('26) OR resident refining college list, journalism/sports media major, 3.7 GPA, $20k/yr

College Search & Lists
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Hi! Just finished a rough draft of my list — open to any suggestions for schools to have on my radar (mostly targets) before locking it in.

GPA/Academics:

  • 3.73 UW GPA, 3.82 W GPA. Top 12% of class (3 Cs in Physics, Sophomore English, and ECON, 6 B+/B, rest are A+s, As or A-s. Had some personal stuff happen sophomore year which made me take less core classes that year and have some NGs.)

  • 1 AP (Lit, taking Lang, Stats, Enviormental Science senior year)

  • taking SAT in August. Aiming for a 1400.

Extracurriculars:

Selected for JCamp, a national student journalism program

Columnist for a regional sports publication

Published three news articles for my city’s daily newspaper

Student advisor for PBS

Freelance photographer for sports and events

Served on my city’s youth council, where I helped advance an education bill to the state legislature

Student representative on my school district’s budget committee

Yearbook, school newspaper, NHS

Library volunteer

Awards: Scholastic Art & Writing honorable mention, diversity and inclusion in sports journalism regional award, honorable mention for best human interest package in broadcast journalism

Major: Journalism and Sports Media

Career Goal: Sports Reporter

Financial: ~20K a year COA

Ideal situation: Good journalism school with a strong student newspaper, sports media/internship opportunities, and professors who’ve worked in the field. I’d prefer more hands-on experience early on. I live in Oregon and would like to be in a city/suburban area outside the West Coast. Trying to avoid super humid regions (e.g. Texas/Deep South).

My list as it stands:

UOregon (Safety)

Washington State (Safety)

Mizzou (Target)

American (Target)

Temple (Target)

UW Madison (Target)

Hofstra (Target)

Butler (Target)

Syracuse (Reach)

BostonU (Reach)

UNC (Reach)

Northwestern (Super Reach)

Am I being realistic with this list? Just really wanting to hear suggestions from everyone here about other schools I should have on my radar before I lock my list in. Thx yall!

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Not really - your biggest issue is $20k.

Have you run any net price calculators to determine need ?I put BU below - you won’t get in but to help see if you have need, have your folks fill it out. BU is near $100k a year without need.

So all your privates - no chance unless you have need …they tell you how much you’ll pay. You don’t tell them.

But with a 3.7, 1400 - Syracuse and American are unlikely - forgetting cost. But you need to demonstrate interest at both. Take a tour on line etc. sign up for their email. BU and NU are flat out nos but both meet need.

UNC also meets need with loans but you have near zero chance.

The rest you can’t afford - public schools are for their student - so Mizzou isn’t going to support you. Wisconsin isn’t happening.

On your list, Hofstra, Butler, Tenple and Wasu are yes (as well as Oregon) but how will you afford them ? WASU is WUE.

The cheaper schools are where you don’t want to be - the south - but $20k isn’t happening.

So what kind of journalism - it matters ? If broadcast, I’m a Syracuse alum. I recently sat in on a session with two of my classmates who are well known sports journalists. One said - today everyone has an iPhone - so you can practice your craft anytime - in a hs gym doing play by play or outside doing a news standup.

When I was in school, I’m guessing 90% plus of us didn’t make it. My friend left SU due to affordability. Ended up at home school Montana. She had 20 in her class. All 20 got jobs. Point is you don’t need a big name.

U Oregon is $34,155 tuition, room and board ? How will you afford it ?

At $20k, can you commute from home or go to a community college ?

In WUE, some Cal States like Chico, Boise State, Idaho, Weber State and Wyoming will get you to $23-25k ish.

Southern Oregon looks to be the best bet for a four year in state. Still over $20k but not much.

So at a 1400 3.7 your list is quite ambitious. But your budget is your biggest hindrance. But it’s a field that the where matters little. There are bigger name schools but journalists come from many places and most will end up doing something else.

So make sure to have a double major.

Good luck.

PS - Oregon has Pathways Oregon - if you are Pell Grant eligible, then you’d have tuition and fees covered - and UO would be possible for you under budget.

PathwayOregon is awarded to incoming first-year students who meet these criteria:

  • Oregon residents who graduate from an Oregon high school
  • Incoming domestic first-year student
  • A minimum 3.40 cumulative high school grade point average on a 4.00 scale
  • Eligible for a Federal Pell Grant**
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This seems high with 3 Cs and 6 Bs. Assuming a semester calendar and 5 core courses each semester, that would be a 3.6 uw GPA (3 Cs, 6 Bs, 21 As where all As = 4 pts/class, B = 3, and C=2.)

Will you have taken four years of courses in each of the five core subject areas (Eng, Sci, SS, Math, foreign language)?

