College question

Are you saying a college newspaper pays for a student reporter to travel --- in some cases thousands of miles --- to road games? I have never heard of that.

Back in the day, whatever travel we did to cover stuff was on our own dime. And this was long, long before the days of the internet or when every game was televised. Our school was lucky to have maybe 3 or 4 of its 11 games on TV when I was a student. Fortunately, geography was such that you could make a day trip for most conference games. Otherwise, you'd write it off the radio broadcast --- did plenty of that.

 

Don't pick a college based on whether they "allow" students to cover road games. If traveling with football is a real priority, find a college whose student paper travels on its own ...

 

As to the original question, I will echo what others have said. It's more about what YOU actually do (clips, videos, websites, etc.) than the name of the school.

I've been to Pullman, Washington. It's a bit remote, but there's absolutely no reason one can't do excellent work there, especially given all the resources and technology today.

 

Wazzu is an excellent school. You should get ample opportunity to write for the Evergreen, and to also string if you're aggressive, as many papers won't send anyone to Pullman for football, basketball, etc.

You could also pick up some opportunities string for papers whose teams play at Idaho. The Moscow Daily News has so much stuff to cover I'm sure they also need help either stringing or in the office.

Opportunities are where you find them.

 

The one thing I think "that school" -- whatever it ends up being for you -- can help with is a strong alumni network. I enjoy tremendously the networking I do with the Texas Exes.

 

I would also add one other thing to consider -- the number of papers near your school. Even if they cover your U, there might be opportunities to cover stuff the beat writer can't get to or maybe help out with high schools.