Where should i look for journalism

College Search & Selection
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<p>If you insist on majoring in journalism, double major in a real subject like economics or business, religion or chemistry, history or politics. Too many journalists wind up knowing how to write and organize a story on issues they know nothing about. More often than not, they get it wrong.</p>

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<p>I totally agree with TSDad on this one. The most successful journalists are the ones who know how to look at the both the big picture and the small little details. Knowledge in a particular area is always very useful and can set you apart when it comes time to hunt for your first job (and jobs later in your career as well.) </p>

<p>And, if you have a strong area of interest, consider specializing. There are plenty of general reporters, but there are fewer science journalists, technology journalists, business journalists, political journalists, arts journalists, religion journalists, and health journalists. </p>

<p>Of course, no matter what, strong research, writing and people skills are critical. I'd add having tough skin when it comes to criticism to the list of characteristics successful journalists need. If you don't like to do research, hate paying attention to details, are shy about interviewing strangers, suffer from frequent bouts of writer's block, and don't like to see your work slashed by an editor, don't become a journalist! :)</p>

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<p>University of Wisconsin-Madison!!! They're grad school for journalism is VERY good!</p>

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<p>Mizzou, its the very first School of Journalism. The only one which owns and runs and city newspaper and is always ranked number one.</p>

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<p>i went to a journalism summer program at northwestern and learned just about everything there is to know about journalism.. that school is wonderful. ok that was an exaggeration but i really did learn a lot. unfortunately it taught me that journalism is probably not the path i want to take.. although i may freelance in the future.</p>

<p>obviously northwestern is the best you can get. but don't worry if northwestern is out of your reach. there are plenty of good journalism schools, including u of maryland which comes at a great price as a public school.</p>

<p>i talked to producers for cnn, senior writers for wall street, editors of newsweek, reporters for people magazine who have interviewed everyone from paul hamm to rod stewart. and let me tell you the one thing they all agreed upon. your grades and the college you earned them at really don't matter. what matters are your clips (published articles) and your experience. much of the advice you were given here is credible, but what you really need to know is..</p>

<p>LOOK FOR SCHOOLS WITH A GOOD SCHOOL NEWSPAPER. ITS JUST AS IMPORTANT, IF NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN A GOOD JOURNALISM PROGRAM.. OR EVEN AN EXISTING JOURNALISM PROGRAM!!</p>

<p>ok sorry i don't know why did that in caps. but i'm serious. when you apply for jobs they will want your clips and you want to show them clips from a quality school newspaper. northwestern has a great journalism program because you intern full-time for a semester or something like that at a reputable newspaper/broadcasting station/magazine like people or newsweek, etc. (or even a newspaper in another country, i think.. im not sure) and that gives you great, graet, great experience. so look for a college that allows you to do that.. but even if you can't find one, you can always intern during teh summer which is a GREAAAT IDEA.</p>

<p>another piece of advice. don't be fighting your way to become an editor. when you apply to being reporting in the real world, its better to have lots of experience reproting and writing for your school newspaper than editing for it. you will learn how to be an editor when you work.</p>

<p>sure a degree from medill may help you but not as much as a good amount of clips and internships. i would say a degree from a good journalism program is good because they will teach you the right way to write and get you used to ap style and grammatical rules so you enter the journalism world knowledgable. when i went to the summer program i realized that my way of writing and my punctuation and format were very faulty even though my high school offers two years of journalism.</p>

<p>all of the soursces i listed above told me this. i didn't bs any of it. some of them said they got crappy grades at medill/other journalism schools because they spent most of their time writing/reporting for their newspaper rather than studying.. and it paid off.</p>

<p>anyway, feel free to PM me with further questions. even though i'm only a high school student i am very encouraging of people looking to study journalism.. its a rough job but i think its really rewarding.</p>

<p>P.S. i think princeton review has a list of 'best college newspapers'. don't listen to pr! there stupid! i hate their rankings! ahem.</p>

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<p>I don't plan on applying to Mizzou, but they have one hell of a Journalism program. Hands down, if I was going in journalism, it would be at Mizzou.</p>

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<p>me too kinglin. I was really interested in journalism for a long time, and as good as NU is, Mizzou is better. You can't do better than mizzou :p</p>

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<p>I was wondering what everyone thought about this. If a student was interested in journalism they could still go to HYPS (which don't offer journalism as a major) and be in as great position to acquire a job as they would at a top journalism school, especially if they go to Columbia grad school. Am I right?</p>

