<p>im someone who definitely intends on studying humanities in college, like english and philosophy. as far as my career goals go, im thinking about becoming either a journalist or a lawyer. a journalist for a big newspaper or magazine would be the IDEAL career for me, but the problem is, just how likely is it for me to land a job at like Time Magazine or something?</p>
<p>i really dont know much about careers in journalism, but if i go to a college as expensive as northwestern or columbia university, i definitely want to be a journalist with a high salary and good job security. graduating from a college like that, is it likely that i will be able to achieve this, or should i set my sights on a more stable career like law?</p>
<p>also, i havent been able to take a newspaper class at my school because of scheduling problems...i also have no journalism-related extra-curriculars, because only this summer have i even considered the idea of being a journalist. however, english is my strongest subject and one that i am very passionate about, and i did take a creative writing class at northwestern last summer and got As both semesters. think i should still bother applying for Medill, or should i go for WCAS English instead?</p>
<p>your gonna have a VERY hard time getting in with no journalism-related ECs. </p>
<p>and what sphinx said is pretty much incorrect. Journalism jobs are hard to get, even for medill graduates. The average starting salary for a recent college grad journalist nationwide is 22k a year, the average for medill is slightly higher, about 24k a year, which is barely above the poverty line in most cities where a journalist would want to work. </p>
<p>Of course a medill degree will mean job opportunities in fields other than journalism as well... but for you i would definitely recommend applying to WCAS.</p>
<p>I honestly don't know how much journalism-related ECs matter for getting into Medill. I believe that if you do have them, they can help you, but if you don't, not having them won't hurt you. I think Medill heavily weights Verbal and Writing II scores, but what I think they focus most on are you writing samples you give them (the things that they ask you to write on the application like "Why Northwestern" or your essay). If you demonstrate that you can write and you have potential, I don't think they care too much if you don't have a million newspapers to your cred.</p>
<p>veggz - yep, people still get haircuts in college, but most people get them when they go home for breaks because Evanston haircuts can be really quite sketch.</p>
<p>lol, my jaw pretty much dropped when I read what sphinx wrote. you're not going to have an amazing salary in your first job. heck, if you don't get a couple internships, you probably won't have a job at all. the journalism profession is incredibly competitive nowadays and with a set number of newspapers, journalists aren't in the highest of demand. you'll start in a low-paying job and slowly work your way up. that's just how journalism is.</p>