Communications School

<p>Is this school relatively lax and easy compared to other schools?</p>

<p>I feel like the distribution requirements offer more freedom. For instance, you need to take three sci/math courses, so you can choose either science OR math, just as an example.</p>

<p>Hey guys!</p>

<p>Anybody else here accepted to the Communications School?</p>

<p>Post whatever you think your major (and concentration within your major) will be.</p>

<p>Right now, I’m debating between Cornell and Northwestern. If I get accepted to Columbia on Tuesday, that will trump both. However, I don’t think that will happen, and I will have to end up choosing between Cornell and Northwestern.</p>

<p>I’m studying tv/film/radio. Can anyone give me some insight on this major?</p>

<p>Would it be possible to double major?</p>

<p>Zach Braff majored in film at NU.</p>

<p>Yeah! So many famous people graduated from there!</p>

<p>So did Stephen Colbert!</p>

<p>I am majoring in radio/tv/film if I go, but I am still waiting for 4 more colleges.
Congrats to everyone who got in!</p>

<p>Waitlisted for the Theatre major. <em>tears</em> But hey, that’s pretty competitive, right? I should be honored to have not been rejected.</p>

<p>Accepted to the School of Communications - Communications Studies is the plan. I had the booklet they sent me (not sure where it is right now…:(), and I circled all of the concentrations that sounded like they’d be good for me, which ended up being about 4 of the (I’m guessing) 7. I think two of them were interpersonal com. and organizational com.</p>

<p>I need to take a look at all my course catalogs now. I’ve got four schools to pick from, and I JUST DON’T KNOW! I considered NU my dream school in tenth grade. I don’t know now, and I’m trying not to get too attached anywhere because of the whole FA mess.</p>

<p>BleedingBlue – my intended major is also communications and i applied to both cornell and northwestern as well. What are some major factors (pros and cons) of each of the schools that is influencing your decision?</p>

<p>The School of Communications at Northwestern is an independent college dedicated to the field. Comm at Cornell is a department in the Agriculture school with distro requirements in the sciences and in Ag that serve mostly to justify its existence in a state sponsored program that is supposed to be advancing the needs of agricultural development in NY State. This has always been a funky relationship. Needless to say, few kids in Comm at Cornell have any intention to do agricultural communications in their future careers.</p>

<p>Northwestern’s program is a much, much stronger one. Having said that, Cornell will still provide a solid comm background. If you’re from NY with the ag school partially NYS subsidized, you can’t ignore the benefits of reduced tuition to the tune of around 64k over 4 years.</p>

<p>If you seriously want to study Communications, then NU is the clear choice. It’s one of the best programs in the country, PLUS NU just plain rocks.</p>

<p>RhymesWithGreen, I’m in the same boat you are. Accepted to School of Communications and majoring in Communications Studies. </p>

<p>I also have 4 schools to choose from and am stuck with who to go with. I’m waiting for the snail mail packet from NU so I can take a look at the fin aid offered. Then I’m probably going to appeal and wait some more. I hope NU works out, but if the money’s not there then I’ll probably wait til grad school.</p>

<p>Here are some of my reasons for liking both options, solely off the top of my head…</p>

<p>However, I’m going to start with a preface. Ultimately, while both schools are great, I’m not stressing TOO MUCH over which school fits my major better. Why? I figure that if I do indeed go to law school after my undergrad, my major will not necessarily be the most significant thing in the world. That said, many other factors are very important to me: location, prestige (I hate to admit it…), school spirit, and diversity.</p>

<p>Cornell is a great university with a great communication department. It is not its own school, like at Northwestern. However, this is a difference in the structure of the schools. Cornell is meant to be the place of “any person, any study,” meaning that you can find anything there. Northwestern, on the other hand, has much more specialized schools, it seems. So, while Cornell’s structure doesn’t have communication as an entirely different school, I don’t think that is necessarily detrimental to its strength as a department.</p>

<p>Cornell is beautiful. Northwestern is, too. But Cornell is SO away from everything. I can’t choose which location I like better. I love the city, but I love Cornell’s seclusion.</p>

<p>Now, let’s admit… Outside of communication, Cornell is the bigger name of the two. While Northwestern is certainly terrific, Cornell’s name seems to be more well-known. And that was me admitting that I am a sucker for prestige. On that note, if I ever decide to change my interest during my first year or two in college, switching majors or schools will be much better at Cornell than at Northwestern. This is simply because Cornell has more options.</p>

<p>i got in northwestern as an RTVF major. Yay! i couldn’t be happier.</p>

<p>if i get into columbia, would it be a severe mistake to choose that over NU, considering I’m pretty much set on studying communications (aka tv/film stuff)?</p>

<p>BleedingBlue,</p>

<p>I’m a current student in the School of Communication at Northwestern and couldn’t love it more. I understand your points about Cornell and “prestige,” however the School of Communication is incredibly well known by industry professionals all over the country. It is almost scary how many leaders in the communication fields went to the SoC and many are still very connected to the school. Zach Braff visited a few weeks ago not only to conduct a Q&A with students, but to screen the films of the winners of a film scholarship that he started at the school. And that is just one example of the amazing things happening all the time in the SoC.</p>

<p>While I understand that the college process is unique to each individual, I’d advise looking more into Northwestern before writing it off. While Cornell is a great school, Northwestern’s communication programs are very prestigious and I’ve found that several alumni and current students are able to make amazing and long lasting connections with professors and alumni and I think the success rate of the alumni demonstrates that something special is going on.</p>

<p>In short, I thought that maybe I might be able to shed some light on the topic since last year at the start of my college process, I knew very little about Northwestern at all. However, once I investigated the school, I found that the SoC offered so many wonderful opportunities that it made me want to attend very badly and I’m SO happy that I came!</p>

<p>I wish you the best luck with your decision! Congratulations on your acceptance!</p>

<p>tijmamool:</p>

<p>sounds like a fantastic experience. what are the classes and professors for rtvf like?</p>

<p>So, is the Comm School relatively easy?</p>

<p>BleedingBlue: In the greater world out there, Northwestern and Cornell have reputations that are almost identical. Many more similarities academically than differences. Both schools offer very wide ranging choices of majors. Both have very strong sciences, hum, SS, engineering departments. At the grad level, both have top law and med schools with Northwestern/Kellogg’s MBA holding a signficantly stronger rep than Cornell. Certain programs at each school are standouts - e.g. Hotel Admin and Architecture at Cornell, not available at NU - and Journalism/Medill, Music/Bienen, and Education/SESP at Northwestern, not available at Cornell. </p>

<p>Communications, as said before, is much stronger at NU. This is not because it’s an independent school. Comm at Cornell was envisioned as an agricultural communications program, based in the Ag school, where it remains. You’ll have to take 18 credits in the physical and life sciences to graduate, something most kids in the program hate and see absolutely no value in given their career aspirations. </p>

<p>Despite this, as I said before, you’ll get a solid grounding in the field at Cornell. But in Communications, reputation wise, Northwestern holds a significantly stronger position among those in the know in the field.</p>

<p>I’m gonna be RTVF major too. </p>

<p>Yes, stacym! it would be a severe mistake to choose columbia over northwestern! come to northwestern :)</p>