I agree that you have to run the NPCs for all schools on your list, let us know if you qualify for need based aid. It’s difficult to suggest schools before knowing that.

Let’s start with the safeties…is U Oregon affordable? Wash State might get close with WUE and merit, but everyone is not guaranteed WUE.

It won’t be possible for American, Madison, Hofstra and Butler to get to your budget. IMO UNC, NU, and BU aren’t realistic reaches. If the NPCs look affordable maybe pick one to apply to, but I wouldn’t pay the application fees and write the supplements for all of them.

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Do these schools’ net price calculators indicate affordability, or do they have assured merit scholarships that would reduce the price to be affordable?

If they are not assured to be affordable as well as assured to admit you, then they are not safeties.

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Run the NPCs!!! And then keep looking for schools and keep running them.
In my experience — privates - except for your in state options - provide better need. Many public’s won’t give OOS students anything.

We found with a more limited budget, it was good to be willing to flex on some of your ideal requirements. Maybe you can find a small private in a more rural area that is a good match otherwise.

Look at the list of great schools for students with 3.4-3.8 GPA. A lot of nice options — and again run NPCs.

I’ve run probably a hundred NPCs — and I’m not joking. Its the only way to know if something might be affordable.

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As others have said, the 20K budget is going to be the biggest problem. Presumably you have documented financial need, but your stats, while very solid, aren’t going to get you into the schools that are the most generous with need-based aid, nor land you large merit scholarships at highly-competitive schools. The trick is going to be finding someplace you like that you can afford. The 20K is your out-of-pocket budget? So theoretically, you could attend somewhere that costs 20K + Pell + guaranteed loans? That would mean that your affordability threshold would be around 33K/year, max, although of course less debt is preferable.

You might want to have a look at U of Nevada, Las Vegas. There are many opportunities there in terms of sports journalism, both with teams that are based there (both college and professional) and with the many events and tournaments that come to Las Vegas. Accordingly, UNLV has a Sports Media program that deserves a look: Sports Media The WUE discount puts the sticker price for UNLV around 34K/year, and I would think that you could expect an additional merit discount. It’s hot there, of course, but not humid! (And flights to get there tend to be direct and cheap.)

I’m not familiar with how much need-based, state-level aid is available in Oregon; do you know what your out-of-pocket costs would be at UofO? This may end up being the clear winner, and the sports journalism opportunities sound pretty good.

Certainly, shoot the moon with some well-chosen reach schools that would give you enough aid. You have strong EC’s and a solid transcript, so you never know. But definitely have affordable targets and safeties locked down.

And as others have said, run NPC’s and investigate how much merit your schools offer. If there’s no path to affordability at a given school, then there’s no point in applying, and I’m pretty sure there are some on your list that could be eliminated on this basis.

In Philly, you might want to try Drexel in addition to Temple. They don’t guarantee full-need-met aid, but they give both need-based and merit aid, and it might be possible for merit to fill the gap between your need and the need-based aid offered. The co-op model could help you get your foot in the door in a tough industry. (Same with Northeastern, in Boston, although that’s a tougher admit.)

Good luck! I think you’ve got a good fallback in UofO, assuming the finances work, so there’s no point in applying anywhere that you don’t prefer to this very good option.

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Unlikely that you will be viewed as a competitive candidate for admission to BU, and highly unlikely that you will be a competitive applicant at UNC or Northwestern.

Ignoring costs (COA), look at the offerings at the University of Iowa major in Sports Media & Culture. Do these courses interest you ?

Again, ignoring COA, examine the Sports Journalism major at ASU (Arizona State University) and a related major at Auburn University.

Have you visited Temple University in North Philadelphia ? Fairly rough area of the city.

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Hi! I really appreciate all the responses here. To answer some of the questions: yes, I do qualify for federal and need based aid. My $20K budget isn’t a hard cutoff—more of a starting point. I definitely plan to run NPCs soon!

For the transcript thing, most of my Bs are B+s which goes as a 3.3 on my transcript, which inflates my gpa a little bit.

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Ignoring COA, you might look into Ohio University; traditionally it has had a strong journalism program.

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This is surprising to me for both schools. Can you share a bit more why you think that American & Syracuse are unlikely to make an offer of admission to OP.

Thank you in advance !

P.S. OP, apply to both Syracuse & American. Syracuse was desperate for students this year and made repeated discounted offers (increased scholarships) to accepted students who initially declined Syracuse’s offer of admission. Will the same occur next cycle ? Maybe, maybe not, but Syracuse may just offer larger discounts upfront with an offer of admission.

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If that’s a cutoff - you need a real #. But again - you look at top play by play guys -Beloit, William Paterson and more -so you don’t need a top J school. Many don’t even have journalism degrees.

If you get a good SAT, Bama can come in well. Ms State has a strong journalism program but focused on meteorology. But you don’t need a name.

