Journalism Major Required?

College Majors Journalism Major
1

<p>Journalism evolved to be my passion in the past year, and my criteria for selecting colleges are rigid. I'd love colleges to have a journalism major, but my preliminary college search back in the fall said that no UC's had journalism, except UCI (my profile lists UCI as back-up). I looked out-of-state, and I was pleased with my results. NYU, Syracuse, and Boston U are wonderful schools in the east coast. I'm also thinking of UW because it's a wonderful campus, it's relatively nearby, and I was impressed with the Journalism/Communications Dept. </p>

<p>My parents want me to apply to UC's only because they're good schools and they're closer to home. I told my parents California doesn't have many decent schools with journalism and persuaded them to allow me to go to the aforementioned Eastern schools. They were fine with that, as long as I fulfilled my A-G's and I apply to a couple of them. I m also thinking of UCSD, for they have a Digital Media major.</p>

<p>Here's my question: Does it really matter for a budding journalism to attend a great J-school or can I get away with something like Communications Rhetoric? I don't want to do that, so I'm setting my sights on an Undergraduate major in Journalism.</p>

2

<p>If you want to go back east to go to school, then the choices you have mentioned are fine. If you want the best journalism undergraduate program, then you need to look at the University of Missouri.</p>

3

<p>It’s not necessary to be a journalism major to get into the industry. That being said, it certainly helps, and the classes should give you a lot of preparation, a solid journalistic writing background, and a foundation in ethics. The Digital Media option at UCSD might me interesting if you want to work on the web; it might help you get your foot in the door. </p>

<p>If you want to be a journalist and you want to do a journalism major or at least take classes in a journalism department, than I think that’s what you should pursue. Rhet-Comm won’t offer the same education. It would be a fine major, don’t get me wrong, and the major alone wouldn’t hinder you, but you probably would not learn the same things in that department that you would learn in a j-school.</p>