<p>I am hoping to become a sports writer, and as I begin to search for schools, I was wondering what schools have good college newspapers? But more importantly, what are some college newspapers that give an opportunity to everyone to report, get experience, and make a contribution? I want to go somewhere I know I'll be comfortable and given a fair chance to be involved. A place where you can learn and gain experience needed to create intern and job opportunities. Thanks!</p>
<p>Anyone please!</p>
<p>My daughter writes for The Justice at Brandeis--they also have a journalism minor there. Very open to new writers from the freshman class, although not a real big sports school. Goucher College has an active newpaper and a good communications program. Of course most of the IVY schools have dailies, while most other colleges have weekly papers. It is easy to access the campus papers through the college websites--so check out the ones that interest you.</p>
<p>I think almost any college newspaper is looking for writers. Probably smaller schools would have fewer people competing for writing positions, but they might also have smaller papers. You might want to check out the daily vs weekly thing, I suspect most colleges have weekly but large schools might have dailies. I echo pyewacket, look at the school websites for links to their newspapers.</p>
<p>The Daily Tarheel (DTH) at UNC-Chapel Hill is a respected student paper. I hear they keep their staff very busy. UNC also has a great journalism school.</p>
<p>Do you want to get a degree in journalism, or are you doing a degree in something else and want to work on the paper for experience and fun? If it's the second, any school is going to have a paper, and lots of them need reliable writers. Ironically, I would think a paper job would be harder to get in a college with large, active journalism major. I wrote and did photography at UC Irvine, which did not have a journalism program. I ended up as News Editor my last year -- a post I would certainly not have had as a non-J major in a school with a J school.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, a good friend of mine earned a degree in Journalism at Cal State Long Beach and now gets paid handsomely to write a political blog. He sits around his home office surfing the net and writing a few hundred words a day. It's a nice gig if you can get it...</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice. WashDad that sounds really interesting and something that would be convenient and comfortable. Is there anyway you could give me more info about your friend and the path they took to get their job?</p>
<p>Penn State has an award winning newspaper. Huge sports scene too...true of any of the big 10 schools. I know they have a communications school...but I don't think it's one of their top majors (compared to a place like Syracuse).
Not sure about how tough it is to get an opportunity. Once you narrow your schools down, I would call or email the staff to find out.</p>
<p>I know 2 people who work on the sports section of the Brandeis Justice, and they really enjoy it. The section is small, but I think that makes it very welcoming to new writers. The sports scene is probably not big, but I'd say to some extent it is more active than one might expect. The two writers I know always have stuff to write about. You can check out the most recent section here:
<a href="http://www.thejusticeonline.com/media/paper573/sections/20071002Sports.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.thejusticeonline.com/media/paper573/sections/20071002Sports.html</a></p>
<p>Also, Boston is a big sports city with the Red Sox, Patriots etc . Just not if you're Yankees fan ;-)</p>
<p>The Lumberjack at Humboldt State University is the student-run newspaper that has what you're looking for. Check out their Journalism and Mass Communication department. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Ejnhsu/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.humboldt.edu/~jnhsu/index.html</a></p>
<p>The Daily Orange at Syracuse University meets your criteria.</p>
<p>The University of Georgia (The Red and Black newspaper) and the University of Florida (Independent Florida Alligator) both have newspapers independent of the schools. That means they have their own buildings, business offices, general managers, etc.....
Some editors and possibly writers even get paid.
I bet, however, competition is tough if you want to cover football games. Although at Georgia at the moment, that competition might be dropping....</p>
<p>UCLA's Daily Bruin is year after year rated one of the best, often getting first place.</p>
<p>Northwestern? Missouri? Very strong journalism programs/newspapers.</p>
<p>There are many schools with good journalism programs and student newspapers. I'd suggest narrowing your list - geographical, size of school, availability of preferred major, etc. and then look to make sure they have a daily student paper. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>WashDad in post 6 touches on an important point. While there are some top ranked J-schools and top ranked student newspapers, you might have many opportunities at one of the colleges that has neither. FWIW here is a list of the accredited J schools:</p>
<p>My son's school, Rutgers, has the Daily Targum, an award winning publication. Rutgers has many different sports which one could write about, as you might know.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies everyone!</p>
<p>Daily Pennsylvanian...arguably the best. And you'd get the opportunity to write sports faster than probably anything else.</p>
<p>Cousin's son did sports journalism at UW- Madison, think he's moved up the ranks to living in Denver (did cover the Packers for a smaller Wis place after graduation...)- there are 2 student newspapers at UW.</p>