B.A. in Advertising - Creative Program

The Temerlin Advertising Institute's creative program prepares students for careers in art direction or copywriting. Admission to the program is selective and based upon a faculty panel's evaluation of an application used to assess a student's creative ability and potential. This screening process improves the quality of the experience each student receives in creative courses and helps ensure the quality of work produced by students is of the highest caliber and competitive by industry standards.

Creative program applications are collected at the end of every fall, spring and summer term. Most students' first opportunity to apply is near the end of the ADV 3385 Introduction to Creativity course. Any student who is not admitted to the creative program on a first attempt may reapply during a subsequent application process.

Creative Program Application

The application requires students to submit two samples of creative work as evidence of their capabilities: one that demonstrates facility to solve a specific problem and another that permits a longitudinal examination of creative thinking ability.

Part I: The Big Question – Each term, members of the creative program faculty will confer and propose a question that applicants are challenged to answer. The question is open to broad interpretation and responses may be crafted using words, images or a combination of both. Applicants must observe submission guidelines but are otherwise free to propose the most unique, intelligent and imaginative answers possible.

Part II: Idea Blog – Over the course of a term, all ADV 3385 Introduction to Creativity students are required to maintain and submit a blog documenting their ideas and insights on a variety of topics, both assigned and voluntary. The blog conforms to certain parameters as a class assignment, but is designed to offer students the opportunity to document and showcase their identities as independent thinkers.

Student Progress

Students admitted to the creative program are required to produce work that meets artistic standards in order to continue taking courses in the program, consistent with Meadows School of the Arts policy. This evaluation is made by the creative program faculty, who regularly consult with industry professionals for each creative program student. Students who fail to meet artistic standards will discontinue coursework in the creative program and have the option to continue pursuing their general advertising degree.

	Credit Hours
General Education Curriculum	41
Required Advertising Courses (beyond General Education Curriculum) :	30
ADV 2374 Survey of Advertising
ADV 2375 Advertising Ethics
ADV 3362 Marketing Principles of Advertising or      MKTG 3340 Fundamentals of Marketing
ADV 3376 Advertising Media
ADV 3385 Introduction to Creativity
ADV 3390 Creative Production (concurrent enrollment in ADV 3395 required)
ADV 3393 Advertising Research
ADV 3395 Concepting (concurrent enrollment in ADV 3390 required)
ADV 4385 Portfolio
ADV 4399 Advertising Campaigns
Communication/Meadows (Advertising Creative) Electives (choose three):	9
ADV 4354 Copywriting Seminar or ADV 4355 Art Direction Seminar
ADV 4395 Advanced Portfolio
Communication electives include any advertising, communication studies, film and media arts or journalism course. Meadows electives include any art, art history, dance, music or theatre course. For a list of suggested Meadows electives, consult the TAI Student Handbook, available online at temerlin.smu.edu. Creative program students are strongly encouraged to take ADV 4354 or 4355 and ADV 4395 to satisfy the communication elective (three credits) and Meadows elective (three credits). A student who fails to meet the creative program's artistic standards (or discontinues work in the creative program for any reason) prior to taking these courses should select from other communication or Meadows electives as needed to complete their general advertising degree requirements.
Foreign Language (two terms of the same language)	8
Statistics (STAT 1301, STAT 2301 or STAT 2331)	3
Second Major or Minor Choice	31-40
Total Hours	122