<p>hey guys im a sophomore in hs right now and just trying to figure out where i wanna go. im pretty certain i want to be a journalist, but im afraid that it would be a waste to major in it, like some people say.
i think i would prefer to stay in california, but if not i would like to attend school in a big city with cold weather. if anybody knows how it is in san francisco (its almost always in the 60s, kind of gloomy) thats my type of weather. im not a big fan of heat but i can tolerate it.</p>
<p>my question is would it be wiser to just do internships, write for the school paper etc and major in something other than journalism so i could stay in CA, possibly save money, and look more "well rounded" than journalism majors ... or should i purse a degree in journalism and try to get into the j schools like northwestern, mizzou, syracuse, nyu etc?</p>
<p>if i should stay in CA, what should i major in and which school for a journalism career?
are communications and english good ideas?</p>
<p>if not, what are the j schools that fit my preferences?</p>
<p>any opinions welcome....
(btw im interested in print/online journalism, not broadcast)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that journalists are no longer ‘generalists’ who cover a beat, like in the old days. Journalists now need to be subject matter experts, who also write books, blog, publish in magazines and should expect to be very mobile professionally if they plan to be financially self-sufficient. </p>
<p>With that in mind, journalism is fine as a major or minor-but you need to have something else to offer a future employer other than fine writing skills.</p>
<p>At Northwestern, every “journalism major” really take just 12-14 journalism courses, out of the 45 they need to graduate. That’s the cap the school put on them. They spend most of their time taking “other” classes to get well-rounded and many of them are double-majors.</p>
<p>you’re on the right track. While a budding journalist needs lots of writing experience and internships (or summer jobs) to be a viable candidate, you can do that majoring in just about anything. Also I’d suggest not drawing your career goals too strongly at this point; while print journalism is a fine job, you can do it for a paper, a magazine, or as a freelancer. There are also a number of related fields you may not have considered such as public relations, advertising, policy research, etc. that would involve writing that communicates with the public.</p>