M.S. in Public Relations
and Corporate Communication

MESSAGE FROM THE ACADEMIC CHAIR

As we enter our seventh year, we have much to be proud of and many challenges to approach. We are now the world’s largest on-site graduate program in public relations, with 320 students. That is substantial, even for NYU-SCPS and for New York University, the nation’s largest private university. We also are one of the most diverse programs. Our student body is approximately 65 percent American and 35 percent international. There is a richness of experience and backgrounds, with the career-changer, professional communicator and recent-college-grad segments each contributing about one-third of our students.

Our students include several Phi Beta Kappas, Fulbright scholars and LAGRANT scholars. Our new students each semester have an undergraduate grade point average of 3.1 to 3.3 (4 point scale).

I do not know if we have the best program, though we aspire to do so. I do know that our faculty would be hard to beat, and that is partly a function of being based in the communication capital of the world. But it is also a function of reputation, relationships, and of an intellectually stimulating environment where students expect our faculty members to bring their “A game” to each class. Our faculty members include many of the most accomplished public relations and corporate communication professionals, from the U.S. and abroad, who by being here, help to elevate our field as a social science.

For a profession that has suffered for so long from an image problem that says public relations is a lot of shine and little substance, this is very important. Together with PR programs at other universities; texts; peer-reviewed papers; our professional organizations; and the overall good work of our professional communication colleagues in agencies, corporations and other organizations, we are all helping to advance the field.

Here’s to what many are calling “The Golden Age of Public Relations.”

John Doorley, B.S., M.A.
academic chair and clinical assistant professor,
M.S. in Public Relations and Corporate Communication,
Division of Programs in Business