<p>My son is a HS Jr. and we are now focusing on finding a school with a Journalism major, or at least Communications. Is it better to find a top school that is large, or a smaller school with more hands on and access to internships. </p>
<p>For instance, how would you compare Ball State, telecommunications with Simpson College Communications studies with emphasis in media or Journalism?</p>
<p>Elburn:</p>
<p>I don't know anything about those particular schools, but we went through this same search with my son three years ago. He wanted journalism as well. </p>
<p>We found that most journalism programs are offered at larger universities. Yes, a few smaller universities do have it, but unless they have developed it as a specialty, it is usually not a well-recognized program. The problem for my son was that his personality is such that he would do better at a smaller school, in the 4,000-6,000 undergrad range.</p>
<p>In the end he had to choose between five schools:</p>
<p>University of Maryland - Honors - probably the biggest and best j-program he applied to with great internship opportunities in DC, but UMd is an enormous university (25,000 undergrad and another 10,000 graduates), and won't win any "beautiful campus" awards.</p>
<p>University of Delaware - Honors - very good school, bargain cost for us as we are in-state in Delaware. But, too close to home and still too big (16,000 students) for him.</p>
<p>American University - Honors - nice campus for an urban school, but jammed together, enrollment about 10,000(?). Journalism is not a top program there -- focus is more on government, policy, international relations.</p>
<p>Ithaca College - Presidential Scholars (Honors) - Parks School of Communications is fantastic, either for print or broadcast. Enrollment is in the right size of about 5,000. He was a finalist for the Parks Scholarship - a full ride, including tuition, fees, room & board, computer, and an allowance for books. They invited 30 or 35 finalists to a 4 day weekend and were giving out 17 scholarships, IIRC. He was not one of the winners but was offered a 1/2 tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>College of William & Mary - both parents' alma mater, he has been visiting W&M since he was an infant, plus aunt and uncle and cousins live in Williamsburg. Great school, well-respected, good reputation; but does not have journalism or even communications. But it does have a very, very good student newspaper, The Flat Hat. So his option would be major in English and just work his butt off on the paper. </p>
<p>He went with W&M, with Ithaca a close second that he agonized over. He determined that as much as he liked the journalism program at Ithaca, Ithaca would offer him little else as its programs are limited to its specialties (music, allied health, communications) and he has wide and varied interests, hoping to have a second major or a minor in religion or statistics or anthropology. W&M could offer him those options. </p>
<p>He is very happy with the decision, even though he knows that at Ithaca, Maryland, or Delaware (American was really just a safety) his work on the student paper would be part of his courses, earning academic credit, and something viewed favorably by professors (as in cutting some slack on paper or project deadlines when there is a newspaper deadline). At W&M, the Flat Hat is totally extracurricular and professors don't care how late you were up laying out or getting a last-minute story in. </p>
<p>He started writing for the paper his freshman year, was Associate Reviews Editor by the end of that first year, moved over to Associate News Editor during sophomore year, and moved up to News Editor for next year. In addition, the Flat Hat won a Pacemaker Award this year, the Pulitzer for college newspapers.</p>
<p>All five of his choices would have served him well and I know he realizes the opportunity cost he gave up with Ithaca (he has two HS friends who did go there for communications, so he has a pretty good idea of what it would have been like). But he is getting a well-rounded education and is double majoring in English and anthropology. It is also true that a graduate degree in journalism is likely in his future so not having a j-degree undergrad is not a problem (Columbia doesn't even offer an undergrad journalism degree). The experience he is getting on the Flat Hat is so great. </p>
<p>As you research this you will find that the top-rated journalism schools include the following:
University of Missouri
University of Iowa
Northwestern
Columbia (graduate only)
University of Maryland
(There are several others and I don't want to offend any of them or their students or alums by leaving them out, but those were the ones we identified.)</p>
<p>We found Ithaca to be a real gem and had he gotten the full-ride scholarship he was ready and willing and would have been happy to have gone there. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>--K9Leader</p>
<p>Top undergraduate program at Ohio Univ.
