Journalism @ Harvard?

<p>How good is journalism @ Harvard and how is it ranked among others? Are they known for journalism? Particulary broadcast journalism.</p>

<p>Harvard does not offer a degree or program in journalism...if that's what you are interested in 'studying,' than Harvard's the wrong place. With that said, plenty of Harvard graduates end up in the field, but they usually studying something else while they are here.</p>

<p>No journalism. The kids who run Harvard's radio station take it pretty seriously. No guarantees though that they'll accept you - it's a pretty serious comp process. Ditto with the Crimson. (Newspaper.) Harvard is a liberal arts college not a pre-professional school.</p>

<p>Harvard is not a liberal arts college! :eek:
Just cuz it doesn't have journalism?? It has business, and med school and pre med and so on!</p>

<p>Am I wrong??</p>

<p>buddy the business program and med program are post graduate. The undergraduate school is indeed a "liberal arts college". Pre med is not a major.</p>

<p>Not a LAC in the cultural terms that College Confidential posters usually mean it - < 2000 students, faculty who go by first names, class cookouts on the lawn with the President - but intensely liberal arts from a curricular standpoint. You can study music theory and composition, but no music performance. Econ but no undergrad business. No undergrad Nursing, Education, etc. But the extracurricular scene is so remarkable that extracurricular journalists, like David Halberstam, frequently go on to stardom as professional journalists. Soledad O'Brian didn't major in Radio and TV or Mass Communication, but there she is on your TV every morning.</p>

<p>I see. Thanks for the clarification. It was kind of puzzling, since it is not considered by any rankings to be liberal arts.</p>

<p>Harvard still calls itself liberal arts though in that there aren't any preprofessional programs or classes here (unless you count Engineering). The first day of Economics 10 (intro Ec) the professor makes it explicitly clear that Ec does not equal bussiness, and most professors take a similar tact of emphasizing learning for learning's sake.</p>

<p>That being said, the extracurriculars here more than make up for it. The Crimson has a near mafia-like set of connections in newspapers and magazines, the Lampoon's connections to entertainment are legendary (tons of writers for John Stewart, Colbert, SNL, Mad TV, National Lampoon, etc), HSA practically IS it's own bussiness (execs get salaries and the board get profit-shares) and there are even student-run hedge funds for people interested in investing.</p>

<p>Appreciate the replies! And the clarifacation! Anything similiar to that offered there?
What would somebody do if they wanted to do something with TV/ journalism-ish things at Harvard?</p>

<p>Is The Crimson the feeder to The Harvard Law Review, or is there no correlation?</p>

<p>None of these connections are official, it just depends on which alumni end up where. Right now there are a few crimeds on the Law Review, but that could change in 3 years...</p>

<p>Re: broadcast journalism. Check out "Crimson Edition" <a href="http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/%7Ehrtv/hrtv_news/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hrtv/hrtv_news/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It's put together by a few friends of mine, under HRTV. Radio is also an option.</p>

<p>I'm a bit biased, but I think The Crimson has to be one of the best college journalism experiences in the country. THC breaks national stories rather regularly (Summers/Faust getting hired). Top "Crimeds" go off to the NYTimes or the WSJ (often after a fellowship in Britain), and tend to land some solid internships (LA Times, NY Post, etc). I also know one or two kids who have gone into broadcast stuff, working for the ABC newsdesk (and Jeff Zucker, president of NBC, is a former Crimson president).</p>

<p>I think it's important to note that while Harvard does not offer preprofessional degrees, there are amazing preprofessional resources. Each house has Premed/prelaw/business tutors, usually students in the respective graduate schools. Something like 90% of Harvard applicants get into med school. Oodles of companies come here to recruit... etc.</p>

<p>Finally, as for the "comps," my impression is that the Crimson comp + the radio comp are both very doable, as long as you complete some straightforward, but demanding, requirements (ex. write 6 news stories, 1 feature, and attend weekly meetings). The Lampoon, on the other hand, only takes 5-10 new members a semester, and is notoriously difficult to get in to.</p>