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The first advertising course was taught at The University of Texas (UT) in 1914. In 1948, both the Department of Marketing and the School of Journalism formally recognized an undergraduate major in advertising. From then until 1960, students who wanted a degree in advertising had two choices: a business-oriented curriculum offered by the Department of Marketing in the College of Business - a Bachelor of Business Administration in Advertising or a communication-oriented curriculum offered by the School of Journalism in the College of Arts and Sciences - a Bachelor of Journalism in Advertising.
Graduate courses in advertising were offered in both departments. A Master's of Business Administration with concentration in the Division of Advertising could be sought as early as 1947. The School of Journalism first offered a Master's of Arts in Communication with concentration in Advertising in 1953. From 1960 until 1974, advertising was one of two sequences offered in the School of Journalism.
During the Fall of 1974 the Department of Advertising was established, in the College of Communication, to meet the increasing needs of advertising education. In 1999, Public Relations was added to the department's curriculum. The Department has grown into one of the top programs in the country and continues to strive toward best serving its students and the advertising/pr industry.
How does the advertising program at UT compare to programs at other schools? That is one of the most common questions people ask when considering where to apply. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. It depends how these programs are judged, and who evaluates them.
The following information is provided so you can see that, by any measure, UT offers a top-tier program.
SIZEIn the United States, approximately 111 institutions of higher education offer an organized program of study in advertising. The advertising program at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) is one of the largest in the nation. In fact, it is one of only a few such programs around the country that are housed in their own department. Most programs are a part of a journalism, marketing, or other department.
LARGEST NUMBER OF GRADUATE STUDENTS ENROLLEDRankSchool1Roosevelt University2University of Missouri3Northwestern University4University of TexasMOST RESEARCH ARTICLES 1981-85RankSchool1University of Texas2University of Georgia3Michigan State University4Arizona State University
As shown in the Table above, the graduate program at UT ranks fourth largest in the country, with UT and Michigan State boasting the most Ph.D. students. In fact, UT is the only program that grants a Ph.D. specifically in advertising; other programs offer an emphasis in advertising, with the Ph.D. in "mass communication" or some other more general field of study.Certainly, large size and high quality are two different things. But size, if combined with quality instruction, means many well-trained graduates and an influential force in the advertising profession.
FACULTYOne indicator of quality is the breadth of knowledge and experience possessed by a school's faculty. UT has the largest advertising faculty in the world. This means the widest possible range of expertise, so that students can work with and learn from faculty who are specialists in many different areas of advertising.
Yet another indicator is the amount of research conducted by a program's faculty. Faculty that produces original research are "on the cutting edge" of knowledge in their area of specialty. They provide students with the most up-to-date information, and they have influence in the national academic community.
TOP UNDERGRAD PROGRAMS AS RANKED BY FACULTYRankSchool1University of Illinois2University of Texas3University of FloridaTHE CREATIVE SEQUENCE
Over the past decade two studies have compared the research productivity of faculty publishing articles about advertising. One study looked at just the three major advertising journals in the U.S., including every year they were published, while the other looked at a broader range of journals over a limited number of years. The results of both studies are summarized in the Table above, and their implications are crystal clear -- UT is a national force in advertising research and the academic marketplace, ranking number one in most research articles.The advertising program at UT is unique in one especially notable respect. In addition to teaching strategic planning, media planning, research, and other aspects of advertising management, the UT program has built a reputation for molding talented copywriters and art directors.
An article in Adweekmagazine discussed the backgrounds of this fresh new talent and stated, "They've come from the leading advertising programs -- Art Center, Portfolio Center and University of Texas -- tops among them with books filled with highly polished, technically sophisticated ads." The former two programs are art and design schools that specialize in helping artists develop their portfolio, rather than general advertising programs. Even in that company, UT ranks among the best..
Similarly, an Advertising Agearticle on ad education referred to "the schools that are presently highly regarded by agency creatives and industry recruiters such as Atlanta¼s Portfolio Center, the [Pasadena] Art Center, and the University of Texas at Austin." Advertising Agewent on to mention that "[t]hough the University of Texas may seem an unusual place to find a top ad program, creatives from New York to Los Angeles have been counting on kick-ass kids from Austin."
