Doctorate in Communication
With one of the nation's premier doctoral programs in Communication, the Annenberg School is a tight-knit, supportive community of scholars committed to advancing knowledge of our media environment.
Founded through the generosity and vision of publisher, diplomat, and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, the Annenberg School for Communication is devoted to furthering our understanding of the role of communication in public life through research, education, and service. Our five-year doctoral program has a strong reputation as one of the best in Communication, based on Annenberg’s unparalleled combination of world-class faculty, students, and alumni, as well as access to the larger intellectual and cultural resources of the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.
In an inherently interdisciplinary field, Annenberg researchers are engaged with a spectrum of topics related to health, politics, media systems, networks and digital culture, journalism, race and gender, and more, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
Our Ph.D. program allows students to tailor a curriculum to suit their specific interests, and provides them the financial resources to launch their academic career.
In addition to a full tuition waiver, our students currently receive an annual stipend as well as a budget for research and travel and health insurance for all five years.
Annenberg is the smallest of the 12 schools at Penn, and it functions as close-knit community of scholars whose doors are always open to one another. Our students also appreciate our staff, who routinely go above and beyond to support them.
Please note that we do not have a standalone master’s degree program at this time. All students are admitted directly into the doctoral program.
Applications to the 2025 Ph.D. program are now closed.
Our Students By the Numbers
Here are some fast facts about our students and the admissions process.
Get to know Annenberg!
Students currently in the program
Different nationalities represented by our students
Applicants Each Year
Students accepted each year
Average undergraduate GPA of applicants
Average TOEFL of admitted candidates
Of students came from a previous graduate degree program
Of students worked in a career before joining Annenberg
Of students came straight to Annenberg from an undergraduate degree
Our Faculty
Our graduate faculty is at the heart of the school. Their innovative work, often in collaboration with students, pushes the field of Communication forward.
Students on Video
Hear from some of the Annenberg School's doctoral students as they talk about their work and what brought them to Annenberg.
What is it like to be a doctoral student at the International Communication Association annual conference? We followed four students to find out.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctoral candidate Kelly Diaz used her phone to document the many signs displayed in yards and windows around her West Philadelphia home. She has now collected that body of work into a photo essay.
Doctoral Candidate and artist Roopa Vasudevan studies the ways that the everyday technologies shape our daily lives.
What is it like to be a Ph.D. student? We followed five of our students through their daily activities.
Prateekshit Pandey works with the Communication Neuroscience Lab to study how the brain reacts to humor.
Buenos Aires-native María Celeste Wagner looks at how gender influences credibility in news.
Jennifer Henrichsen studies the way that journalists adopt information security technologies to protect themselves and their sources.
Our Students
Annenberg's doctoral students represent a broad spectrum of interests, methodologies, and backgrounds. Here are just a few of our incredible students.
Arlene C. Fernández
Doctoral Candidate
Azsaneé Truss
Doctoral Candidate
Danielle Clark
Doctoral Candidate
Neil Fasching
Doctoral Candidate
Tom W. Etienne
Joint Doctoral Student in Communication and Political Science
Adetobi Moses Awarded 2024 Penn Global Dissertation Grant
Penn Global has announced that Annenberg School doctoral candidate Adetobi Moses is an awardee of its newly established Penn Global Dissertation Grants program. The program provides support to Penn Ph...
Explore the Program
Learn more about life in the Annenberg Ph.D. program.
