<p>I really want to work in PR when I'm older, however, it is a newer major and I am finding it difficult to find which universities are most renowned in this field of study. I am a junior and am applying in the fall, and would like to start looking at campuses this summer. I live in New England and will go anywhere. :) Currently, I have University of Southern CA, Pepperdine University, Syracuse University, and Boston University on my list of possibilities. Thanks!!</p>
<p>Anyone? Or just any schools with renowned Communications schools/departments?</p>
<p>PR is often included under journalism…and in many,many places graduates enter PR via english degrees…or even psychology…</p>
<p>Ithaca college, Elon University, and Quinnipiac U all have some sort of strategic communications majors which would include PR within it…</p>
<p>I’ve never thought of public relations as being a newer major. Hasn’t it often been a concentration within communications?</p>
<p>Either way, it’s not a career that often pays well during the early years, so don’t take out big loans.</p>
<p>I often come across public relations graduate school programs but none for undergraduate.</p>
<p>Ohio University Scripps School</p>
<p>Yeah, Coolbreeze, that seems to be the problem. I checked out PR Week’s Education Award winners and finalists but the majority of them seem to be for graduate programs.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.</p>
<p>PR is a job/career you can enter without a degree in PR. You can major in anything, and you won’t be at a disadvantage. The industry wants people with social skills and writing skills. Writing skills can be developed in anything from English to Philosophy to Art History to Journalism to History to basically anything that requires you to write and write. The social skills depend primarily on your personality, and/or you developing that during your college experience, which you can do by getting out of your comfort level and forcing yourself to interact with people-be it through clubs, extracurricular activities, internships, part time jobs(retail helps especially if you are expected to give customer service and not just ring them up) etc. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t get so stuck on looking at schools who have PR as a major. You will do yourself a disservice by doing this. I think it will be to your benefit to get into the best school you can possibly get into(regardless of major), and take advantage of their career/alumni resources. Top schools are bound to have connections with top PR firms. Even if you later go on to change your mind about PR, at least you would have received a great education at a top school, which whose connections/network will hopefully aid you in your career change. I would also look into schools that are in or near major cities. LA, NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc… By being in or near a major city, it will be a lot easier to find internships while in school and hopefully be at an advantage when you graduate and are looking for your first paid job. Even if the internships are coming from Craigslist(there are a lot of PR intern positions listed in major city Craigslists), it will be better than nothing.</p>
<p>Good advice is being given here. My daughter is a communications major at UCLA. Her interest is in PR and marketing. She is only a sophomore but is starting her first internship in March with a PR firm in Hollywood. She will probably end up having 3-4 internships in the LA area by the time she graduates. Communications at UCLA is theoretical and broad in it’s approach and prepares you for many, many fields. You definitely learn how to write and “communicate”. But the best thing is the Undergraduate Communication Organization which sets up workshops, interviews for potential internships, etc. So what I am getting at is that being in LA or NY is probably more important than specifically which school you go to. I would add UCLA to your list. You must apply undeclared and then apply for the Communications Studies program once you are a sophomore. It’s very competitive, though, and you must have a UCLA gpa of at least 3.8. Anyway, as others have said it is not as necessary to have a degree in PR as it is to have the right skills and be in the right place.</p>
<p>This is really helping me out. Thank you so much everyone! So, do you think it would be my best bet to major in communications? Now that I think about it, the PR major may be limiting and the comm major might open up more doors.
What were your daughter’s high school credentials like? UCLA looks like a great school, but I’m not sure if I could get in.</p>
<p>It is your best bet to major in what you love. Don’t get so caught up on what a major translate to as a job. You may find once you enroll at whatever university that you hate their communications department, but love psychology. Look at schools that offer a wide arrange of majors, in or nearby a close city, with a strong overall reputation. The only jobs where it matters what your undergrad major is tend to be very skilled specific like architecture, nursing, engineering, accounting, etc. When you’re attending a top school with a lot of resources, you are not at a disadvantage for not majoring in “Communications” or “PR”. Companies come to your school specifically because of the name and the quality of student, a school like UCLA is decent enough to get your foot in the door for an internship position in PR, regardless of your major.</p>
<p>That seems to be the problem, though. I don’t really know what I would “love” to study. Writing is the one thing that I feel absolutely passionate about, but I do not want to be an English major because I am not a fan of fancy literature, so to say. 
