CERTIFIED PUBLIC COMMUNICATOR™ PROGRAM
The Certified Public Communicator™ program at TCU is a post-baccalaureate, graduate-level residential program for two summers (one week each in 2024 and 2025), plus a two-day winter session with strategic communication professors from TCU's Department of Strategic Communication. Professional communicators working for city, county, and public-sector agencies create three-year comprehensive communication plans for their organizations during the program. The Certified Public Communicator™ program is a partnership of TCU's Department of Strategic Communication, Extended Education, the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers (founding partner), the National Association of County Information Officers (partner), the Texas School Public Relations Association (affiliate partner), and the City-County Communications and Marketing Association (affiliate partner).
Those interested in enrolling in the Certified Public Communicator® Program at TCU for next summer may apply to the program between June 24 and December 31, 2024, in order to be considered for admission in Summer 2025. All applications will be reviewed together by CPC Board Members in January 2025, with decisions communicated by February 1, 2025, for summer admission. Admitted students will then be given one month to complete registration and arrange payment. The fee for the program is $3,750 (does not include lodging or travel).
[Dates for the next admitted class, called Cohort 13, will be July 20-25, 2025, plus a short mid-winter gathering in January 2026 and another week in July 2026 (dates TBD based on TCU academic calendar, available in summer 2025).]
To find out more about the Certified Public Communicator® Program at TCU, please visit https://schieffercollege.tcu.edu/stratcomm/resources/cpc-program/
ABOUT THE APPLICATION PROCESS
TCU's CPC Program has started a new application process in 2024 for summer 2025, in order to address needed student capacity in this popular program. Over the past four years, the waitlist for the program has been longer than the number of enrolled students, who in the past registered through a "first-come, first-served" registration operated by TCU Extended Education.
If you'd like to apply to the program, please return to this page on or after June 24, 2024, to find a link to the new application form.
If you'd like to learn more about the new process, here's a synopsis, below.
Typically, a cohort in the program comprises about 25-28 students. Since 2013, only one cohort wasn't at full capacity. As of 2024, the program has graduated almost 250 professionals from 10 cohorts. [For background, Cohort 1 started the program in the summer of 2013. In July 2024, students from Cohort 12 will start the program, and students from Cohort 11 will graduate from the program.]
Keeping the program small gives faculty and students more connection, which is one of the program's strengths. Another is the network that professionals gain, since students meet about 25 people from their own cohort, as well as about 50 other people from the cohorts ahead and behind them, too.
The CPC Board in January 2024 voted to adopt a new application process for the program for fully qualified students to be admitted to the program and to ensure their success. It decided that the new process would include these elements:
- A letter of recommendation from the applicant's supervisor to demonstrate that the public communicator had support for the program and its requirements in the workplace;
- A statement of interest from the applicant, to ascertain that the applicant understands the rigors of the program and plan-writing;
- A new requirement that an applicant must have worked in the public sector for a substantial length of time (about four years) before the application is submitted;
- A more explicit requirement that the majority of an applicant's job responsibilities include communication strategies and tactics;
- A requirement that the applicant must work in a public sector, non-partisan job that receives compensation from a public-sector entity such as municipal government (city or county), school district, or public-serving agency such as a water district, county hospital, community college district, or similar public-sector entity; and
- Each public-sector applicant must apply on their own for the program, rather than an application being made by an employer for an undesignated employee.
If you'd like to apply to the program, please return to this page on or after June 24, 2024, to find a link to the new application form.
