<p>missouri is the oldest school of journalism with its centennial upcoming in three years. it remains first for undergraduate education with indiana, north carolina, georgia, iowa, kansas, and syracuse among a group as close competitors.</p>
<p>for graduate education in journalism it's northwestern and columbia with most of the list above also very strong.</p>
<p>that said, each program has varying strengths such as print, broadcast, photo, advertising, public relations, etc.</p>
<p>Just because its the oldest doesnt make it the best. The University of Pennsylvania is the oldest University in America, and that surely doesnt mean its the best.</p>
<p>Harvard, not U of P, is the oldest university in the US.</p>
<p>correct, harvard was founded in 1636 for whatever that's worth.
missouri journalism was founded in 1908. obviously, that is hardly the reason most polls put it first at the UGR level. its breadth and strength of programs, facilities, faculty, reputation and placement, all are part of the recipe.</p>
<p>no, the University of Pennsylvania is the first UNIVERSITY in the United States. Harvard is the first COLLEGE. By establishing the first medical school in the country in 1765, it became a university. Harvard only had the "College". </p>
<p>If you disagree, just look it up, plenty of evidence out there. If your argument is that it is the first place of higher learning, then i totally agree. But UPenn does rightfully own claim to the first university in america.</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>penn became the first "university" in 1779 after being chartered in 1740, more than a century after harvard had begun. guess that means places like williams, radcliffe, amherst or harvey mudd are irrelevant since they still are colleges.</p>
<p>not sure the point as it relates to journalism but whatever...</p>
<p>To add to Northwestern and Columbia... Penn, Berk, and USC</p>
<p>back to journalism, in my opinion, unc-chapel hill, syracuse, northwestern, and mizzou are the best journalism programs in the country (i applied to two of them myself)</p>
<p>yes, megastud you are right!
annenberg east (penn) and annenberg west (southern cal) are truly elite programs. both of them focus more upon communications and theory, with the west campus having strong ties with the entertainment industry. cal is very small and very elite with a focus on journalism. all three are extremely selective with outstanding facilities, notably both annenbergs. all would be superb picks at the grad level.</p>
<p>Western Kentucky University offers the best photojournalism school in the united states i am a photojournalism major there and it is wonderful they have the best teachers and the most up to date equipment. the new Journalism building was just completed this year</p>
<p>hardheadedchild,</p>
<p>guess you've already decided. anyway, northwestern offers the best of both worlds--their school of journalism and school of communication are both among the best. because of the strict number of students Medill can have each year, it's best to be admitted to the school of journalism first and then add either communication studies or communication science as second major through the school of comm if one is interested in both.</p>
<p>medill is terrific. northwestern has the highest ranked marketing department in the nation and as such it is strongest in the areas of advertising/IMC/PR but is powerful across the board. if you want a comprehensive program that combines college level prestige with that on the university level with all of those resources you must include missouri, syracuse, and southern california in the elite category along with top notch state universities (ie, maryland, kansas, illinois, georgia, texas, florida, cal) very close nearby. most of these offer the full range of majors such as R/TV, PR, AD, MAG, JOUR, PHTO, which allows you the flexibility of moving about to find your niche.</p>
<p>What's the difference between journalism and communications? Sorry if I sound really, really uncultured here.</p>
<p>journalism is the application of communication into mediated forms such as newspapers and magazines. communications typically includes theory and other forms such as organizational communication, small group, dyadic comm, etc.</p>
<p>drj, thanks! </p>
<p>Also, grad schools would like to see internships, right? What about the school newspaper?</p>
<p>sorry, don't understand. are you talking about a specific school or in general?</p>
<p>at northwestern, what drj said really belongs to "communication studies". But there's also "communication sciences and disorders" which focuses the science of communication, learning and comm disorder. Within this field, nu is particularly known for its audiology and speech pathology programs (grad program). so allureny86, I suggest you check out nu's website and you'd get a much better idea of what the differences among journalism, communication studies, and communication sciences/disorders are since nu is one of the few schools that have these three areas as three distinct majors.</p>
<p>allure: the daily newspaper at northwestern is one of the top in the country. There is also a radio station which is always being awarded something for its excellence.. i visited, they had more plaques than wallspace.. and a student run TV news program that airs twice a week for undergrads and 3 times a week run by graduate students. If you are in medill, you will spend a quarter doing an internship in another city at a real tv/radio station or newspaper or magazine, depending on your major... theyll set that one up for you, but of course, to get any work in journalism, you're going to need to show more experience than just that.</p>
<p>A couple of comments:</p>
<p>1. Accreditation. I caution people from worshipping at the altar of specialized accreditation. There seems to be a belief that programs without accreditation are lacking in some way. That might be true in some fiields. It's not true in all fields. In fact, some programs choose not to seek accreditation for very good reasons, perhaps because they disagree with one or more of the criteria, or feel that accreditation pulls their curriculum in the wrong direction. This varies by discipline, of course, but it always sounds strange to me when people laud accreditation as the gold standard of a program's quality. Look at NCATE accreditation--some of the best teacher education programs say "Thanks but no thanks."</p>
<p>*2. "University" * The word "university" in an institution's name is the last thing I'd look at in determining a "first." If you're talking about adopting the traditional German model of a university, then I'd say Cornell, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins would be the ones best able to lay claim to being the earliest in the country.</p>
<p>drj, I meant in general. Grad school is still a little ways off. I was just wondering what I ought to be doing in college to be on the right track.</p>
<p>also, thanks to SamLee and TheCity.</p>