Hey all,
I am about to apply to Mac for the Communication Studies program
It really interests me and I'm pretty pumped to apply!

My question is this, im really interested in teaching though, so should i apply to the program? Is it teachable? Can i combine with it another teachable subject? Is there a point?! Hahaha...

Really i am unsure, (about applying and teaching in general) and debating whether to just apply to a concurrent education program somewhere else...

Any advice?
I appreciate it?

That's great that you want to come to Mac! I think Chad, the founder of this site, is in/graduated from (?) Communication Studies.

You would first have to apply to Humanities I, the general first year program. At the end of first year, you apply for majors for the following school year. Entry into Communication Studies, or any level II program for that matter, will depend on your first year grades and courses.

However, I'm not really sure if it's a teachable. Here is a link to the centralized system for applying to teacher's college (http://www.ouac.on.ca/teas/index.html ). Each school has different requirements and different offerings, and will train you for either elementary up to secondary school teaching.

You need to have completed an undergraduate degree before applying to teacher's college. I think generally concurrent education takes the same amount of time as doing an undergrad and then doing teacher's college, but I don't know too much about it, sorry.

Actually Chad, graduated in Multimedia and Communications. If you would like more information, I would send him an email to find out more.

Comm isn't a teachable.

For a lot of schools it has to be specific (so Classics doesn't apply even though it's part of History); so English, History, Math, Chem etc.

However, you can double major in Comm, a teachable and then get a minor in another teachable (assuming you want to teach at the secondary level).

Yeah i do want to teach at the highschool level...
So your saying i'd have to take 3 courses?!

If you want to teach the high school level you need two teachables; so two different subject areas (history, math etc). You'd need more than three courses (course = class in university); you need a specific number of credits in each for you to be considered sufficiency knowledgeable in a subject to teach it.

If you don't want to do double major and minor you could just major in a teachable or double major in two teachables and then just take the Communication studies classes at Mac as electives.

Like it was mentioned though first year Humanities is general so you have time to take a bunch of different Level 1 classes, Communications included and then decide from there what you're most interested in majoring in. You might get to Mac and find you don't really care for Communication studies and aren't interested in the program requirements for a major or maybe you'll get here and find you love Communications or something else and you aren't even interested in being a teacher anymore. First year Humanities imo was great b/c you can take such a wide variety of courses and really decide what you want to get into. I didn't major in what I originally came to McMaster to major in, half way through first year I decided I liked a different program in Humanities better and that I would major in that instead.

As for the actual Communication courses this site has a reviews section so you could check there for Communications courses and see if other students have reviewed them.

Also here is the course calendar for this year showing the Communication studies courses McMaster currently offers:

http://registrar.mcmaster.ca /calen...nt/pg1855.html

There's a brief explanation of each course.

Hope some of this helps.

I can't help much on the teaching front since I'm not planning on going to teacher's college, maybe someone already going in that direction can offer some advice.

Communication Studies is great! I would double major.. you can combine it with anything under the Faculty of Humanities (English would be a good choice for teachable, for example). If you have any questions about CMST, let me know.

Thats a good idea sew12...

So Chad, if i do the double major i can combine it with another subject? If go into CMST the possibility exisits to go into teaching of some capacity?

I don't think CMST is a teachable subject in highschools, you would have to go as far as getting a PHD and become a college/uni professor. However, if you do a combined honours with CMST and another subject in Humanities that is a recognized teachable, you can have the best of both worlds. As Danielle said... you could take CMST, English (for example), and even minor in another teachable, leaving you with CMST and two potential teachables.

Another option you may want to consider is consulting. Communication Studies can provide you a lot of knowledge with advertising, marketing, etc. And there are a lot of Communications agencies out there who do PR, Marketing, Event Planning, etc. If you love to teach, you could still get that teaching in a classroom experience being a consultant or training instructor for CMST/marketing/advertising/PR related workshops if you become an expert in that field. It isn't the same as teaching students in highschool, but is another option open to you.