<p>I'm interested in journalism as a career, but as a HS sophomore, am currently not on my school's newspaper (you need to take two classes of it per year and by now I have no room in my schedule...). How do you get on the newspaper in college? Do you have to have examples of your writing that's been published? Is the competition to get a spot on the paper intense? Is there even any?</p>
<p>I'm likely going to attend a large state school (a UC), if this helps.</p>
<p>I was a journalism major (college junior, just switched out of journalism this semester) and taking newspaper practicum courses (AKA writing for the college paper) are mandatory for graduating, hence examples are not required. </p>
<p>I don’t know if this ring trues for a UC, however.</p>
<p>It depends.</p>
<p>The two big hitter Journalism schools are Missouri (#1) and Northwestern (#3) [Columbia is #2…but only has a grad school). Then you have other good programs like Texas, Wisconsin, Maryland, etc.</p>
<p>At the state schools like Texas, Wisconsin, Maryland, you just want to go into wherever they are making the newspaper, and see what type of help they need. Most likely you won’t be able to write right away, but you can probably get on the paper as a copy editor (look for mistakes in articles) with no problem. Then while your working on the paper, even that first year, you’ll get more opportunities to expand your role, write here and there…and then maybe by second semester (or earlier) you could have your own beat that your expected to cover, maybe not.</p>
<p>Northwestern is pretty much the same. You’ll be plenty of courses in Jouralism right away here. More or less the same as the state schools above for getting on as a Freshman. They have the internship program, where all students have to do an internship. You’ll get placed at a newspaper or magazine for an internship your junior/senior year, and write there.</p>
<p>Missouri is a bit different. Missouri is home to the first Journalism school ever in the United States. They are home to the Missouri method, of the best way to learn journalism is to do journalism. You take some introductory Journalism courses your first 2 years, and then are officially admitted ot the J-School after your sophomore year if you have a 3.0 GPA. Then you work on their magazine, or paper (which is actually the city paper), or for the radio, or tv station (NBC). You will be graded for your work on that news outlet. Prior to that, it is more or less the same as the state universities for freshman/sophomores. </p>
<p>Of course there is no single way to skin a cat.</p>
<p>FYI, there are no undergraduate journalism programs at any of the University of California campuses. Cal’s undergrad j-school was shut down in the mid-1970s.</p>
<p>UCLA has a well-regarded “communication” degree, but it’s not a journalism program. It’s a very theory-oriented major, as opposed to the hands-on writing/reporting skills emphasis that is found in a j-school.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a specific journalism bachelors’ degree, you’ll have to go to the CSUs (Chico, SFSU and SDSU have highly regarded j-schools) or out of state.</p>
<p>That’s one reason I ended up in Alaska.</p>
<p>But getting a journalism degree is hardly the only path to becoming a journalist. You could go to a UC, major in political science or English or whatnot, work for the independent student papers (Cal has the Daily Californian, UCLA the Daily Bruin, etc.) and learn journalism by doing there.</p>
<p>As for how you get on the paper - most college newspapers are always looking for writers. Talk to the editor, get a job application and start at the bottom.</p>
<p>Thanks for responding! :)</p>
<p>Not hard to get into the newspaper in college. They usually need writers so you can start out writing without any experience and work your way up. The current EIC of the Columbia newspaper wasn’t involved in newspaper in hs - he joined on a whim and then loved it so much he just kept getting more and more involved.</p>