<p>Hello everyone, this will be my first post :-)</p>
<p>I'm a rising senior in high school and I'm hoping to focus on either journalism, creative writing, or some combination of both in college. One issue I'm encountering is that there seems to be few schools that offer strong programs in both fields.</p>
<p>Schools I'm considering now are Middlebury, Wesleyan, Oberlin, Bard, Skidmore, Pomona, Northwestern, UMichigan, American, Barnard, Vassar, Smith, Brown, Georgetown, Barnard, and UMass Amherst...with a lot of those as reaches.</p>
<p>My question is: does anyone know that any of those colleges has particularly strong resources/opportunities for a student interested in both journalism and creative writing? Or does anyone know of another college that fits that criteria?</p>
<p>Stats, in case they're helpful:
GPA: 4.6/5.0
SAT I: 750 in Writing, 630 in Verbal, 610 in Math, but I'm retaking them in October
SAT II: 720 in Literature, 750 in US History
I'm also editor-in-chief of my school newspaper & do a bunch of other club things & am VP of the National Honor Society.</p>
<p>Most professional journalists I know would tell you that it's a mistake to study journalism at the undergraduate level. Go to a school that will give you a strong, broad-based liberal arts education, maybe majoring in English or creative writing, and work on the campus newspaper. A graduate program in journalism is a possibility afterwards, though it absolutely isn't necessary. Most professional journalists I know just got a job on a newspaper or magazine staff after college, and worked their way up.</p>
<p>Graduates of the college where I teach (Oberlin) followed this trajectory; they include people like Adam Moss (editor of New York magazine), Michael Duffy (Associate Managing Editor of Time magazine), and Robert Krulwich (science and economics reporter for ABC News and NPR). Major journalists all, but none of them went to journalism school.</p>
<p>"Most professional journalists I know would tell you that it's a mistake to study journalism at the undergraduate level."</p>
<p>Actually, probably not. I expect they'd tell you it was a mistake to study ONLY journalism, but it can only be beneficial to take classes that force you to gain journalistic experience and build up a resume of clips in addition to a degree such as history. In contrast, journalists I've spoken to have been pretty staunchly anti graduate degrees in journalism. It seems to have all of the downsides of journalism at the undergraduate level with none of the benefits, imho.</p>
<p>Journalism degrees are much like business degrees. If they don't derive from top schools, you are often better served with a general liberal arts background from an academically strong university.</p>
<p>Having said that, graduating from a place like Medill (Northwestern) is the journalism equivalent of graduating from Wharton in business. Doors open due to the incredible reputation of the school and the endless stream of loyal alums scattered across the country.</p>
<p>In addition, the major at Medill only requires (and allows) a relatively paltry 1/4 of your courses to be in journalism. This includes the one term internship that can often lead to job offers come graduation. This is quite intentional. The remaining 3/4 of your courses consist of general distribution requirements and electives to guarantee a broad knowledge base and offer you the opportunity to second major or minor in an arts and science discipline (english, history, international studies, poli sci are probably most common).</p>
<p>The curriculum is known for its rigor and the sheepskin is deservedly prestigious - even for those eventually moving on (as up to half of graduates do) to related fields (think law, business, communications). Medill students are about as satisfied a group of alums as you’ll find, and for good reason.</p>
<p>The majority of graduates from Medill going into journalism end up writing for local papers in the same small towns j-school graduates from any school do. I was accepted to Medill and turned it down after speaking to a lot of people about it. It's all about your intelligence, your writing skills, your experience, and your clips, not the name on your degree. </p>
<p>Almost all j-schools emphasize a strong liberal arts education and limited "professional training". Medill is not unique in this, although it may have blazed the trail. In addition, I looked into the internship program, and it was not particularly impressive. The majority of j-school students at UMCP complete 3 and even 4 internships.</p>
<p>The law of the land is that being a journalist is about starting at the bottom and working your way up. It's a difficult career with meager salaries. If you can easily afford Medill because you are a trust fund baby and/or the opposite and thus will recieve massive amounts of fin aid (or your parents for some reason wish to shoulder most of your debt), by all means, seize the opportunity - Northwestern provides an excellent education. But it is no golden ticket, or anything close to it. In fact, it can cripple you if you are not financially able to handle the 50K/yr pricetag.</p>
<p>(And I close with a Gilmore Girl reference: poor Rory begging for a journalism job in Providence after graduating from her hoity-toity Ivy with flying colors? Yup, time to face the music, you deluded CC prestige whores. And I say that in a friendly way ;].)</p>
<p>Northwestern is the only top school that even has a journalism program. And their journalists really are great and plenty of them end up doing great things.</p>
<p>But I don't the OP is really going to get into Northwestern journalism.</p>
<p>Syracuse, Maryland, and Missouri (or Mississippi?) also have strong j-programs. One of my friends turned down a spot at an elite college to study journalism at Syracuse.</p>
<p>As other posters have echoed, you don't necessarily have to be a journalism major to go on in journalism. You can, for example, write for the school newspaper, do creative writing on your own, and take a couple of English/creative writing/communications classes to round yourself out academically. If you're looking for high-quality college newspapers, large universities win out big time over small LAC's.</p>
<p>^Plenty of Northwestern journalists go on to do great things (of course! they had to be pretty intelligent to even be admitted!), but plenty of journalists from other schools do, as well. After looking into it, I determined that it did not give one a significant edge.</p>
<p>To give the OP some more matches/safeties: University of Ohio - Athens (good j-school and decent in the humanities and social sciences), University of Maryland - College Park (very strong j-school, decent humanities, very strong social sciences, especially government & politics), & Syracuse U (very strong j-school, again, and good social sciences). I think that going the small LAC route, though, may be your best bet to gain strong writing skills and the liberal arts foundation that a good journalist requires. Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with LACs as I was not interested in small schools during my search. I especially am unfamiliar with affordable LACs. Some that came to mind are, of course, the other girls' schools (Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke) and Sarah Lawrence (a good match, I think!).</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for your help. Based on what you all have said and what I've heard in the past, I definitely have a better understanding of what an education in college journalism entails, and I think now I'm leaning more toward the general liberal arts foundation, especially since my interests are broader than just journalism, and I'm not certain that I'll want to major in it/go to graduate school, etc.</p>
<p>With that in mind, I think I'm going to start looking more at the smaller LACs than larger/public universities with great journalism programs. If anyone has any specific information on English/writing programs & publications at any of the schools I listed or similar ones, I'd love to hear it.</p>
<p>I feel compelled to weigh in, both as a professor of journalism and a professional journalist with more than 20 years experience as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor. I STRONGLY DISCOURAGE students from majoring in journalism as an undergraduate. It's a waste of a major. Instead, I think it's better to major in something you that will give you a good background to be a journalist: science if you want to be a science writer; international affairs if you want to be a foreign correspondent; american studies if you want to be a general assignment reporter, and so on. You really learn journalism on the job. That said, I do think it's increasingly important for students to try to do internships when they're in college to get some on-the-job experience. </p>
<p>So, my advice to the OP -- go to a college you'll love and where you can learn and explore lots of different things. Stretch your mind in new and different directions. Write for your college newspaper. </p>
<p>(Personally, I think Oberlin is a great place to do all this -- but I'm biased as I have a son who is a student there.)</p>