Oh, maybe not six figure, but I’d definitely stay above the poverty line and have a stable income, at least, which they don’t seem to believe. Financial Writers, Editors, and Data Journalists make that much, though. Who knows, maybe if I’m really dedicated, I can reach that level. All I’m saying is that it should be a valid career option.
Let’s approach this from the other angle:
What colleges are actually acceptable to your parents?
What colleges have they ruled out (e.g., must not be public? must not be more than n hours drive time)?
Or is it “any” college, as far as they are concerned, as long as it offers a “pre-med” path (which includes very, very many).
What colleges have you ruled out (just Rutgers, or all in-state public colleges?)
There will be many colleges where either pre-med, journalism, or other majors can be “locked in” by the 2nd year - and all can lead to law school.
2 Likes
We cross posted.
Penn State is very costly for OOS students. Could you really live at home and go to Penn State? I doubt it.
1 Like
Thank you. I’ll take a look.
My main concern isn’t the field, it’s the work and time I’d have to put in. Most health careers require you to stay in school for ten, fifteen years. I want a BA/BS and an MS at the most, and to actually have a manageable work-life balance.
There are plenty of careers on the link I provided that do not require 10 years or more of studies and will net you a great job.
It’s not journalism related, but I’m a speech pathologist. 4 year bachelors, 2 year masters…a year of supervised clinical work (but you get paid), a licensing exam, and poof…you are done.
There are health related careers where you absolutely could make six figures, and some not requiring even a bachelors degree. Have you looked at radiology tech jobs? Then an addition course for something like mammography or something. We know several six figure earners without bachelors degrees in this field.
@WayOutWestMom what other health related careers have less schooling involved.
2 Likes
Absolutely. Many journalists now need to be experts in a particular field, whether that’s finance, public health, or another area. So they may do a double major with journalism and that other field, or they may just major in the other field and then get experience working on the student newspaper, local papers, online periodicals, etc.
2 Likes
Okay, I’ll try to give you the facts.
My parents are okay with a college as long as it’s commutable (not over, say, 1 1/2 hours driving) and affordable. It can be public or private, but I think they prefer public because it’s less expensive.
Major is more important than college choice for them. I’m not really sure which majors they prefer, they just want one where I would be able to work right after graduation, even if I might not necessarily do so.
I, personally, don’t want to attend Rutgers for some personal reasons. I’m applying, anyway, as a back up option, but I’d probably choose Kean University. Other colleges I’d consider attending. Major is more important for me, as well, since that’s probably going to determine my future career path. I prefer colleges that allow you to change your major at least for the first two years, or apply Undecided. I don’t mind taking a path that leads to law school.
So, in a nutshell, these factors matter most to my parents:
- Major (healthcare or something else they approve of)
- College location (commutable)
- Affordability
They don’t really care much about prestige.
These factors matter most to me: - Major (I want to do humanities or liberal arts, but I’m willing to compromise as long as it’s not healthcare)
- College prestige
- Affordability
Unfortunately, NYU is quite the expensive college, but I’ve been applying to countless scholarships and sweepstakes hoping to gather enough aid to go. Potential concerns my parents might have regarding attending NYU are: - Price (if it’s, say, 20k a year or higher after aid, I don’t think it’s feasible)
- Safety- NYC isn’t the best place for that
- Distance- I’ll probably end up taking the train, so this probably won’t be as much of an issue
That was a lot, but I hope I made my situation clear.
1 Like
There is a very credible chance the market for these jobs constricts substantially as employers get better at using generative AI. Writing is one of the fields most at risk, particularly non-creative writing. It won’t go to zero, but it may employ far less humans. And the humans who do make that cut will have to both be great writers and really good and utilizing generative AI to increase their productivity ratio over their peers. Additionally, when there is a major contraction of jobs in a particular market it usually tilts the supply and demand curve in favor of employers, so these jobs may not keep pace with inflation.
You’re right, I probably won’t attend there. It was on my list, which is a little dated. I’ll cross that out.
Is the need to commute 100% driven by the cost of college housing or some other reason?
1 Like
Please explain why this is so important to you?
What do you think I should double major in, then? I was thinking pairing Journalism with one of the following:
- Political Science
- International Relations
- Data Science/Analytics
- Statistics
- Economics
I apologize if this has been addressed.
You indicated that your parents want you to go into medicine or law, but you also indicated that they would like you to choose a major that leads to a career. Is this a precaution in the event you do not go to medical or law school? I am a little confused (sorry).
