the best students for the program. Finally, we would seek
to expand the faculty by adding scholar/teachers in health communication and organizational
communication. At the moment, our faculty is weighted somewhat toward interpersonal
communication, but with additional resources, we could recruit new faculty in the areas of
health and organizational communication to join our faculty and broaden the types of courses
we currently offer our graduate students.
Appendix: Current Employment and Contact Information for Graduates of the M.S. Program
(Past Three Years)
Parker Ragland
Employment: He is working at Resource Group Ltd., a private security company with
high-end clients. I do not know his role or position title there.
Email: jpr@resourcegroupltd.com
Sydney Summers
Employment: Since August 2014, she has been working as an HR-Training Assistant at
Bosque Systems LLC in Fort Worth.
E-mail: Sydneyss28@gmail.com
Eddy Reyes
Employment: He is currently an admissions counselor at California State Polytechnic
University at Pomona.
E-mail: ereyes.td@gmail.com
Jordan Young
Employment: Since June 2014, she has been an Adjunct Instructor at Tarrant County
College and an Adjunct Instructor at Tarleton State University in Fort Worth.
E-mail: jordanyoung889@gmail.com
Gretchen Bergquist
Employment: Since August 2014, she has been a doctoral student and graduate teaching
assistant in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska –
Lincoln.
E-mail: gbergquist@huskers.unl.edu
Gentrie Pool
Employment: Since April 2013, she has been Sales Director at Sterling Heath Services
Administration in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Also, since January 2009, she has been a
Course Developer at ComedyCE.com.
E-mail: gentrier@yahoo.com
Katherine (Fearer) Forsythe
Employment: Since August 2014, she has been Associate Basic Course Director at Texas
Christian University, Department of Communication Studies in Fort Worth.
E-mail: Katherine.Forsythe@tcu.edu
Kaitlin Phillips
Employment: Since August 2013, she has been a doctoral student and graduate teaching
assistant at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
E-mail: kephillips@huskers.unl.edu
Patricia Thompson
Employment: Patty and her husband are the founders of One:Eight Productions, a
multimedia production company in Fort Worth (http://oneeight.squarespace.com/).
E-mail: info@oneeightproductions.com, or patty.thompson.395@facebook.com
Natalie (Fech) Ellis
Employment: Since July 2013, she has been Bilingual Employment and Training Specialist
at Omaha Steaks in Omaha, NE.
E-mail: natalie.ellis0614@gmail.com
Molly Wright
Employment: Since June 2014, she has been Assistant Account Executive at Fleishman
Hillard in Houston.
E-mail: mollydwright@facebook.com
Andrew Topa
Employment: Since July 2013, he has been a Marketing Associate at Weaver, a
consulting firm in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
E-mail: andrewltopa@gmail.com
Cayce Jones
Employment: Since August 2014, she has been a Sales Recruiter at Global Efficient
Energy in Fort Worth.
E-mail: cayceshannonj@gmail.com
Sharon Stahr-Fisher
Employment: Since January 2004, she has been a voice coach and piano instructor for
her company, Stahr Act.
E-mail: sharon@stahract.com
Mariel Bongiovanni
Employment: Since August 2013, she has been a Team in Training Campaign Specialist at
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in Dallas.
E-mail: mariel.bongiovanni@lls.org
Amy Keating
Employment: Since July 2012, she has been Director of Communications at St. Laurence
High School in Chicago.
E-mail: amy.t.keating@gmail.com
Marjorie Buckner
Employment: Since August 2012, she has been a doctoral candidate and graduate
teaching assistant in the Department of Communication at the University of Kentucky.
E-mail: marjorie.buckner@uky.edu
Morgan (Bridge) Poyer
Employment: Since October 2012, she has been Assistant Vice President at Heffernan
Insurance Brokers in Los Angeles.
E-mail: morgan.bridge.3@facebook.com
Bridget (Bishop) Garcia
Employment: She worked as Communications Analyst at Bell Helicopter from June 2012
to January 2014, and since then has been a stay-at-home mother.
E-mail: bridget0587@yahoo.com
Susanna (Hall) Larseingue
Employment: Since May 2014, she has been Administrative Dean at North Texas
Leadership Academy.
E-mail: susannachall@gmail.com; also slarseingue@ntxleadershipacademy.org
Shawn Redd
Employment: Since August 2014, he has been Director of Baseball Operations at
University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
E-mail: smredd1@ualr.edu
Stephen Bailey
Employment: Since August 2012, he has served as served as an adjunct instructor at
both TCU and TCC Northwest teaching the basic course, Business and Professional
Communication, and Public Speaking. He also continues to work as a Leadership and
Worship Consultant for churches in the area.
E-mail: ponder76148@yahoo.com
Matt Larseingue
Employment: Since June 2011, he has been Communications Specialist at BNSF Railway
in Fort Worth.
E-mail: matt.larseingue@gmail.com
Jenna Shimkowski
Employment: Since August 2011, she has been a doctoral student and graduate teaching
assistant in the Department of Communication at the University of Denver.
E-mail: jrshimkowski@gmail.com
Dr. Tiffany Wang
Employment: Since August 2012, Tiffany has worked as an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Communication Studies at the University of Montevallo.
E-mail: twang@montevallo.edu
Dr. Kristen Carr
Employment: Since August 2012, Kristen has worked as an Assistant Professor in our
department here at TCU.
E-mail: kristen.carr@tcu.edu