If you graduate from a top-notch school, is it easy to get a feature job?

I am a journalism major at UCSD. Going into the business, I know that I must network and work extremely hard, but would the fact that I will be graduating from a respected and top-notch school give me a big advantage in the job hiring process?

Thank you

 

Can you still change your major?

 

Also worth noting that although I would like to go into the sports journalism business, I am open to working at other areas of journalism

 

If you graduate from a good journalism program with good clips, great internships and relationships with professors, that's the best you can do.

If you don't have good clips, good internship experience or network, you might as well have gone to La Jolla School of Kayaking.

 

I'm sure that's a fine school, but few schools will get any particular attention from potential employers, and that isn't one of them.

 

Undergraduate Majors at UC San Diego

I don't see journalism on this list.

 

I'm not even sure what UCSD stands for, so I'm gonna guess no.

 

The post before yours gave you the S and the D, so consider the state and what the U stands for and I think you will get it.

 

We posted at the same time.

 

Ahhh. U Cal San Diego. I wouldn't have thought of that as a top journalism school, but then again I have to admit an East Coast bias. Didn't realize USC was so highly regarded.

Top 10 journalism colleges in the United States

Of course these lists change year to year. Not to dissuade the OP or sound so cynical, but I know someone who went to a pretty elite undergrad school then to NYU for his masters and was making about 40k after 6 years (local news, not sports) at a mid-size paper. He's as smart and talented as anyone I've worked with, and after seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, he decided to go to law school.

 

Like I said above, UCSD Doesn't have a journalism program. So, this kid is lying or is very misinformed on what his major actually is.

 

Yeah, and I was being flip but if the question is if his school will give him a "big advantage" then I think the answer is no.

A professor with connections who is willing to put in a call for you is probably more valuable than the name at the top of the degree.