Where should I look for Graduate J-School

Graduate School
1

<p>Hey folks,</p>

<p>I'm currently rounding out my Junior Year at Texas State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism. I love what I study and even though I realize that the Journalism business is hurting right now, I've decided to make Graduate School a goal of mine. Here's my question: Where should I be looking to go? Obviously I have "dream schools" like Medill and Columbia, but I understand those are extreme reaches. Would I even have a chance at those, or should I be looking at good State University Journalism programs like UT and Mizzou. I'd love to hear your suggestions for good J-Schools. Here are my credentials:</p>

<p>Sex: Male
Race: White
College: Texas State University (Yes, I realize this is not a well-known or prestigious school, but it's Journalism program is accredited and often underrated and generally well received by employers)
GPA: 3.55
GRE: I have not taken it yet, but I'm studying hard!
Major: Broadcast Journalism
Minor: Political Communication
Extra Curricular Activities: I'm the Station Manager of our student radio station which broadcasts 24/7 at 10,500 watts and is one of the top 100 in the nation. As Station Manager I'm in charge of over 135 student employees. I have worked there for two and half years in a variety of jobs including the Program Director, Production Director and Assistant News Director as well as several volunteer positions like: DJ, News Reporter, News Anchor, Production Assistant and audio engineer. I'm also a member of SPJ and NBS.</p>

<p>Internships: I've interned with the NPR affiliate in Austin, KUT, in the news department during two different semesters. Both times I worked as a full-blown reporter and produced all my own stories for the local All Things Considered and Morning Edition newscasts. I've also interned with NPR's Next Generation Journalism project which is a week long radio journalism bootcamp.</p>

<p>Awards: I've won 1st place in the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association, TWO years in a row in the radio news category. I've also won first place at the Houston Press Club Awards and the Region 8 SPJ (Texas and Oklahoma) awards both times in radio news as well. I've won two National Awards: 2nd Place at the SPJ National Mark of Excellence awards in Radio News and I placed within the top ten in the Hearst Journalism Awards 2007 Radio News competition.</p>

<p>Stuff that I know sucks about me: I'm white, I'm not poor, I'm coming from a mediocre University and my GPA is mediocre.</p>

<p>I realize there are a lot of these threads but I'd really appreciate your input. Thanks!</p>

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<p>Though I can’t help you out with your actual question, I’ll recommend also heading over to thegradcafe.com for more advice. The people here tend to be more math/science folks, while my impression of thegradcafe is a more humanities-based crowd. Good luck!</p>

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<p>To OP:</p>

<p>Apart from Medill and Columbia, I’d say look into Berkeley, Mizzou, NYU, Syracuse, and USC…all stalwarts in the top 10 lists. There’s no reason to think with your grades and experience, with a decent GRE score, that you won’t get accepted into just about everywhere. If you want to know what that whole deal is like, PM me or check out my blog about graduate j-school. Good luck.</p>

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<p>carlstreator listed some good schools, and i’d add boston university to that list as well, especially for radio broadcasting.</p>

<p>your GPA isn’t the highest, but your resume seems pretty stacked. were any of your internships paid?</p>

<p>these schools are going to want writing samples from you. they won’t accept recordings of your broadcasts, unfortunately. since writing is the foundation of journalism, they want to see what you can do with the written word. if you don’t have any published writing (even student newspapers, though getting into local or state newspapers would be better), you could always submit a transcript of one of your radio broadcasts, but there are restrictions over how many pages you can send. even though you seem more than capable as a radio broadcaster, you should try to submit at least one written article that’s been published somewhere. if you don’t have anything in your portfolio, start writing now.</p>

<p>also… are you sure you want a masters? being white and male doesn’t matter. my white male friend got into columbia and he’s in radio broadcasting now. but he’s finished his degree and still slogging away at unpaid internships (with BBC and NPR). he can’t find anything paid even though he has his MJ in his hands. most of his graduating cohort is in the same boat as him, only they’ve been less successful than him at finding internships. honestly, he’s in about the same position as you are, only he lives in an overpriced and undersized apartment in brooklyn with some strangers he found on craigslist. try finding paid work as a journalist. i promise, i guarantee that working for 3 years will get you further than you will be once you’ve completed a masters (in one or two years), only you won’t be in debt for $60,000-80,000.</p>

<p>being poor doesn’t matter either because none of these schools will offer you a scholarship. sorry. NYU’s j-school offered me half-tuition and yet i had 3.74 GPA (4.0 major), my GRE verbal score was 95%ile, and a documentary i worked on (research and editing) was nominated for two news and doc emmys (luckily for me, in research and editing). even with emmy nominations on my CV, berkeley rejected me outright, columbia offered no money, northwestern offered no money, boston offered no money. so unless you can pay for this yourself or are prepared to take out loans, forget about fellowships.</p>

<p>think long and hard about why you want the masters. i totally support journalism as a profession, i am sad to see that so many good reporters and strong publications are struggling right now, and i think you should pursue this career path despite the current state of the economy and this industry in particular. but really, really consider why you want the masters. if you think it’ll open more doors for you, it might. it might do that, if you get into columbia or medill or berkeley or usc. they have strong alumni connections. but even those connections won’t necessarily lead to paying gigs.</p>