<p>Has anyone heard good things about it, participated in it, etc? I'm interested in both Yale and journalis, so this journalism program caught my eye...it's currenty featured on their website...</p>
<p>I would love to hear students' experience with it, how helpful it is for an aspiring journalist, what you do, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>bump...</p>
<p>I'd love some input.</p>
<p>bump again, por favor!!!</p>
<p>Hi, I'm also interested in it. I don't know if it's worth it, because you may not even get in the program. So, you go to Yale that whole time and then you don't get into that program. Is this just another option, because they don't have the major? Why don't they offer a major and offer this instead? Is it better to just go to another school and major in print journalism like NYU, USC, or Northwestern? I'm wondering the same questions.</p>
<p>There is not much in the program that you can't do anyway if you want to go into journalism, so not being accepted would not end your hopes of being a journalist, early_college. It is not as big a risk as it seems. </p>
<p>The seminars are very good, and you have a few more networking opportunities, plus a nice award to go on your CV, but those are not the things that will get you a job in journalism. It is the experience, through internships, publications, etc, and the classes you take, that will be most worthwhile if you want to be a journalist. While the initiative credentializes those experiences, it does not at the moment really directly provide them, nor does not being part of the initiative hinder you in getting them. This might change as the initiative becomes more entrenched, but right now it is basically drawing together resources that existed long before it did, borrowing what it needs from them, adding a few things of its own, and giving it all a name and an award. The things that are unique to the initiative are far from being the main things that will make you a journalist.</p>
<p>Yale has been producing top journalists for many years, and there are many opportunities to get involved in writing that are not contingent on you being part of the journalsim initiative. This is one of the reasons Yale has produced so many of those top jounalists despite not having a journalism major.</p>
<p>I can't say whether you would be better somewhere else doing a journalism major, since I don't have that experience. I imagine it is a different experience, but probably not better or worse than what you might get at Yale in terms of helping you to become a journalist, it's simply a different route.</p>
<p>Thanks, so much! I never really wanted to go to Yale before, because of the journalism thing. How do you have room in your schedule for this, and will this put you behind with other classes? Also, I'm planning on applying to a early college called Bard College at Simon's Rock . So, I would have to transfer to Yale. Could I still do this as a transfer student? Do lots of students go for graduate school afterwords? How long is the program? Thank you!!!!</p>
<p>It shouldn't put you behind with other classes. Writing classes can be more work than some other classes, but if you want to be a journalist, you should be taking writing classes. You get credit for the academic classes you have to take, as well as them counting towards being a scholar, so they aren't, in that respect, additions to a normal schedule. </p>
<p>The biggest problem really is understanding what the requirements to be a scholar are and how you go about meeting them, not the actual time you have to devote to it, but this is a problem a lot of relatively new programs face.</p>
<p>The time-consuming things, regardless of whether you are in the initiative or not, are things like being involved with YDN or similar publications, working on your own articles, and finding internships. With those, it's a question of managing your time well and just being motivated. Maybe YJI gives some people a bit more impetus to really push themselves with those things, but if you want to go into journalism, it's something you've really got to learn to do.</p>
<p>I think you would be OK as a transfer. You can apply for the seminar in either your soph or junior year, so as long as you had built a good portfolio already you shouldn't be disadvantaged. It is quite competitive to get selected for the seminars, as well as to meet the requirements to be a scholar, so you can't like sit back and wait until you get to Yale to do anything.</p>
<p>Quite a lot of people do go on to graduate school, either J-School or other fields to gain more specialist knowledge, say a specialism in a particular part of the world, or in a particular technical area. Others go straight into paid or unpaid internships with newspapers and other types of media. It is a competitive field to get into, which is why experience is so important.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! I would prob. transfer as a junior. Does it matter what I would major in? I want to do journalism, so I have no idea what major to do. Would Theater be ok or English? What can I do before I would go there. How would I be a scholar or take a seminar if I'm not at Yale? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>It doesn't really matter what you major in. I think you would want to major in something with a reasonably large writing component, which English and Theater both have, simply for the practice, but it's not unheard of for people to come from science or technical backgrounds, particularly if that is the kind of journalism they want to get into. I think one of the real benefits to not having a journalism major is that you are forced to gain specialist knowledge in another area which you can, hopefully, eventually apply to your career in journalism.</p>
<p>Before transfering, you should start building a portfolio for yourself. It's never too early to start. While you are still in high school, if you have the opportunity, get involved in your school newspaper, yearbook, anything like that where you can learn about writing and how a publication gets put together. </p>
<p>If you have a local newspaper, approach them, ask if you can come see how journalism works in the real world, how something gets published in their newspaper (I'm assuming you are interested in print journalism), see if you can gradually build that initial contact into something more: a day, a week, a summer, anything you can get to add to your experience. </p>
<p>Also, look for other opportunities to write and get published. If you have a particular area of interest, say arts reviews since you mentioned theater, look for websites or newsletters that might welcome ad hoc reviews of theater performances. Look out for competitions like Teen Ink that can get you used to the idea of putting your work out there for criticism and the possiblity of getting published. You could also have your own blog that you use just for publishing your writing.</p>
<p>Once you are at Bard College at Simon's Rock or wherever you go, find out if they have any student publications and get involved with whichever interests you or, if there aren't any that interest you, start you own. Be willing to do stuff that doesn't sound all that interesting or relevant at first. A lot depends not on how fantastic a writer you are, but whether the editor thinks you are reliable and they can trust you with an assignment, and you have to build that reputation for yourself. Find out if you have any aptitude for things like copy editing too, not just writing, as those additional skills can be a big bonus if you are looking looking for a way into a college newspaper.</p>
