<p>I'm a rising junior at my high school in Maryland. My parents both want me to go to University of Maryland: College Park. Both my mom and dad work at University of Maryland hospital and would get tuition reimbursement (i'd basically go for free) if I went there. However, I'm much more interested in Northwestern, University of Florida, UNC Chapel Hill, and Syracuse.</p>
<p>I know that University of Maryland: College Park is a top journalism school in the nation, however, other colleges (like Northwestern) are usually considered to be better. Would it be smarter for me in the long-run to go to University of Maryland for nearly no cost, or attend another, more prestigious journalism university at a much higher cost??? Also, for colleges like Vanderbilt and UVA that don't offer a Journalism major, is there an alternative that also benefits aspiring journalists???</p>
<ol>
<li> Not every successful person associated with the media business went to Northwestern, Syracuse etc.</li>
<li>UMaryland’s proximity to Washington DC offers you many potential internship opportunities in the journalism/media business.</li>
<li>As a greenhorn in the journalism/media business, you will be low paid when you start out. Therefore, graduating with no debt from UM is a great leg up in your career.</li>
</ol>
<p>Maryland is an excellent journalism school. It doesn’t really matter where you go, so long as it’s cheap. Northwestern is the better school than Maryland, sure, but not the better journalism school. Most of the “top journalism schools” (NYU,UNC, Northwestern, Maryland, Ohio, Texas, Syracuse, etc.) are pretty equal to each other. An important thing to consider with j-schools are internships. Going to Maryland means DC internships, which is always a good thing. </p>
<p>I don’t know about Vanderbilt, but UVA, while they don’t have a journalism major or minor, does have a newspaper, which is all you really need. You need a portfolio of work to show for your skill, not necessarily the journalism degree itself. Many in the journalism business didn’t actually major in journalism. </p>
<p>Thanks @LakeWashington, I was wondering how heavily to take into account the UMD tuition in my final college decision but also didn’t want to go to a worse school at a better price! Also thanks @CE527M, I wasn’t sure if there was one stand out school like Johns Hopkins for medicine or Yale for law!</p>
<p>Well, one could also certainly make the point that neither JHU or Yale is the only (or even best) way to make it to those respective career goals. I would not say that either of them honestly is the “one stand out school” for those options. So put that idea out of your mind. I would say your reasons for going to other much more expensive schools aren’t worth it, especially since you will have a tough time paying off loans in your planned profession.</p>
<p>The journalism business at this time is not a guaranteed route to career success and security. You however are in an excellent position: you can go to one of the best 10 journalism schools in the country and leave without any debt. At that point, you can take darn near any job that you’re offered because you did not sink $250K of yours and your family’s money into student loans. Or go to Northwestern, a school of relatively equal quality, and have to take two jobs just to be able to pay your loans while you live gratis in the bedroom you’re in now. </p>
<p>Maryland is a fantastic school, especially for journalism. I am from the DC area and I know of many journalists who attended UMD. But, they most likely didnt go for free. I would take advantage of the free ride to Maryland.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice @jkeil911, @stradmom, and @lexeau !!! I wasn’t sure it was just something my parents were saying to keep me close to home, but it sounds like it’d be much better for me to go to UMD. </p>
<p>@castle027, Full disclosure: I am a Syracuse University alum and I do not think that the cost of tuition there is worth it. If you can graduate from Maryland without any debt, I would advise you to go there. </p>
<p>I would suggest that you take a look at the Journalism School at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), which has arguably the best journalism program in the country (you can google NewsPro’s survey of news professionals). Maryland’s journalism program is currently ranked #10 in NewsPro’s ranking. Mizzou has reasonable tuition and automatic scholarships if you have decent ACT/SAT scores. Lastly, Columbia is a very nice college town.</p>
^^^This.^^^ I say this both as a journalism grad about the time Guttenburg invented the printing press, and the mother of a newly-minted sports broadcasting grad. Last summer I spoke with a classmate of my son, who was working for a local TV station and still had about 30 hours to go on her degree. She was making ~ $25,000 a year - not too bad for this area (a Maryland border state), but with no real chance of earning more unless she left the area. I’m hoping S will make a little more since he’s finished his degree. He is interning with the same TV station right now, and I pray every night that they’ll hire him.
I went to college in my hometown and I feel like I missed out on a lot by not going away. Since you will get free tuition, would your parents be willing to pony up for you to live on campus? Even if you grew up in College Park, it’s way different when you’re in the dorms. </p>
<p>Yes, agree that living on campus would be best. And maybe look into what would be involved in studying abroad for a semester, too (not sure how that will work with your tuition deal, but would give you some experience further away from home).</p>
<p>No brainer. UMD.
If I were your parents, I would say, if you go somewhere else, figure out how you will pay for it. Don’t expect more from your parents.</p>
<p>Another vote for UMD! My school doesn’t even have a journalism major and my boyfriend still managed to get some amazing internships at top magazines/newspapers during his summer and winter breaks. Our school is also public and he’ll still graduate with good prospects after graduation.</p>
<p>Honestly, look at the top journalists out there today. They went to school for English at little small name schools. As long as you learn how to write and get the experience of writing in internships or on campus, you should be fine. Make sure you look at schools that have a newspaper and and campus tv station. Having that TV experience will come in very handy with regards to your resume. Best cities for journalism (in no order): DC, Philly, NYC, LA, Miami, Boston, Austin</p>
<p>Go to UMD. Use the money you’ll save to do internships in NYC or study abroad, or to take summer sessions at the other schools you think might be better (I don’t think they are better, but they may have a course that you’d really like to take).</p>
<p>I have a friend with a Pulitzer Prize; she went to a public school not named here. Worked for 20+ years as a reporter/editor at a large paper, then in public radio, now at a university. She got her jobs by working all the time, being there, taking the crappy assignments. She follows politics, national and local, and knows people (governors, senators) because she’s always always always looking for stories. She joined groups and clubs when she’d rather stay home. She reads a lot of other articles.</p>
<p>It’s not always where your degree is from, but what you did to earn it.</p>
<p>I concurr with the above. It’s not about where you went to school but what you do with it when you are there. No debt is a great thing especially for a journlaism major. You can still apply of course and see if they offer you any scholarships, but the name won’t make a huge amount of difference in the long run. Think of how many journalist majors there HAVENT graduated from one of those schools? In addition, some employers may require you to spend additional time in journalism school, so graduating no debt will be helpful in the long run.</p>
Lucky for you and for them, this time they are right.</p>