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<p>personally i think it is so stupid to go to a school that doesn't offer journalism if you know that's what you want to do because if that's your undergrad you don't even need grad school :)</p>

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<p>What would you say about a school that doesn't have an undergrad journalism program (or at least not a very good one), but does have a good independent student newspaper? I would major in something like political science that would be my specialization, as carolyn said.</p>

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<p>Oh and if your wanting to go to graduate school, Mizzou gives out the most A's in the state of Missouri. And it's not because that's where are top students go, I'd rather say it's where are average/above average go.</p>

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<p>what are the drawbacks of attending the best university or LAC you can get into and afford, read constantly, write at every opportunity, start your own blog, question everything, be a skeptic, work on the best school newspaper at the best university you can get into...rather than attending a journalism program at a school that may not be as good as you can be??? You could go to St Johns in Annapolis and study Aristotle and still come out a red meat eating reporter with a million dollar education. journalism is still who what when where how isn't it???? if you look at the resumes of the best (ie your favorite) journalists I'll wager youll find more English Literature or Political Science majors than journalism majors.....Lisa, forgive me.....</p>

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<p>I'm looking to major in print journalism (although I'm thinking more and more about also doing advertising).</p>

<p>Visited Mizzou, liked it, but didn't love it. Of course, now there's tons of pressure for me to go there because it's program is amazing, and I would receive automatic scholarships and be placed in the honors college. </p>

<p>At the same time, it makes me nervous. If I change my mind about journalism in college, I wouldn't be as comfortable at Mizzou. It isn't as strong of a school in other areas. Whereas other schools I'm looking into, such as U of Wisconsin-Madison, are strong schools overall. Plus, I like them more.</p>

<p>Any advice on the matter?</p>

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<p>Also, what are good things to major in with journalism? I was considering advertising, Spanish, or political science.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
At the same time, it makes me nervous. If I change my mind about journalism in college, I wouldn't be as comfortable at Mizzou. It isn't as strong of a school in other areas. Whereas other schools I'm looking into, such as U of Wisconsin-Madison, are strong schools overall. Plus, I like them more.

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<p>This is what worries me as well. I mean, after being recommended Mozzou, i took a look at their site and the statistics in collegeboard and the university didn't give me a good overall impression. But now i hear that it's only their journalism program that is worth the efforts.
Of course, i intend to double major. Studying only journalism will not give me a flying start.</p>

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<p>Btw, which of these are most appropriate for international students?</p>

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<p>I know that there are a lot of schools who do well in Journalism that have a great environment for Internationals. Mizzou, Northwestern are great and don't forget Syracuse. However, Ohio Univ. does very well in Journalism and has 9% international student population - which I think is the largest of the bunch.</p>

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<p>9% international students at USC.</p>

<p>Home page for Anneberg School of Communication:
<a href="http://ascweb.usc.edu/home.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ascweb.usc.edu/home.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Home page for School of Journalism within Annenberg:</p>

<p><a href="http://ascweb.usc.edu/asc.php?pageID=30%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ascweb.usc.edu/asc.php?pageID=30&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Faculty at School of Journalism:</p>

<p><a href="http://ascweb.usc.edu/asc.php?pageID=26&sort=jour%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ascweb.usc.edu/asc.php?pageID=26&sort=jour&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I guess if your a geeky, nerdy guy, Mizzou isn't a school for you.</p>

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<p>SYRACUSE! My brother is majoring in magazine journalism there. He loves it.</p>

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<p>Actually for journalism you can pretty much go to any good college. Every college is going to have a school newspaper and probably a campus radio station, and the town is going to have a paper where you can be an intern. There are more opportunities in larger areas compared to rural locations, although in the rural location you might get to do a bit of everything.</p>

<p>The trend, though, is for journalists to be skilled in some area outside of journalism. For example, a major in the sciences is better able to write about public policy affected by science (pollution, global warming, stem cell research, etc) because they are cognizant of the science behind the policy. A poli-sci or history major has a leg up in covering politics and similar areas. If you have a minor in a foreign language you will be prepared to cover international events involving countries speaking that language; being able to interview locals in their own language is a valuable skill. And so on.</p>

<p>There are many paths into journalism, but the most important thing is to be involved from the get-go. Reading thru the thread I see spiker said the same thing, and he's right.</p>