<p>Find out about different areas of journalism: what interests you, what publications exist, who the names are in that area and how their careers have progressed; and start thinking about where you might submit articles and what might be required of those articles in terms of research, experience, style, etc. Keep looking for places you might be published right now as well as places that might publish you in the future. </p>
<p>You should also look around for internships, and keep track of the ones that exist and when you have to apply, even if you aren't eligible for them right now. The dates you have to apply for some summer internships are shockingly early! </p>
<p>Academically, take writing classes and do well in them. For some of the writing classes at Yale, you have to apply or get the instructor's permission, so you need to be able to show that your previous classes have prepared you. </p>
<p>Sorry, this is really long. To get back to YJI, basically, when you apply for the seminars, you have to say what experience you already have, both in terms of writing generally and in classes you have taken, what your aims are for the course and long-term, and give them a writing sample. They expect a bit more than "I'm a totally excellent writer and I love Rory Gilmore", so you need to be prepared.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, not enough words to thank you! I was going to be on the newspaper for next year, but didn’t get in it because it’s mostly for upper class students. Would I apply for senimars as soon as I get in? Also, how would I go about getting into the Yale Daily News? I see myself writing for a magazine called Upfront Magazine by scholatic. I can also see myself with Variety, Entertainment Weekley, etc. I would also love to work for the NY Times or Newsweek. I like all the fields of print journalism. I liked what you said about Rory Gilmore, lol. Have people ever really said that?</p>
<p>He might have been refering to another thread I made just about Yale for a prospective journalist…someone commented that I could be like Rory Gilmore, and I said I love her and ironically am similar to her (like I’ve been a coffee addict, bookworm, and wannabe journalist since i was really young).</p>
<p>LOL. Coffee what do you think of his answers?</p>
<p>early_college: I understand you’re gathering info about this program but you mention that you’d probably transfer into Yale College as a junior, right? Please understand up front that very few slots open up for Soph and Jr transfers. The number varies year to year but around 20-40 openings is a ball park figure. This translates into a roughly 3% acceptance rate for transfer students. FYI</p>
<p>Best of luck to you</p>
<p>I know, so it will be a reach lol. I will try, but what ever happens, happens.</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>@ early_college: I agree with his answer…no way would I ever say that I want to try to be like Rory Gilmore…I’ve liked journalism since I ever knew about the character and have gotten so much experience so far writing for newspapers (school, local) and submiting writing samples to contests, going to workshops, etc. I def. know that I will need (and already have started to have) more than just “I want to be Rory Gilmore” of I want to make it in the journalism world. </p>
<p>BUT I STILL LOOOOVE GILMORE GIRLS! ;)</p>
<p>You may want also want to look into Northwestern, Mizzu, NYU, USC, UNC- Chapel Hill, IU- Bloomington, and UGA for journalism too! Did you apply this year, good luck!</p>
<p>I applied this year, including Yale, Northwestern, NYU, and Mizzou (accepted). I was just wondering if people had more info on the Yale Journalism Initiative than what I already have read 1,000 times on the website lol.</p>
<p>early_college - I’m not sure what you would do about applying for the seminars. It’s still a long time in the future and things change all the time with this kind of program. The best advice I could give you would be to wait until you know you have been accepted to Yale and then contact whoever is the director of the program then and ask what you should do.</p>
<p>There’s no real secret to getting to work on YDN. Come along, show what you’ve got. Be reliable, flexible, have some good ideas, don’t get upset if your good idea ends up getting taken forward by someone else - sometimes that’s just the way things have to work.</p>
<p>I saw in another post of yours that you are thinking of eventually transfering into a journalism major. I would do a lot of research on that. As I say, I don’t know a whole lot about journalism majors, but instinctively, I think it might be very difficult to transfer as a junior into such a structured major. While that is some way in the future, I think it is something you need to give some thought to now. It may be that early college and then transfering as a junior is not the optimal route for you, given your career ambitions. It would be a good idea to talk to someone at the early college you propose to attend and ask them about whether people do transfer successfully into those kind of majors. Ask them for specific cases where people have done it, don’t accept the wash of ‘yeah, you can transfer to any major you want’.</p>
<p>On the Rory Gilmore comment, I doubt people have said it when applying for YJI, that would be pretty ridiculous. It’s just a reference to that kind of phenomenon, similar to people seeing something like House or CSI and then being shocked to find that those kind of jobs are much less about standing around being brilliant and exchanging smart comments with your hot co-workers and much more about tedious, repetitive science work, and dead, oozing, stinking bodies, and years and years of unsociable hours dealing with the bureaucracy for mundane cases you’ve seen a thousand times before. So the point I was making is, find out what journalism really involves, and show that you know it, go out and actually do some journalism, that is what people want to see. Anyone who has been involved in journalism will tell horror stories of the tedium, the politics, the endless scrabbling around for any job that will pay the rent, etc, etc. Most people never get to be Rory Gilmore. Not when they are 22, and not when they are 45, so if someone’s career decision making is based on nothing more than some vague idea that they will get to be Rory Gilmore, they are setting themselves up for failure.</p>
<p>CoffeeAddict9716 - the Rory Gilmore comment wasn’t aimed at you. It sounds like you are doing all the right things. I wouldn’t mind being like Rory Gilmore myself (I’m a girl, so that’s not as weird as it sounds!). I’ve got the coffee-drinking, book-reading, wannabe-journalisming down… the rest, not so much… I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about YJI, but there are not many of us with experience of YJI and I am not so keen on giving identifying information away on a public forum. If you’d like to PM me with any specific questions you have, I’d be happy to try to answer them for you. Good luck in your applications.</p>