| After my first few quarters at Medill, I thought about transferring too. You can even look back at my posts and see my desperate requests for advice. Well guess what. I'm still here. I'm a senior. I'm about to graduate. And I've loved my Medill experience. Yeah, Medill is going through a lot of changes. Classes have a different emphasis. But I don't think it'll be for the worse. I like to complain about Medill 20/20 as much as the next Medill kid, but I still think Medill gave me great chances to contribute to public service. There are still professors who really believe in journalism.
I also believe that what makes Medill really great isn't so much the classes as the community of students and faculty who are passionate about writing and muckraking. If the dean doesn't -- who cares. You don't have to interact with him. I've been inspired by some of my professors, my classmates, and the student publications at Northwestern. I've been involved in The Daily Northwestern for several years -- including being editorials "forum" editor -- and that has been a more valuable experience to me than any classroom.
Medill's career services are still great. Without them, I would not have gotten my internship at The Charlotte Observer last year, and The Associated Press this summer. And I wouldn't have gotten a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internship and scholarship.
Basically what I'm saying is, Medill is worth it. You just have to be willing to put effort into your education. It's not all about sitting in class. If that's all you do, then not only are you wasting your own time, you're wasting everybody else's, too. |