Redo your gpa with whole #s please. So an A = 4, B = 3…lose the +.33 and minus .33. If you have more pluses than minus, you gpa will go lower.

Have your family run the BU NPC I put above.

And talk to them about the max they can pay. BU, as an example, for on campus, is $91.342 just for tuition, room and board.

So $20k is not realistic. Is $30k? $50k. The most generous schools will likely be unobtainable based on stats.

In some ways top schools are more difficult than non top. Sure SU has WAER and WJPZ (Z 89) and a ton of kids competing for spots. Southern Oregon - likely not. And yes you’ll hear a lot about Mike and Ian and yes they’re awesome. In my day it was all about Bob Costas and Marc Albert.

You need repetition moreso than education in the field.

That’s why Kevin Burkhardt is William Paterson, Joe Davis Beloit - the college name is not making these guys - that I’ll promise you.

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I also think American is a solid target admit-wise, assuming OP shows interest, but they are not historically generous with aid so it may be out of reach financially.

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Need significant aid although we don’t know the schools will agree - and Newhouse as a harder admit hurts the OP. Newhouse is very over subscribed. Acceptance rates have really dropped.

And same for AU, which will have more interested in politics - sounds like sports is it.

For kids with high need, need aware isn’t your friend. AU fell $22 million short last year - I don’t see giving big money away but it would be an easier admit than Newhouse.

SU sociology, as an example, is different than SU Newhouse. So that’d be an easier way in.

Just how I see it - right or wrong.

Also the OP hasn’t taken the test. I know they hope for 1400 but we don’t know yet.

Thanks

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Chiming in on a potential error in your post – Just because BU is $91K doesn’t mean that need based aid won’t bring that within budget. We don’t really know the OPs financial situation.

For example, the NPC gets Northeastern (in similar COA to BU) down to 18K COA for my family. It’s why I suggest running NPCs. The costs are really, really dependent on how a school figures out need and merit. Colorado State ends up at 45K for us. That’s why I encouraged the OP to run as many NPC as they can -and to focus on privates because they often provide more $.

ETA: Needing THAT much need definitely impacts acceptance rates -which stinks -but sometimes you have to shoot your shot.

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Yes, I put the BU NPC in my first response and asked OP to have their parents fill it out - so we can see.

In fact, my second line in the initial post (post #2 in the thread) is this:

Have you run any net price calculators to determine need ?I put BU below - you won’t get in but to help see if you have need, have your folks fill it out. BU is near $100k a year without need.

So I am trying to get him to measure aid - but noting with a 3.7, 1400, the OP is unlikely to get in regardless.

But measuring aid is very important - because U Oregon isn’t affordable - unless Pell eligible, etc.

Of course, then OP said - $20K is not necessarily the budget later.

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I just asked my husband, who has been a journalist for 30 years, the following questions, and these were his answers:

Would you advise a kid today to go to journalism school? (Snort) no.

What would you advise a kid to do who wants to be a journalist? Find another career.

I don’t want to rain on your parade, but It is really tough out there.

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I first got my physical therapy license 36 years ago, and I feel the same way about young people going into that field today. So do my friends who have had careers in higher education, K-12 education, law, the arts, the nonprofit sector… the list goes on. It’s tough out there in so many careers. I really feel for young people today. My generation has pulled the ladder up behind us in so many ways; it’s really hard to know how to advise students to find both financial security and fulfillment in their careers.

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The college from the town I grew up in has a college radio station that broadcasts all its games (basketball, football, hockey) as well as other things of interest to the town and the university. I don’t know if it has a specific department for Sports Reporting, but the students sure get a lot of experience. The high school is also quite successful in sports (basketball state champs 3 years in a row, championship runners, football does okay) so there were opportunities for interviews, print and radio, of the local teams. In the summers, the radio station even followed American Legion baseball (big in our town).

My daughter’s college also has a radio station run by the students, but it doesn’t broadcast the sports. That’s all done by streaming. The guy who does the announcing is awful. Really awful. He knows basketball, and does every game as if it is basketball. Even a parent here on CC noted how bad this guy is, and that parent just happened to be listening to a game. Things got better for my daughter’s games (lax) when they’d invite some of the men’s team players to be guests in the booth. The men’s and women’s games are different (rules, equipment, number of players) but the guys at least knew they were different. If a media student had wanted an opportunity to be part of a broadcast, all he’d have had to do was volunteer (and learn a little about the game).

So look for some hidden gems. You could be the star at a smaller school.

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My daughter graduated BU in May with her DPT, a couple of weeks later she decided to reach out to some of her past clinicals, got 3 job offers in under 2 weeks (1 was exactly what she was looking for and she enjoyed her clinical, she starts in September).

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Just curious: why is PT a bad field to go into right now?

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