Advising About COMM 108 & COMM 112

We just received the message below from UM’s Smith School Director Luke Glasgow.  He has contacted us several times over the years about this issue – UM College Park will only accept 3 credits from only ONE course if a student takes both COMM 108 and COMM 112.   

Unfortunately, many students choose COMM 108 as a GEIR and then also take COMM 112 as either a Humanities for Gen Ed or as an Elective for Business or other UM majors (including Communication Studies).  In fact, UM will only accept ONE course from COMM 108, COMM 112, or COMM 121 Public Speaking, as all three are considered to by UM to be the equivalent of COMM 107, their Oral Communications Gen Ed course.

Beyond UM, there are 5 other MD schools that also consider both COMM 108 and COMM 112 to be the same course upon transfer (UMBC, UMB School of Nursing, U of Baltimore, Hood College and McDaniel College – see the ARTSYS chart at the bottom of this message).

The MC Gen Ed Program Course List shows an “or” for the GEIR listing of COMM 108 or 112 on Page 1, and also shows “COMM 108 or 112” in the Humanities Distribution area on Page 2. Technically, if a student is not planning to transfer, then picking both COMM 108 for a GEIR or GEEL and COMM 112 for a Humanities is fine for graduation in many of our degrees.  But for the student headed to UM, as well to UMBC, UMB School of Nursing, or 3 other MD schools, taking both courses becomes a transfer problem as these institutions will only accept 3 credits if both are taken.

Telling students who have taken both that they must take another course in order to transfer to UM / UMBC / UMB SON with 60 credits is painful, especially if they are graduating and Financial Aid won’t cover the cost of taking an additional 3 credits over the summer or winter prior to transfer.

Any ideas you might have about how to more clearly advise students that only one COMM from 108 or 112 should be taken if transferring to UM / UMBC or UMB School of Nursing would be appreciated.   Providing a note that students should check the transferability of courses may seem like we’re covering the issue, but the reality is that students look to us, their counselors / program advisors / instructors, to guide them and we often are the very people who assure students that if a course is on the MC Gen Ed List, then it will transfer without question to a MD public institution.

This is NOT a suggestion to remove COMM 112 Business and Professional Communication as a General Education Program course, because for some majors, especially in AAS career degrees, this course is valuable.  Rather, the question is, how do we effectively let students know that if they are transferring to a four-year university, then they should probably take only one course from COMM 108 or 112?  A footnote on the Gen Ed List is one idea, but it still doesn’t cover the student who might choose a second COMM from 108 or 112 as an Elective.

Ideas?

Anne Schleicher, Counselor (Part-time)
Montgomery College Online Advising Services