But there really isn’t a writing major, which is why I thought PR would be a good degree for me. Any ideas? Thank you so much for your help, liek0806! :-)</p>
<p>I agree with the advice of majoring in what you love. Or choosing a school that has a variety of majors so that you can explore a bit. My daughter was about 5th in her HS class and had a 4.3 gpa, 2160 SAT and tons of good ec’s. UCLA is difficult to get into but many people with lower gpa’s and less ec’s do get in. You must write very good personal statements and at least have pretty decent test scores and gpa. BTW my daughter was rejected by USC. She applied specifically as a print journalism major to the Annenberg School of Journalism and didn’t get in. USC is usually easier to get into than UCLA but it depends on the major. Had she applied “undeclared” I’m sure she would have gotten in. As it turns out her experience at UCLA is much more broad and in the long run will benefit her more I think.</p>
<p>Wow, my credentials are good but not quite that good! I love writing, and I think exploring will be my best bet. I may still look at UCLA though even if it is a reach for me. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the comments about the PR major. If I am going to hire an entry-level PR person at my firm, the advantage goes to the PR/journalism major who has a basic understanding of the industry and how it works. A small firm doesn’t have the training program to get someone up to speed. </p>
<p>If someone is majoring in PR, they have indicated (hopefully!) they are passionate about PR. That’s the kind of person I want.</p>
<p>^Internships can be an indication of one’s passions in PR, and I think an often better indicator of the ability to perform, especially if they have interned with you in the past. Anyone entering the PR world will have to take up internships if they want to have a good chance at PAID employment out of school. No one is going to pay a brand new grad with no internship/work experience when they can get an intern to do the same entry level work for free.
Although I’m not in your shoes(hiring for your small firm), curriculums very at different schools. Some are more theory based, some are more practical. Unless you are specifically aware of how X school trains it’s students in “PR” and you’ve seen the results from past employees who’ve attended X school, you’ll be taking a risk. And to be honest, I am naive of how “practical” any curriculum at a university can be in something like PR. College/University is not an on the job"experience", you learn on the job, classroom education can only take you so far with something like “PR” or “Journalism”. Practical education in things like PR or Journalism at a university is not like the practical education you get in “hair styling” or “automotive mechanics”, where there the “practical” education is actually “like on the job” education. With the latter you are actually learning from each hands on experience or “lesson” you have. I don’t know if I’m incorrect of the reasoning above, please correct me if I’m wrong in the practical education of majors like pr journalism communications etc.</p>
<p>nodi, if you love writing you can also look at creative writing programs. An alternative to english, is comparative literature(if you can read and write in a foreign language or two). If I actually ever finish a degree, it will most likely be in comparative literature. At UCLA, the comp. lit department is not as “structured” as is the English department. So far I haven’t taken any “fancy literature” classes and plan not to. I will say again that the best course of action is simply look into the best overall university/college you can get into, near or in a city, that offers a wide array of majors. You don’t have to declare your major for most schools until your sophomore year or the beginning of your junior year, and if you are so undecided then maybe looking at schools that have little to no core requirements would be a good start.</p>
<p>*What were your daughter’s high school credentials like? UCLA looks like a great school, but I’m not sure if I could get in. *</p>
<p>How hard is it to get into UCLA as an OOS student?</p>
<p>I know it’s hard to get into as an in-state student.</p>
<p>BTW…is cost an issue? Or will your parents pay $50k per year for any school?</p>
<p>liek0806 - I see where you are coming from. But what if I was majoring in PR and also did internships? Wouldn’t that show that I had the proper education as well as experience? Just a thought. :)</p>
<p>mom2collegekids - I am an OOS student, and my parents will be putting some money towards my college education. However, I will have to take out loans and pay off the majority of the fees myself.</p>
<p>So I met with my guidance counselor with my mom to discuss college. She thinks I have a good chance of getting into Syracuse, BU, and other schools. But she wants me to take subject tests and ACTs gahh. Also, she suggested I come up with some state school safeties that may be more willing to give me scholarships or may cost less. She suggested URI and UVM. Any more suggestions though? Thanks. :)</p>