College for Journalism Degree

Today a buddy and me started talking about the best colleges for journalism. I said Depaul and he said Vanderbilt. Any thoughts?

 

Best ... and affordable? Best ever? Best for graphics? Best for photography? Best for writing?

Lots of choices, kiddo.

 

Best and affordable

 

True, but there's just as many idiots there as there are at lesser-known schools.

You can get an excellent education at those places, but you also can do well at places off the radar. The big advantage is that places like Northwestern, Mizzou and Syracuse can lead to strong internships or offer quasi-realistic work experiences on campus.

 

You really said DePaul? When one of the country's top journalism programs is eight miles to the north? Tell me, what is DePaul's journalism department known for?

 

Richard Daley?

 

M. or J.?

 

Either

 

I say go to Northwestern or Syracuse. Everyone I've ever worked with from those places has been extremely good.

Not so impressed with the Mizzou grads. Great school, yeah, but I've worked with plenty of Mizzou grads who rest on the laurels of being a Mizzou grad. As in, not pushing hard to go forward from that.

That's just my experience. I'm sure there are plenty of great Mizzou grads out there. But I've never been disappointed by a Northwestern grad or a Syracuse grad. Those grads show up strong and get right to work.

 

Yeah. You should have said "a buddy and I." Journalism professors tend to kind of big on that grammar thing.

 

I've always heard heard Missouri and North Carolina are the top. I don't know... didn't go to either one. But 15 years ago when I was in college, profs at my own school said they were the best.

 

I can speak from experience about North Carolina's program. The J-school offers several sequences: news-editorial (writing/editing), visual communication, electronic communication (TV, radio), advertising, and PR. They are very good as far as writing goes, and there are plenty of publications you can write for (and if you're covering sports for the student paper, plenty of good teams to cover). I only took a few of the design courses when I was there, but from everything I've heard and seen, they've built a pretty strong viz-comm sequence in the near decade since I graduated (especially in multimedia, which is becoming more and more important in journalist training). The student paper's writing is pretty solid, but the design isn't as polished as some other school papers, such as Ball State. And if you're interested in broadcast journalism, they just added a brand new studio in the school. As far as cost goes, UNC is always ranked as one of the best values among public universities, especially if you're in-state.