rj10792

I know Columbia is pretty much at the top of the list as journalism goes, and that they have the grad program for journalism, but do they still have an undergrad journalism program? If not, what're the best majors to pursue to get into the grad school for journalism?

Denzera

Probably English, Polisci, History... or even Economics if you want to do business journalism (you know, Bloomberg and Reuters and the like).

The person I know who writes for Bloomberg got her BA in English (and music), and then went to Northwestern's J-school (which is just as equally well regarded if not more so) for her one-year MSJ. A girl I dated who also coincidentally went to Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern had also majored in english (and done a whole bunch of literary stuff in high school), and now works for Simon & Schuster.

So that's anecdotal evidence but I'd say English is a pretty good bet.

sac

There is no best major. The key is to get involved in campus publications and off-campus internships. Picking up languages is a plus. Business and science writing are probably going to be growth areas even as the rest of the news business shrinks. But follow your interests academically so that you do well, and focus your ecs on accumulating clips, or the broadcast equivalent. It may turn out that you don't need to go on to J school if you get enough good internship experience along the way. NYC and Columbia offer some great opportunities.

Columbia2009

You can major in anything and still do journalism. A lot of my friends are looking to go into the field, and their academic interests run the gamut.

Internships, especially during the school year, are key. You'll have a lot of great opportunities in that respect if you go to Columbia...
definitely more than at any other school not located in New York. (For print media, especially magazines, New York is very much the professional nerve center.)

Finally, a plug: if you're interested in journalism at Columbia, look into joining the Spectator in some capacity. For all its foibles (and there are many), it's one of the better college newspapers in the country, and you can make a lot of good contacts (not to mention friends) by working for it.

Oh, also: In the long term, j-school is unnecessary but perhaps helpful, although different schools differ a lot with regard to their curricular emphases (e.g, Columbia's tends to emphasize things like media theory and other more conceptual approaches to the field, while schools like Medill at Northwestern or the Missouri School are more practically minded). Columbia's is at the very top of the field, though, and is (according to journalists whom I've spoken to at all sorts of publications) arguably still the most prestigious. (The fact that the school gives out the Pulitzers is just one indicator of why this is so.) Anyway, I know a lot of people who have gone into the field--or are in the process of finishing school and entering it--who have no intention of going to j-school. It depends on one's academic interests and desire to study journalism as a discipline, more than anything else.