<p>where are the good ones?
how competitive is it?
what kind of experience do you usually need?</p>
<p>I believe that UC Santa Cruz has a science writing program. I think MIT might have something along those lines as well. Graduate journalism schools, like UC Berkeley and Columbia will have science writing courses.</p>
<p>Journalism is one of those fields that doesn't require a specific degree. If you have majored in a science as an undergrad and written for campus publications, you can look for internships. (Science News, for example, has interns.) If you don't have much writing experience as an undergrad, than a graduate program might help you get internships. But you will have to have some kind of writing samples to get into journalism programs, not just grades and scores.</p>
<p>Finest programs are USC, Northwestern/Medill and Columbia, hands down. Which of the three is best, not sure... Weather's better in CA.</p>
<p>There's a program in science writing offered by M.I.T. Guessing that that wouldn't be too shabby.</p>
<p>I have heard that UCSC's program is excellent and considered one of the best in the field. A wife of a professor in my department left the PhD program in geology at CalTech (with a terminal MS) to attend UCSC's scientific writing program. She now works writing press releases for Duke Medical School.</p>
<p>Might want to contact the editorial department of Science mag at AAAS or someplace similar for informal staff recs.</p>
<p>UCSC's graduate science writing program is indeed currently no. 1, but it requires significant work experience prior to admission. Hopkins and BU also have a similar program.</p>