<p>I encourage you to continue to expand your search to include schools that don’t offer journalism at the undergraduate level; not only is it possible to become a great journalist without majoring in journalism in college, but it could even be deemed an advantage. Majoring in English or history, for example–or indeed any other writing-intensive subject–at a great liberal arts school, and then getting a graduate degree in journalism from a well-respected program may prove a much more eye-opening experience than learning journalism as a craft without first receiving a sufficient grounding in the wide array of academic disciplines that should ideally inform a journalist’s writing.</p>
<p>As an aside, Columbia, which boasts one of the best journalism programs in the US, doesn’t have a journalism major at the undergraduate level (but it does offer creative writing).</p>
<p>If you insist on a strictly pre-professional approach to journalism, there are some state schools with very strong journalism programs, like Indiana, Berkeley, Missouri, UNC-CH and Ohio (I would rank the first three above UNC and Ohio), but they may be far too big for you. Northwestern (which you have on your list) is another option, and it seems to satisfy some of your other requirements as well, but if you’re looking for an interdisciplinary approach to learning, it may not be the best choice for you as it is divided into very self-contained schools–and double-majoring in unrelated disciplines can be very tricky, from what I’ve heard. UChicago would be much better for that sort of thing, I feel.</p>
<p>Emory and Syracuse are also possibilities.</p>