Gaylord Hall

Graduate Program Admission Criteria


Criteria for Full Admission to JMC Graduate Program

All students must have taken the following courses in their undergraduate study:

  • Media Writing

  • Mass Communication History or Law (junior or senior level), and

  • One other journalism or mass communication course (junior or senior level)

  • One undergraduate- or graduate-level Statistics course

Professional Writing students may also be required to have taken:

  • Short-story writing or
  • Writing for entertainment media


3.2 GPA (4.0 scale) in last 60 credit hours of undergraduate coursework


All students must take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE):

  • Preferred minimum verbal score = 500

  • Preferred minimum analytical writing score = 4.5

Use the OU school code: 6879 and our department code: 4503.
For more information about the GRE, go to www.gre.org.

TOEFL and Test of Written English (TWE):

  • Minimum Score = 5.0

  • All international applicants required by the College to take the standard TOEFL must also take the TWE


Students are also required to submit the following to the Graduate Adviser:

  • Letter of intent/essay (approximately 1,000 words, describing applicant's professional career goals and reasons for pursuing graduate study in JMC)
  • Two letters of reference
  • One- to two-page resume
  • Professional Writing applicants must also submit a writing sample of at least 50 consecutive pages of fiction or creative nonfiction.


Materials should be sent to:

Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Oklahoma
Attn: Graduate Adviser
395 W. Lindsey
Norman, OK  73019-4201

Conditional Admission

Students who do not meet the above requirements may still be admitted on a conditional basis. Please contact Kelly Storm at 405-325-2722 or kstorm@ou.edu to determine your status.