<p>I am an NJ high school senior looking to major in journalism; not yet sure if print or broadcast though I'm leaning toward the latter. I've been accepted for the Fall of 2008 at the Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park, the Indiana University School of Journalism, and the College of Communications at Penn State (University Park campus). Which school would be best and why? I need to decide before May 1st and am having a tough time. Thanks!</p>
<p>As this article explains, (The</a> Editorialiste: Why We Need Journalism School Rankings) there are no rankings of J schools except back in 1996. At that time US News placed IU at #5 and MD at #11. </p>
<p>All 3 schools are accredited Journalism programs so that is good. I don't know about the other two but I have read that IU's newspaper is considered among the best. The one thing I can point you to is that people doing hiring in the field are concentrating on convergence. They want you prepared in all areas - print, web, broadcasting, etc. They like people that have come out of a program perhaps concentrated in one area but trained in all. </p>
<p>The top schools such as Northwestern and Missouri are heavily into convergence because of this trend. So I would investigate all 3 in this light. After that it boils down to cost and where do you want to call home for the next 4 yrs.</p>
<p>If you are leaning towards broadcast, understand that the IU School of Journalism concentrates primarily on print journalism (although expanding into web based and other media); and broadcast is covered primarily in the telecommunications major in the School of Arts and Sciences. That is not to say one cannot have a minor or double major in telecom. So you need to go online and really hunt down the requirements and course options at each school and compare.</p>