<p>Hi! I am applying to PSU for a journalism major, but i was wondering whether it is worth it to go to the States to ultimately study at PSU. Is it's reputation good enough or is it just a waste of time, and more importantly a waste of money?</p>
<p>C’mon, 131 views and no replies???</p>
<p>That depends actually. Are you being offered any scholarship? Penn state has a decent brand name and it’ll probably make sense going if you can’t get in to the top 35 colleges in India.</p>
<p>Actually affordability upto $40000 is not a problem, so basically the only thing bothering me is the reputation of the university. I am not really applying to India, so if i don’t get into a decent place in the US, i’ll probably go to Australia.</p>
<p>Well, Penn state is ranked 45 according to US news & WR so it certainly isn’t a tier 1 or tier 2 university. It’s a huge college with almost 40,000 undergrads in the university park campus itself so you’ll probably get lost in the crowd. I personally don’t think it’s worth it. What are your stats and which other colleges are you considering?</p>
<p>U Penn is the university that has a good reputation as it is ivy league. It’s not worth coming here for PSU when it’s cheaper to get your undergrad degree there.</p>
<p>PennState IS a great college, and I disagree with the guys above. Well, for Engineering, PennState ranks high enough to be considered as a public ivy. And the city is great, so the social factor is gonna be great.
You should do a simple google to find out the college rankings, which should not be too hard.
All in all, PSU IS worth applying to and attending.</p>
<p>I would consider a top 50 university as a top tier.</p>
<p>Look to the honors college and look at the website to determine where journalism majors end up.</p>
<p>Where do you want to be after undergrad? Where do you want to work? You might look at schools that feed those areas.</p>
<p>Good question / good replies. I’ve seen this topic ($100k on a Journalism degree…) come up many many times before.</p>
<p>Journalism is an interesting major. You can do quite well as a top journalist; however, would I be wrong in assuming that you’ve researched the average pay of a journalist starting right out of college? Couple that with tough competition with from top journalism schools - Northwestern, etc. - PSU, while an excellent institution overall (as stated in a previous comment, it is great for Engineering!), isn’t ranked on the map for journalism. So, you need to consider - is it worth dropping $40k (and I think you are extremely underestimating this figure - think closer to $100k as an out-of-state/international student) on a degree that at the end of the day MAY not pay the dividends? I understand the sensitivities behind this discussion - and this is absolutely not a knock on Journalism as a field, it’s a great field to study and be in - but you should really consider the investment you are about to make vice which institution you’re getting the degree from. If you have the opportunity to go to a top journalism school and spend 100k in the process? I would say it’s worth it - given that it’s from a top school. Should you spend the same amount getting a journalism degree from PSU? I’m not so convinced.</p>
<p>What you absolutely don’t want is to spend a whole lot of money on a degree and then be un- or under-employed at the end of the day. That scenario, you would be surprised, happens more often than not, as students pick random subjects to study from random institutions. It’s not a trivial process - be well advised and informed before you take the dive.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>