College for Journalism Degree

I wish I would have went to truck driving school.

 

you'd see the world if you would have joined the army, though, not just the US.

 

Quinnipiac in Connecticut is on the rise, too. I went there for my masters, where my classes were held in a building named for Ed McMahon, who made a very large donation to the school.

 

I agree with trifecta ... this is a profession where you learn from doing.

It makes more sense to attend a solid school in-state instead of going tens of thousands in debt to go out of state just so you can go into a profession that won't make you enough money to pay off that debt in a reasonable amount of time ...

 

Well I am transferring this year, and I think Depaul is where I am going to go. Its between there or the University of North Texas.

 

Was that a typo on the date, Starman? Because I clearly remember taking journalism classes when I was at Michigan from 1990-94. They killed off the journalism classes around 1996. If I recall correctly - and I might not - the college dean said the decision was based on something like journalism and broadcasting weren't academic pursuits and students could get the same instruction at other institutions.

I'm pretty sure the progression was journalism department to communications department to the current communications studies department, which studies the psychology and sociology of communications and the media.

My thought was the journalism program was killed off because teaching people how to write news stories or do a TV or radio broadcast doesn't bring in grant money, while studying the effects of porn on teenage boys does.

Heck, they even tore down most of the Frieze Building last year to make room for a new dorm.

My advice to high school students would be to not go to Michigan unless they want to major in something other than journalism but intend to write for the Daily. Michigan's a great school for just about any major other than "journalism" or "communications."

Probably the biggest mistake in my career was not following through on writing for the Daily. I fully intended to when I started at U-M, but got caught up first in marching band, then taking enough classes each term so I could graduate in four years and try to get decent grades. I knew if I got hooked on the Daily I probably wouldn't have left the building because that's what happened sometimes at my high school paper. And it turned out the non-journalism classes were pretty tough, and I could've used more time to study, not less.

I wouldn't trade the band experience for anything, but I wish I had planned to take five years to graduate so I could have worked in time for the Daily to get some clips to help me get a job at a paper right out of college instead of five years later.

Then again, when I interviewed for the job I have now, the news editor told me they'd had Michigan grads interview there before and they couldn't even write a cutline. So maybe I didn't miss anything by not writing for the Daily.

I'm a big fan of a liberal arts education. If I had to do it again, I'd look for a school where I could take a range of English, history, poli-sci and science classes along with journalism classes and a student newspaper with either faculty advisers with real-world newspaper experience or upper classmen with really good internship experience. As playthrough's list shows, that doesn't necessarily mean a D-I school.

I'd still want to be in marching band, though. If money, grades and the difficulty of the application weren't considerations, I'd probably end up at Northwestern. I really liked Arizona back then, too. I have no idea if it would still be a good choice.

Prospective reporters also really need to get in with their local paper as a stringer to gain real-world experience. There is just so much more to getting a good start in a journalism career than where one goes to take college-level journalism classes.

 

You may be the first person in history who has had those schools as the final two.

 

Go to a solid j-school if possible, but my best advice would be to go where you can have the most fun. Go where it feels right. I didn't pick the best j-school on my list, but I picked the school I wanted to attend, and it had a j-school, and it was a big SEC school with a solid student paper (as far as those go) and tons of top-level sports to cover. Had a blast, loved some of my professors, worked hard, got a good break and a good job right out of graduation at a good-sized paper, and I have no regrets. I could have gone into lifestyle/humor writing or sports, and I got a good sports job lined up, and I love what I do.

 

i'm sorry that whole SEC thing had to ruin your whole college experience.

 

Haven't seen much discussion about the cost of college on this thread. While a lot more people than I expected seem to have sugar mommas and daddies paying their way through school these days, most of us have to pay that money back on our own.

Whether it's a journalism program or something else, what's the consensus here on how much debt is worth the degree?
Is the affordable in-state D3 school worth it compared to the twice-as-expensive, out-of-state "name" school? Or is a good degree pretty much worth it, no matter what the price?

Interested to hear what the board has to say on this issue ...

