Coordinator: Sharlene Richards
Phone: (540) 568-3586
Email: richarst@jmu.edu
Health Communication Minor Website
Program Description
The minor in health communication is designed for students who are interested in working in health care or related fields and are completing coursework in areas such as nursing, health sciences and the pre-professional programs. The minor offers students flexibility in terms of area of focus for the minor, so that they can gain the most applicable knowledge for their future endeavors.
Admission to the Minor
Admission to JMU does not guarantee admission to the School of Communication Studies. All students interested in minoring in Health Communication must apply for a limited number of spaces by enrolling in and successfully completing SCOM 240 and SCOM 240L. To be eligible to register for these classes, students must add the minor in MyMadison by no later than March 1 for summer and fall registration and by October 1 for spring registration. Students who miss the deadline are still encouraged to declare the minor as SCOM will continue to process applications in the order in which they were received if there are still seats available in SCOM 240/SCOM 240L. Declaring the minor by this date does not guarantee availability of courses. The School of Communication Studies reviews performance in the SCOM 240/SCOM 240L class to make decisions about acceptance into the minor each semester.
Admission to the minor is based on availability to the most qualified students as determined by performance in SCOM 240 and SCOM 240L.
Students who are not admitted are permitted one more attempt (an attempt is any time the student receives a grade for the course on the transcript including W, WP, or WF) to successfully meet performance requirements in SCOM 240/SCOM 240L by enrolling the next regular semester or in the summer if the student desires. For students retaking SCOM 240/SCOM 240L (whether repeat or repeat/forgive), the school will look only at their highest grades earned when evaluating their second attempt.
Once admitted into a Communication Studies minor, a student cannot retroactively apply more than nine hours of SCOM courses, including SCOM 240 and SCOM 240L, to their minor (SCOM 121/SCOM 122/SCOM 123 does not count toward those nine hours).