Scripps</a> College of Communication | Ohio University</p>
<p>I second that OU (Ohio, not Oklahoma) is great for journalism.</p>
<p>If he really wants to work on a really really good paper and is not interested in other extracurriculars, a bigger college is more likely to have a really really good paper. (Have you considered Penn?)</p>
<p>If he wants more varied experiences during college, a smaller college will allow students be active in multiple extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Missouri, UNC-Chapel Hill, Syracuse, Maryland, Indiana, Ohio, Northwestern--and others. Search for "journalism" on CC and you'll find other threads on this topic. Large schools have ample hands-on opportunities and access to internships--maybe even more so than smaller schools.</p>
<p>My basic advice is to think about the two options--a dedicated journalism school or a major in another subject with work in student media. My S will be going the first route, and he has very sound and passionate reasons for doing so. (He's going to Missouri in the fall.) Other kids might prefer the second route. If you choose Door #1, look for programs with active engagement in convergence journalism, online journalism, or some combination of traditional and cutting-edge communication. It isn't just a print world anymore.</p>
<p>First off - what is your son interesetd in regarding journlism? Print, radio, television, on-line, pr. etc. The often typical reponse is newspaper. Young people need to look at the declining trends of newspapers. Layoffs, reorganizations, etc are all a part of the print world right now. So - look at geezermom's response. Programs that have active engagement in convergence, etc should be considered. The media is a dynamic industry righ now - and students need to be prepared to shoot video, write a story, post a blog, etc. They must have multi-media skills - and, first and foremost they must know how to write. Do not undervalue or underestimate this fundamental concept of journalism.</p>
<p>Many of the programs listed above are strong, might also consider KU, and Cronkite school at ASU. (Down side it is moving to the downtown campus - which will be a completely different environment than the main ASU campus.) Missouri, Florida and Syracuse have traditionally had strong broadcast programs. Ohio also has a good reputation. </p>
<p>Also - make sure he is looking for part-time jobs and internships, now and throughout his next couple years. This is invaluable. EVen now - most media organizations will let a high school student shadow for a day. There are so many different jobs at television stations, newspapers, etc - that most students are not even aware of the possibilities. It's a great career.</p>
<p>S2 has just finished with the college process, and the focus was on journalism. He was Editor-in-chief of his HS paper this year, but knows that he will probably major in a convergence journalism, as that is the cutting edge in the field right now. He applied to UNC-Chapel Hill, Missouri, Florida and Boston College, and was accepted early at all of them (well, Florida is a one-date only app). </p>
<p>We had visited all of them before he applied, and revisited after his acceptances, except Florida. He never did say why Florida fell off the list--I think size and distance. He loves BC, and his sister went there and is still living in Boston but, in the end, he realized that their Communications wasn't going to fill his need for wide and varied journalism classes. </p>
<p>So it came down to Mizzou (where he was getting big scholarship money and the Walter Williams program) and UNC. We visited both in the same week, and UNC won. He felt that it was overall the better academic school, the journalism is excellent, it's only 4 1/2 hours from home by car and his brother is close by (ironically, at Duke!) I went to Mizzou, but tried not to be too pushy (since he will be the one going!) He really like the journalism school there, especially their commercial newspaper and NBC-affiliate tv station, and he did like the campus. But he just felt like UNC was the better fit, and it didn't hurt that the weather was gorgeous and the campus was in spring bloom when we were there! He decided for all of the right reasons, though. Sometimes it is the second visit that really makes the decision for you.</p>
<p>I have another suggestion, following what irishforever said: Though there are different opinions about the need to visit all the schools you're considering, there are good reasons to do so when you're looking at journalism (and probably other specialties, too). Hearing the j-school "pitch," meeting with a staff member, talking with students, and seeing the facilities can all make a big difference. It did for my son. He also found some local Mizzou alumni who were very encouraging (and they have great jobs!).</p>
<p>To add to my comment about convergence, etc.: Make sure the journalism program is not just keeping up with what's current, but is anticipating the future and is ahead of the curve (research, for example).</p>
<p>I hope we're answering your questions and not just rambling on!</p>
<p>Thought this might interest some of you ...</p>
<p>ABC</a> News opening 'digital bureau' at UT | TV Blog</p>
<p>youdon't say: and 4 other journalism/comm schools as well....thanks for that link!</p>
<p>D graduated with a degree in Magazines from UGA and found a job as an associate editor for a small regional publication right out of college. She said she was very prepared for the business.
She was very impressed with UNC-Chapel Hill's journalism program, but did not get admitted.</p>
<p>Little sis graduated from Mizzou journalism. She landed a job pretty quick, lasted through some serious layoffs, and has put together several terrific clips in the past year. She's also done some networking at press conferences - other journalists find out she's Mizzou alumni, and it makes a difference.</p>
<p>Syracuse has one of the top journalism schools in the nation, and was one of the five schools chosen by ABC as a site for a regional news bureau. A SU Newhouse Degree goes a long way in certain NYC magazines; a lot of publishers/magazine employees say that Newhouse applicants get pushed straight to the top of their applicant list and usually end up with the jobs.</p>
<p>We went through this last year with my older daughter, in a very similar situation to irishforever (Mizzou, Walter Williams Scholar, etc. vs. Maryland's journalism program). After two visits to each school, Maryland won--for her, better overall school, much more diverse, better location. </p>
<p>I'll repeat what I've said in other threads--an adcom at a very well respected j school (one mentioned in this thread) gave our tour this Top 10 (alphabetically, so that I don't suggest a priority) list: Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Missouri, North Carolina, Northwestern, Ohio University, Penn State, Southern Cal, Syracuse and Texas. All are fine programs. There are others too.</p>
<p>If I could offer one piece of advice gleaned from our search, it's this--given the incredibly changing face of the journalism profession, your son might well want to keep other aspects of his school choices in mind, so that he has options if journalism morphs into something he's less interested in (or, like teenagers have been known to do, he just changes his mind). Even the journalism people we talked to were pretty upfront about this.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>