 

Enhanced it in nearly every way.

 

Great question and I'd be honored to answer it. I believe it was the great Ed Vedder who said during Red Mosquito: "If I had known then what I know right now." And I wish I would have discovered Tom Leykis when I was 18, but anyway...

I started out in the pre-business school in college and I changed my major to journalism after I completed the requirements to enter the business school. Why? Because I didn't enjoy all my business studies as much as I enjoyed writing about sports. That and the rampant cheating I saw among business students (this is no joke, by the way, it's almost a joke among the lines of how many different chicks you can run a train on at any given frat party on any given weekend. There have been numerous stories in rags like BusinessWeek about rampant cheating in business schools and they seem to get some "serious consideration" from university brass, but the criminals are always ahead of the cops in every phase of life) really disenfranchised me. Seems pretty simple, and with all the bullshit schools feed you about "love what you do, do what you love" and "pursuing your dreams," I thought I was making the right decision. Besides, I love writing about sports, so that makes the ends justify the means, right?

It only took me my first paycheck as a writer at a 30k daily to realize I fucked up. We all hear it going through school "you won't get paid dick." No one bothered to even tell me I'd make far less than a teacher, which, other than art students, I always considered the bottom of the salary totem pole while iln school. No one ever tells you "Your first paycheck is going to be for $11.00 per hour." Thankfully I'm making more than $11/hr, but not by much. Where I live, you can get a 1br apartment for less than $500 and still cash in $42k gross as a middle school teacher. I'd Phil Kessel/John Kruk myself for that kind of gid right now, I'd be fucking LOADED.

While I am responsible for my own decisions and am the only one who can suffer (and i mean that literally) the consequences of my actions, I really wish the counselors in my business school would have given me the business when I decided to change majors. Something along the lines of "Are you fucking nuts? Do you realize how much money you're passing up here over the course of five to 10 years to a career? This isn't just a fly-by-night decision you're making here, this has life-long ramifications." All I was asked when I told my counselor I wanted to change to journalism was "Why do you want to do this?" I responded "Because I enjoy writing about sports more than I do my business curriculum and classes." "OK. Rubber stamp"

For the first time in my life, I really like my job. But the thing that really sucks is the horrible hours, working second shift every weekend for an unforgivable bunch of suits who really don't care about their sports employees having weekend lives outside of work, nevertheless the quality of the editorial product (we could put out a newspaper wiped with feces and they wouldn't care as long as a paper with paid ads was put out 365 times a year), the horrible pay and the lack of respect for people in the newsroom. I still enjoy reporting and I actually like doing layout (something I never thought I'd say). But it's either health insurance or not investing in my 401k. I have a shitty car and if my car broke down terminally tomorrow (knock on wood), I'm borrowing money from my parents to buy another piece of shit because I can't afford to buy a decent car on my own. My savings is meager and I couldn't get a second job for over a year because no one wanted to hire me because I can't work nights and weekends there because my career already demands I work those hours. Thankfully for the mailroom, where I've been pitching in for the last year, I've been able to sack away some cash. If I hadn't done that, I'd barely have my head above water with a month's worth of savings to pay for rent if I, god forbid, was laid off.

I still believe I can make a decent living through editorial work, although obviously, it will never be in papers. While I will never hit six figures like others, I know the days of making low double figures per/hr will soon be behind me. But the fact of "doing what you love" doesn't even come close to offsetting scraping by in your early years while trying to be self sufficient was very, very humbling for me.

Journalism degrees are for kids who aren't paying for their schooling. My friends who went through the journalism school and are doing alright are ones who didn't have to pay tuition and/or rent in college and are living debt-free. My friends in the newsroom who actually have disposable income don't have trivial shit like student loans to payback, which allows them to take an impulse vacation to Rio for a week. Sorry, I can't swing that right now. It would be nice if I could afford something basic like another couch so I could actually have people over to my place. Or a TV bigger than 13". Those are the sacrifices you have to make, I guess.

"Hotel in Arizona made us all wanna feel like stars."