I believe you stated that you don’t want to be a doctor. Do you feel this way about all healthcare careers?
Would you be interested in nursing? What about public health?
1 Like
We live in the Montclair state area, there are several on your list that I wouldn’t really consider a great commute (Monmouth, Princeton, tcnj, brookdale), all are at least an hour without traffic. My son commutes to the Princeton area once a week since they now require one day in person, not ideal. My daughter commuted to Rutgers New Brunswick for a semester, also not ideal. It’s one thing to commute for a job, you’re there all day. Having to try to stack classes based on timing make scheduling more difficult.
6 Likes
That’s all true. But isn’t that also true for healthcare related jobs? Surgeons, physicians, pediatricians, pharmacists, etc. might soon be replaced by robots.
If I were to become, say, a foreign correspondent or investigative journalist, I don’t think that would be replaced by AI. In that case, I could work for a major news agency (as long as I have experience and skill) and not risk losing my position due to AI.
The point I’m trying to make is that if I take the journalism path and specialize in one or more fields, I’ll have a lot more options available to me, and a lot might be very lucrative.
I think you are vastly underestimating what AI will do in the area of print journalism.
But that’s off topic to this thread.
I will stick my neck out and say…reaching six figure salary in journalism will take you a number of years…some good experience, good connections, and some good luck.
1 Like
Your parents are paying and making the decisions. The alternative is to lower the “prestige” and try for a full ride, or major in something you enjoy but take the prerequisites for medical school so that your parents are happy.
Once you graduate you can go to graduate school and get whatever degree you want (of course this will cost money, but you could compare programs).
I would look at the job outlook for journalism.
3 Likes
Are you serious about journalism? If so…why aren’t schools like Missouri and Northwestern on your list? Missouri actually could be affordable…NU is no more costly than NYU (except you wouldn’t be able to commute).
@tsbna44 can you list out affordable journalism schools? @AustenNut you too. If this student gets a degree in journalism, they need to have precious little debt…and be prepared to relocate anywhere where they can get a job…and this likely won’t be in the NYC metro area. And won’t pay six figures.
1 Like
Literally any major is good for law school. For admissions purposes, the major is simply not a factor - law school admissions is 95% grades and LSAT scores. Additionally, no major is really going to be more useful once you’re in law school. There’s misconception that a political science or “legal studies” (whatever that is) major is going to actually help a student perform better in law school. However, that’s kind of like saying that studying the biography of Pythagoras will help you understand math. There’s almost no relationship between what you actually study in college political science classes and what you study in law school. Select a major that truly interests you - whether it’s political science or history or biology or theatre. Then do really really well in that major, whatever it is.
2 Likes
Thank you - that is super helpful, also because it narrows the choices.
It sounds as if your parents are driven by practical concerns, possibly mixed-in with some cultural norms:
An affordable commuter-college, pursuing a “professional” major (in a profession they can relate to, e.g., healthcare), so that you’d have (in their opinion) realistic career options in case grad school never happens – or in case you need to “help pay” for grad school.
So for now, let’s not even focus on, M.D., PharmD, Law, or similar - because clearly that takes many more years than 4. You’ll cross that bridge later.
I think you have a good list of in-state colleges that you are going to apply to.
Once several acceptances will come in, you’ll be able to rank your available choices based on your criteria, e.g.: How late will you have to commit to a major, which offers the best options to combine a “professional” major that please your parents, with a second major (or minors) in journalism, and/or some other liberal arts, you want to pursue.
As pointed out before, having a professional major can be a huge asset when pursuing a different career (e.g., journalism), as you’ll be able to do “niche” reporting, based on your acquired expertise in a certain field.
Potentially, these could be your knock-out criteria. Will you be allowed to drive and have access to a car? If not, then even some NJ colleges might not be practical.
Even if your hometown and whichever college have a train station, unless they are on the same “line” commuting between will not always be practical. If you have to switch trains, then catch a NYC bus/subway, etc. - you could be looking at a 3 hour daily commute, assuming there are no delays.
(I would also argue that late-night trains are not necessarily safer than living in a dorm.)
That’s the second immediate task to resolve with your parents!
If healthcare is out, then you really need to ask your parents to “help you” with professional areas they understand and respect, and that you would be willing to compromise to.
Rather than an argument, let them be part of the process where you draw on their insights, life experience, and figure out together what other fields than “healthcare” they’d be okay with.
4 Likes