New U.S. News & World Report Top College rankings

I was told by several j-school professors once you get the newspaper experience the degree doesn't mean shit.

All of them said the first job was the only one where the degree mattered. After that it was the quality of your work.

 

Do you ever wonder they're teaching and not working at a paper? It's because they know jack squat about how real-world journalism works.

 

So, you could have all the experience in the world, have great clips, and the degree you got say, 20 years ago, is still gonna matter?

 

Stitch, almost every journalism professor I ever met or indeed heard of had a ton of high-level experience -- many with resumes beyond distinguished. They taught because they got to an age where they wanted to do something else, or as has become more common, an age where they were making more money than their news organizations wanted to pay anyone.

 

One of these guys spent five years at the AJC and four years at the OC Register. He knows what he is talking about.

 

Yeah, I was going to say that I went to a well-known university (but not well-known for its journalism school) and all my profs had years of full-time experience working at big-city papers. All but one had a doctorate. The one who didn't was a "visiting" professor as he worked as the capital bureau chief for one the two biggest papers in the state.