<p>I'm currently a sophomore, and I'm interested in majoring in journalism. My dream career would be a music journalist, but any sort of writing interests me. However, journalism seems to be a relatively uncommon major for schools to offer for undergrad students. I really like Northwestern, but what are some other good journalism schools?
(A bit about me: I have a 3.9 GPA. I haven't taken the SAT yet, but I took to SSAT to get into private school and got in the 99th percentile, and that's supposed to correlate with SAT scores. I go to a very rigorous, nationally-known boarding school. I'm also very interested in history, and I'm considering double-majoring in it, so a strong history program would be good, too. Ideally, I'd like a school in a city environment, but that's not too important.)</p>
<p>You have two options.</p>
<p>The very selective schools don’t have journalism programs, but plenty of grads have worked on school papers, made good alumni contacts, and worked as journalists. They’ve majored in history, American studies, econ, poli sci, English, or something else they like.</p>
<p>Actual journalism programs are possible. Try state schools and large privates. Friends have gone to Temple and North Carolina. Missouri has an award-winning program. Syracuse has a good reputation.</p>
<p>Keep your grades up to keep your options open.</p>
<p>Also Ohio University (which offers merit aid).</p>
<p>Here is a good tool for you to start using:
[College</a> Navigator - Search Results](<a href=“College Navigator - Search Results”>College Navigator - Search Results)</p>
<p>It shows 359 schools offering Journalism as a major. Use the options on the left to narrow down the search to specific locations, selectivity, size etc. </p>
<p>Also, some schools will have journalism as part of a Communications major. </p>
<p>You can find more info in the Journalism forum here on CC:
[Journalism</a> Major - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/journalism-major/]Journalism”>Journalism Major - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>The bureau of Labor Statistics might have useful info for you:
[Writers</a> and Authors : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/writers-and-authors.htm#tab-1]Writers”>http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/writers-and-authors.htm#tab-1)</p>
<p>Congratulations to you for starting your research as a sophomore! So many kids don’t start researching early enough and wait until the last minute it seems :-(</p>
<p>My friend is applying to University of Maryland because they have a very strong journalism program. I am too, just not for journalism. So that might be a school to consider!</p>
<p>I’m going to be a journalism major too! (with an emphasis on entertainment and broadcasting) I’m a senior in high school and I’ve been doing tons of searches and everything for years now, and I think the best thing to do, is choose a school that offers a strong program for it (I’m deciding on the University of Alabama, because they have a good program and it’s an amazing school!) but my first choice and dream school was ALWAYS University of Southern California. it’s a great school for it, but also 60k a year, which is a major drawback. But check out websites like collegeboard and naviance where you can do college matches and find a wide array of schools that fit you based on your individual wants in a school :)</p>
<p>So much to be said about journalism today. Everyone here gave great responses. </p>
<p>Here’s a short list of schools: USC (southern Cal) is good; Syracuse U (one of the best in the country); Univ of Missouri, Northwestern, Boston U (which has gotten significantly better over the years), American U, U of MD (because it is one of the only schools where you can study journalism and Public Relations together), and now schools like Georgetown (which has a brand new minor) and Duke (a certificate program) also offer them. George Washington U is phenomenal as well and you can’t beat Wash DC for a great journalistic experience. Washington and Lee in VA as well as Elon, Univ of Miami and Emory also offer journalism as does Notre Dame. NYU is top notch too. Arizona State has the Walter Cronkite school of journalism and is always winning top awards. Savannah Guthrie, the new today show anchor, went there for journalism and then on to I believe Georgetown for law. She started as a local reporter, then went on to Court TV, then MSNBC’s political show with Chuck Todd and now landed the coveted co-anchor position at Today.</p>
<p>You can go to an ivy or top school and study an area of interest, and yes, it is true, that people work on the Harvard Crimson or Yale Daily News and come out and get journalism jobs (Anderson Cooper went to Yale and studied poli sci).
Now to address another significant point. Journalist TODAY is not like it was decades ago. With the introduction of social media, you need to have an understanding of multi-platform journalism meaning print, broadcast, radio and digital (i.e. social media). Another thing to consider is that many journalists today will tell you it is a dying field in the traditional sense, because anyone can be one (case in point, citizen journalists, i-reporters, etc.). </p>
<p>What you should do, is find an area you like, for example you mentioned history, and major in that and minor, if possible in journalism. The media today wants “experts” in law, poli sci, science, economics, etc. Look at your favorite journalists as well and see where they went to school. Many did NOT go to journalism school. They went to liberal arts schools and studied an area they enjoyed. However, be careful on the opposite extreme as well. </p>
<p>A recent report in the NY Times where several heads of corporations reported that years ago a liberal arts education was appreciated and valuable, but today they want what we would call “turn-key” kids who can come in and just get to work - kids they won’t have to train. </p>
<p>Look at Erin Burnett on CNN (she used to be on CNBC) for example. She’s young and studied Political Economy at Williams. She came out worked for an investment bank and then went into journalism. Same with Megyn Kelly on Fox. She’s an attorney, but now she hosts her own show on a variety of subjects. Maria Bartiromo majored in economics and minored in journalism at NYU and is the top finance reporter on CNBC. Katie Couric went to UVA. Oprah went to the Univ of TN. Very few went to journalism schools per se.</p>
<p>As for Entertainment, which many kids want to get into, Guiliana Rancic of E! went to U of Md undergrad but didn’t know at the time if she wanted to do journalism, and then went on to American to get a master’s in journalism (she is from that area). She did political and local reporting, but then decided she liked entertainment reporting. She moved to LA, and took an assistant job at a talent agency (where many begin) to learn the business and worked her way up through the ranks. Jason Kennedy, also a reporter on E!, went to Univ of Miami, came right out of school without a master’s and went straight to E!</p>
<p>You just don’t know…you have to have the investigative prowess and personality for on-air journalism and the ability to dig deep as an investigative reporter for print (which will be obsolete). There really is not a lot of money to be made in journalism these days which is the big downside unless you get a big position at one of the networks. </p>
<p>Good luck in your future endeavors!</p>
<p>One other thing. Get as much experience on a school newspaper, or outside paper as you can, as that will help. Find opportunities to report on different things locally and globally as well!</p>