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Hello. I just want to say thanks in advance to anyone who helps me with my situation. My goal is to become a sports journalist, whether it be writing for a newspaper, magazine, or appearing on a sports TV or radio show. I pretty much had my mind made up about what college I wanted to go to, until I realized I was choosing it for the wrong reasons. The school I had in mind was a big party school with an awesome sports program that I have been a die-hard fan of since I was a kid. That's not the most important part of a school though, so now I'm searching for a college more suited for what I need. I want a fairly large university, preferably in an urban atmosphere. I would go crazy in a rural setting. I'm also looking for a college with a very strong Journalism program. I'm interested in a few colleges that I have researched, such as Syracuse and USC, and I would like to know what everyone thinks about these two. Which has the better journalism program? Is Syracuse a pretty cool city? What type of students go to these colleges? And most importantly, would it be a fun place to live for 4 years? If anyone knows any other colleges with strong journalism programs, please tell me about it. Thanks, and sorry for such a long post.

By Ak_Theanswer (Ak_Theanswer) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 12:42 am: Edit

Another place I forgot to mention was Boston University. I think it would awesome to live in Boston, plus I heard good things about there academics. Any info on Boston, or any other good journalism colleges, is greatly appreciated. thanks.

By Sac (Sac) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 01:07 am: Edit

Northwestern. But, really, any college that appeals to you where you can work hard on the student newspaper and maybe accumulate some clips on a community paper as well.

By Ak_Theanswer (Ak_Theanswer) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 01:12 am: Edit

Northwestern does look like a good college. I heard good things about their journalism program, plus its in the Chicago area. I love Chicago. Thanks Sac.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 11:29 am: Edit

I went to Syracuse's Newhouse School ---- it's a fantastic school and I have benefited in many ways over the years from the skills and connections made during my time there. The alumni network is very impressive and helpful plus the Newhouse name has always seemed to get a positive response from prospective employers. One of the great things about Newhouse is it has its own separate endowment so facilities are always state-of-the-art - great for TV broadcasting in particular. Newhouse is a great place for people interested in sports journalism --- Go Orange! --- and judging from the alumni magazine there are many successful sportscasters, writers, etc as alumni. Marv Albert, for one. The school is very good about setting up internships and has an excellent job placement program. If you want to be on the East Coast and work in journalism, you can't go wrong. However, SU also has a terrific national reputation -- I now live in California and still find that the SU Newhouse background is a plus in job interviews.

As for the city of Syracuse - well, first off, it IS cold and snowy for a good part of the year. That's the main negative. The positives are that SU is a very fun place - lots of parties if you want them, good concerts, many activities. The main social life off campus takes place on the nearby streets so you don't really go into downtown Syracuse all that much because there's so much to do just on and around campus. I was never bored. The thing I really liked about Syracuse was the diversity - not only were there students from every state and from around the world, but you met students studying all sorts of interesting things - you weren't just hanging around with the communications majors.

BU and Northwestern are also great journalism schools. If you're looking for a smaller school, Ithaca College has a good program and is in a good college town.

By Njjunior (Njjunior) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 05:23 pm: Edit

George Washington has a good journalism program.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 05:41 pm: Edit

Northwestern has a fantastic, maybe the best, journalism program. Also, Quinnipiac has a good journalism program (but I think that's rural)...

By Spartan858585 (Spartan858585) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 01:20 am: Edit

Northwestern has the best Journalsim program. Plus Michael Wilbon from the Washington Post and the show PTI on ESPN went there.

By Ak_Theanswer (Ak_Theanswer) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 01:37 am: Edit

Anyone know a website where I can find a ranking of journalism/communications colleges, just to get an idea? I've seen the Princeton Review and US News, but those just rate overall.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 11:58 am: Edit

AK:

http://www.theihs.org/libertyguide/subcategory.php/9.html#dr

Journalism School Rankings
US News & World Report Rankings (1996)

1.
Univ. of Missouri at Columbia

2.
Columbia University (N.Y.)

3.
Northwestern Univ. (Medill) (Ill.)

4.
Univ. of N.C. at Chapel Hill

5.
Indiana Univ. at Bloomington

6.
University of Florida

7.
Ohio University (Scripps)

7.
Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison

9.
Univ. of California at Berkeley

9.
University of Kansas (White)

11.
Univ. of Md. at College Park

11.
University of Texas at Austin

13.
Syracuse U. (Newhouse) (N.Y.)

14.
Arizona State Univ. (Cronkite)

15. Univ. of Minn. at Twin Cities
(Rankings determined by responses to questionnaires returned by leading deans and faculty members)


Gourman Report 10th Ed. 1998
Top Journalism and Mass Communications Programs

1.
University of Missouri-Columbia

2.
Northwestern University

2.
Syracuse

4.
Minnesota

5.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

6.
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

7.
University of Wisconsin-Madison

8.
Ohio State University Columbus

9.
Michigan State University

10.
University of Southern California

11.
NYU

12.
Indiana University-Bloomington

13.
University of Washington

14.
University of Kansas

15.
University of Texas at Austin

16.
Kansas State

17.
Marquette University

18.
University of Iowa

19.
University of Colorado Boulder

20.
Ohio University

By Sac (Sac) on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 01:06 pm: Edit

This shows the problem with rankings. Are these undergraduate or graduate programs? (Columbia and UC Berkeley, for example, only offer graduate programs). Are you interested in journalism or mass communications? Some programs only have one or the other. By mass communications do you mean public relations or the study of media? Neither of those will get you far if your interest is writing for a newspaper. These lists are apples and oranges.
If your interest is, in fact journalism, you'd be better off looking up the faculty bios and seeing how many have been working journalists, with what publications, how recently. Avoid the schools where the faculty have PhDs in communications instead of journalistic experience, unless your interest is to be an academic. Look at the campus newspapers. Honest, in journalism, unlike medicine or law, it's not really where you went to school and what grades you got in journalism courses, it's the clippings you accumulate either in the campus newspaper or in internships. Some schools, like Northwestern with its huge undergraduate program, may be better set up to help you get internships. On the other hand, being some place that is less urban but has some good community newspapers could give you some good opportunities, too.

By Samia (Samia) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 09:06 pm: Edit

As a recent high school grad interested in journalism who applied to colleges for the fall 2003 term, I have my own personal list of school's with great journalism programs.
If you wish to be on the west coast, the only school I can suggest is USC's Annenberg School of Communications. Amazing school with alot of money, meaning the opportunities are endless. I'd say those rankings above are pretty accurate. Univ of Miss- Columbia is great, as is UNC Chapel Hill, Syracuse, and Boston U. I must say that Northwestern's Medill school is amazing. They even require you to have an internship somewhere else in the country during your junior year, which they set up for you. I'm very happy with my acceptance at USC, however in my opinion, Northwestern is a top-notch choice.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 09:11 pm: Edit

I think Northwestern is everything you want in a school. It has (arguably) the best journalism program, is located in an urban setting, and has a great athletic department. It isn't too small either.

Also, on a side note, I heard the girls were very good looking there...

By Senjer (Senjer) on Saturday, August 23, 2003 - 01:41 am: Edit

The University of Missouri-Columbia is an awesome place to go if you want to major in Journalism. (I am a little biased, I currently am enrolled at MU)

GO TIGERS, but University of Missouri-Columbia and Northwestern University both two awesome places. (I almost went to Northwestern.)

By Shradha (Shradha) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 06:35 am: Edit

im another gal lukin for journalism schools. i currently study in singapore. this discussion has been really helpful to me in looking up schools. can anyone guide me about schools for broadcast journalism? thnx! and oh i would like a school which is kinda colloquial..