I’m a first year international transfer student from U of Toronto. I’m looking into PR schools in California, i know that i’ve missed the deadlines for the good ones but was wondering if i should apply for Chapman and SCU or wait till next december for the UCs, though i’m not sure if i’ll make it in… I have a 3.0 GPA, 1980 SAT and 37/45 IB score. Thank you!
UC/CSU’s only accept transfers at the junior level and the very rigid official UC application period is
November 1 through November 30.
Are you planning to remain at UToronto as a student throughout your sophomore year?
If so, then you’ve got some chance. The schools that would offer the strongest PR/Marketing (remembering that the UC’s for the most part do not have undergrad business majors - Haas is the exception) would be within the CSU system. SFSU, SJSU, SDSU, CSUFullerton, SLO, CPP & CSULong Beach have the best programs.
That said, I would not pay out of state fees for these programs.
If you can afford the OOS for the UC/CSU’s, then privates might be a better way to go.
Santa Clara, Chapman, LMU, USD, Occidental, U San Francisco and Pepperdine all have pretty good PR programs.
Make sure you get solid writing experience in college. Learn AP style well. All the PR departments in the companies where I worked were run/staffed by former journalists who tended to prefer those with a strong writing-under-deadline-pressure background.
Have you tried an internship at a PR firm in Toronto?
I’m looking into some for the summer, right now I am in the corporate relation teams for a few student clubs.
I really like occidental as a school, but the programs that they offer don’t seem to be directly relAted to PR or strategic communication. How would you suggest i pursue this major in occidental?
Small class-size and close prof-student interaction are important to me, which is one of the reasons why i want to transfer out of UToronto. Do CSU schools offer small classes?
Depending on major, the CSU’s generally do not offer smaller classroom experiences. As a PR/marketing major, typically housed within business programs, your classes will be fairly large and potentially impacted, meaning that graduating in four-years will be a challenge.
As someone said up thread, as long as you have solid writing skills and know your AP Styleguide inside and out, you should be fine. PR internships and entry-level jobs are the most common way for someone to begin in the business.
If you like Oxy, I’m sure that you can craft together a major with a course progression that will work.
In fact, they have a specific minor in Interdisciplinary Writing - http://www.oxy.edu/interdisciplinary-writing
@hop what is your impression of Chapman vs SCU? I like Chapman’s Strategic Communication program but i’m getting the impression that SCU is a better school based on other threads that I’ve read
Both schools are good.
Both offer different undergrad experiences based on location.
If you’re more interested in tech PR, the lean toward the Communication major at SCU. If marketing is more what you’re thinking about, then you may want to explore the Marketing major within their Leavey school of Business.
If you’re more interested in entertainment or corporate PR, the Chapman major may be the way to go, as it’s housed within their Dodge School, which opens lots of opportunities to creatively support the film students.
Regardless of which major you choose, both schools allow for interdisciplinary registration, meaning that you can be a major in one department and still take classes in another.
What you really need to determine is how YOU define PR, and what you hope to do with it.
PR can be a big category catch all. Most agencies run on a ‘silo’ system, meaning that if you’re doing medical or biotech, you’ll probably never have anything to do with retail or consumer-focused campaigns. If you’re looking to work as an in-house operative, then you’d need to have a broader base, which may include basic business concepts. A school that can offer a broad array of internships can assist you in determining where you feel an affinity.
With any school, you’ll need to figure if you prefer to align with the Business school or the Communications department. Each will give you a foundation on which you can begin a career, but if PR/Marketing is housed in the business school, you may need to take requirements in broad business foundations such as accounting or other finance-related areas.