Yesterday I was accepted to Binghamton’s Harpur College and plan to major in English in hopes of going into journalism. I was wondering how good Binghamton’s English program really is? They don’t have a journalism school which bums me out, but its still a really good college overall. I was also accepted to Penn State, and I know their journalism program is top notch. Which school do you think would be better for a career in possibly journalism? I’ve read many forums where people say to never major in journalism and to do English instead, and some saying to go to the best possible journalism school. BTW I live OOS so both would be pretty expensive to attend, though Penn State is more expensive. Pls reply very confused :((
I loved the English major, so many of my classes were absolutely incredible (although my favorite professor is on sick leave). If it helps, my boyfriend is now a journalist after going through the English major. He was very involved with the school paper which is entirely student-run and well-known in the journalism world. All of his friends from the paper who wanted to go into journalism also have jobs in the field.
:x
It really depends. Since you’re oos neither are going to be a great value. Binghamton is cheaper for oos. The english program at binghamton is hit or miss. There are some amazing professors and some lackluster ones. But you can only major in english. There aren’t really many journalism or communications classes offered which might be better for someone who wants to go into journalism.
If you are serious about journalism you’ll have to have a portfolio anyway and a good way to get that is by writing for a student publication. Binghamton has a couple including the newspaper “Pipedream” . I really cannot recommend the newspaper though. It’s not very well run or written but I guess it is better than nothing (no offense to anyone who works or has worked there). There are other publications too but they do not publish as often. Penn state’s newspaper on the other hand is supposed to be one of the best in the country so ymmv.
I have to strongly disagree with you on Pipe Dream, @sprinkles12 . Pipe Dream is very solidly well known and well-received in the collegiate journalism world. It’s won a ton of awards from the Associated Collegiate Press and it’s ranked as one of the best college papers in the nation by Princeton Review. Obviously Penn State is enormous and has tons of resources but considering Pipe Dream is entirely student-run with zero faculty involvement, I think it’s doing incredibly. And the alumni are very successful.
@rebeccar thank you so much for your feedback. Binghamton has been a top school of mine for as long as I could remember, but I’ve been very weary of whether just having an English degree would hurt my chances immensely at being a journalist. I’ve done lots of research and found that many journalists are hired without a journalism degree, so I don’t have to cross Bing off my list 
Definitely! I was at my boyfriend’s newspaper’s holiday party last week and mingling with all the journalists there- only a few of them actually went to school for journalism. Just get involved with Pipe Dream, try to make connections – Binghamton has a “LACE” program, Liberal Arts to Career Experience, where you’re sent to a brief internship with a Bing alumni. My boyfriend was sent to Newsday and he still talks to the guy all the time and he’s been a great resource. I went from knowing nothing about journalism to suddenly knowing a lot about it, so let me know if you have any other questions.