Making My List

<p>I am a junior in high school and feel like I need to start making a list of colleges to look at on visits and research. I want to be a sportswriter so I am looking to major in Journalism, English, or History and also a school with a good newspaper I can work for for 4 years. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 97.2 UW 99.58 W
-So far this year my average is 99.333 UW.
-I take all honors classes and am planning on taking 1 or 2 AP's next year.</p>

<p>SAT- Not taken yet</p>

<p>EC's/Community Service so far: Basketball 9-11
Baseball 9-10
Legion Baseball 2 years (summer of 9-10)
Altar Server at Church 8 years
Who's Who America High School Students
Nominated for People To People Program
Nominated for United States Achievement Academy </p>

<p>I think that's everything. What are some schools that seem like good fits? Thanks a lot everyone!</p>

<p>Anyone please?</p>

<p>The top journalism schools are Northwestern, Mizzou, and Syracuse.</p>

<p>Also look at Ohio U, UNC Chapel Hill, Ithaca College, and Emerson. </p>

<p>A lot of it comes down to what kind of atmosphere you want.</p>

<p>Start with Northwestern: great journalism program and a great sports city. Take a look at Washington U. in St. Louis, especially if you're into baseball. Syracuse is not too far from Cooperstown and has solid academics in addition to supposedly a very good school paper and a collegiate sports scene. Princeton Review has a list of the top 20 school newspapers. Noteworthy:</p>

<ol>
<li>UNC-Chapel Hill- you could write about the Tar Heels come March...an excellent school, too...good baseball team</li>
<li>Yale- it's still early, but your stats seem good enough to have a chance</li>
<li>Penn- same as Yale</li>
<li>Howard- historically black school</li>
<li>Georgia- not an area of the country that loves its sports in particular (see lousy Braves/Falcons/Hawks turnout)</li>
<li>Maryland- one of the best state universities there is</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>West Virginia- sports scene? yes. Party scene? definitely...not my cup of tea, but it may be yours</li>
</ol>

<p>13-15. Indiana, Northwestern, Duke. All three are very strong athletically and academically</p>

<p>Rice in Houston is an amazing school. I don't know how good you are at baseball, but if you're really good...they do have one of the top teams in the nation.</p>

<p>Ehh..PR's lists aren't always the most accurate. They use student polls, which can be misleading (obviously, students can't fairly compare their school to other schools that they've never been to).</p>

<p>I'm from Pennsylvania. So far I have an idea of some schools, but I'm looking for more insight. Here's my list so far:
Pitt
Maryland College Park
Penn State University Park
UNC Chapel Hill
Florida</p>

<p>That's definitely a good list. I go to Penn State UP. If you are seriously considering attending, you should definitely make a trip and visit the campus. Once you are here, you will know right away whether you love it or hate it. Most people love it, but there are those that wish they were in the middle of a city. You might as well, since you are from PA. I have also seen both the UNC and Florida campuses, since I considered both when I was looking at schools. I like the UNC campus and chapel hill, but I can't say the same about Florida. Florida has a nice campus, but honestly Gainesville seemed a little ghetto. Just my opinion. ha, I know I have only talked about the campuses, but they all have good academics. They are all good schools, so you can't really go wrong. Best of luck.</p>

<p>any reason Syracuse isn't on your list? especially since it's the sports writing that you're interested in.</p>

<p>I haven't found anything about the "great sports writing program" at Syracuse. So I don't know what that means when people talk about Syracuse and sports writing. The only programs that seem specialized in sports journalism ar PSU Sports Journalism Center and UNC Sports Communication Program. If you could send me a link to why Syracuse is the best for sports writing.</p>

<p>I've looked at Syracuse but I don't know that I'd like all that snow.</p>

<p>My daughter is a freshman at UMD-CP in journalism, with the idea of becoming a sportswriter, and she really likes it. Although Maryland doesn't have a sports journalism program per se, it does have an endowed chair in sports journalism (the Povich Professorship--current occupant is George Solomon, former Sports Editor of the Washington Post), and holds a symposium which emphasizes sports journalism in the fall (my daughter worked it a few weeks ago, and got to meet Michael Wilbon of the Post, PTI and ESPN, Kevin Blackestone of ESPN (formerly of the Dallas Morning News), and Sally Jenkins of SI, among others. Several prominent sports journalists are UMD grads including, to name a few, Jimmy Roberts at NBC, and Scott Van Pelt and Tim Kurkjian at ESPN. </p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>A good friend and former classmate of mine went to the j-school at University of Nevada-Reno and was hired by the Washington Post right out of college. He's their Maryland Terrapins beat writer.</p>

<p>For a list of good student newspapers, check the Associated Collegiate Press Web site (<a href="http://www.studentpress.org/acp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentpress.org/acp&lt;/a&gt;) and look for the lists of Pacemaker winners and Pacemaker Finalists. It's the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism.</p>

<p>dadtimesthree, How does your daughter like the journalism department's classes and professors. Also, does she write for the Diamondback?</p>

<p>
[quote]
I haven't found anything about the "great sports writing program" at Syracuse. So I don't know what that means when people talk about Syracuse and sports writing. The only programs that seem specialized in sports journalism ar PSU Sports Journalism Center and UNC Sports Communication Program. If you could send me a link to why Syracuse is the best for sports writing.

[/quote]

Syracuse has one of the best overall journalism programs in the country, and in addition to that, I think the statistic is that more sports journalists have come out of Syracuse than any other school.</p>

<p>PSU may have a sports writing program, but I'd choose Syracuse - far better reputation in the journalism world.</p>

<p>ok thanks world changer. I eventually want to work for Sports Illustrated, that would be my dream job.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I think the statistic is that more sports journalists have come out of Syracuse than any other school.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I suggested Syracuse journalism because my daughter is a senior at Newhouse (and for the same reasons world changer mentioned above). However, whenever she speaks of her male friends, she always refers to 'all the guys who are majoring in sports journalism'. It is one of the most popular journalism sub specialties within Newhouse. </p>

<p>We were there in October for a visit, and they had just recently dedicated Newhouse III, their new facility; it was outstanding, and everything seemed to be named the Bob Costas ________, as he graduated from Syracuse and is a very generous supporter of Newhouse.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot, I'm definitely going to look at Syracuse. How has your daughter liked her experience? Do you know any links specifically leading to info about the sports specialty?</p>

<p>With such a high GPA why didn't you take any AP classes this year?</p>

<p>My school only offers like 6 AP's. And 4 are Math and Sciences. The other 2 are English and History. Plus they're mainly reserved for seniors.</p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who has posted here, your info has been great. </p>

<p>dadtimesthree, I'm really interested in Maryland, so if you wouldn't mind I would appreciate info about your daughter's experience their with classes, professors, and the newspaper. Thanks a lot.</p>

<p>She's a first semester freshman, so her journalism classes are intro to dat--she likes them, but I'm guessing that's going to be generic between schools. She's planning on joining The Diamondback next semester--she did some free lance stuff for an internet sports site this semester. One thing you should know--it's apparently hard to get a sports beat on The Diamondback until you're a soph since it's a very popular beat.</p>

<p>If you have any more questions, feel free to pm me.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>