Since 1995, Texas Creative has been invited by The One Club for Art & Copy, Inc. of New York City to display work of graduating students in its exhibit promoting aspiring creatives. UT is one of only a handful of schools invited. Not all advertising students at UT are in the creative sequence; but, this sequence makes the UT advertising department unique among ad programs around the world by developing a richly diverse talent pool that covers all aspects of the profession: creative, account management, interactive, account planning, media, and research.
OPINIONS OF THE COMPETITIONThe "ranking" of any program depends largely on who is doing the ranking. One of the groups best equipped to judge is advertising educators, since they tend to know which schools represent their most serious competition. Although relatively little research has been done to determine the opinions of advertising professors, one study asked professors across the country to rank undergraduate advertising programs. The University of Texas is ranked number two in that study, as shown below.
MOST MENTIONS AS A "TOP 3" UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMRankSchool1University of Texas2Michigan State University3University of Illinois
Another study asked the heads of advertising programs at universities around the country to rank the top three undergraduate and graduate advertising programs. The University of Texas was mentioned more frequently as a "top three" program than any other school in the country, as you can see below.
And in its first effort to rank graduate advertising programs, U.S. News & World Report asked Deans and faculty at schools of journalism and mass communication to rank advertising (as well as some other disciplines frequently taught in those schools) programs. The results gave the Advertising Department at The University of Texas its lowest ranking of any national ranking published to date. As you can see here, it ranked only 4th!RANKED BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORTRankSchool1University of Illinois2University of Florida3Northwestern University4University of Texas
OPINIONS OF EMPLOYERSTOP GRADUATE PROGRAMS AS RANKED BY PRACTITIONERSRankSchool1Northwestern University2University of Texas3Michigan State UniversityOf course, another group whose opinion is important is the people who hire advertising graduates. And of those doing this hiring, a group that is especially relevant is advertising agency personnel. One recent study asked ad agency employees who do hiring to rank advertising graduate programs.The University of Texas is ranked number two.
OTHER PROGRAMS AT THE UNIVERSITY2004-2005 TUITION AND FEES COMPARISON OF SEVERAL LARGE STATE RESEARCH UNIVERSITIESSchoolUndergradGraduateRESIDENTNONRESIDENTRESIDENTNONRESIDENTUniversity of Texas at Austin$5,735$14,435$6,085$13,237University of California - Berkeley6,73023,6867,45722,396University of Colorado - Boulder4,34021,4525,58021,462University of Georgia4,27215,5884,94818,282University of Illinois - Urbana7,94420,8648,31020,210University of Michigan - Ann Arbor8,72226,94113,58527,311University of Minnesota - Twin Cities8,02919,6599,52516,624University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill4,45117,5494,65117,899University of Wisconsin - Madison5,86619,8668,32023,590Virginia Commonwealth University - Ad CenterN.A.N.A.16,67616,676The Department of Advertising fares well among the more than 100 advertising programs around the U.S., but a student's education does not depend only on the quality of the department in which he or she is enrolled, but upon the quality of all the classes taken at the university. Whether undergraduate or graduate, students take classes in other departments. The University of Texas at Austin benefits from having a wide variety of highly-ranked programs. Within the College of Communication, five different areas of doctoral study within the Department of Speech recently were ranked in the Top 5 programs in the country, and in 1996 U.S. News & World Report ranked the graduate programs in Public Relations, Print Journalism, and Radio/Television all among the top 11 in the nation.
COMPARE THE COSTSAs you can see, The University of Texas at Austin is highly regarded as a major research university, with many of its colleges and departments rank among the best in the nation. In spite of this, it is one of the least expensive universities in the country. Even among state-supported schools, which typically cost far less than private schools, it compares quite favorably. Costs for the 2004-2005 school year, below, illustrate this point.
Figures provided by The University of Texas at Austin, Office of Institutional Studies.
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