How likely would I be to get into Chapman school of communication based on my stats?
Your GPA is a bit below their median of 3.75, and your SAT is right at their 25th percentile. They have a relatively high acceptance rate of around 72%, and they’re need-aware, so if you’re a full-pay student who doesn’t qualify for aid, that helps a bit. It’s definitely possible that you could get in, but I wouldn’t give it better than 50% odds.
Also, if you do get in, it may very well be without any scholarship money. The current full-pay cost of attendance, for first-year students living on campus, is $87,730/year.
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Excellent program…but it’s at Ohio University (there is no U of Ohio) in Athens Ohio. This has been a strong program for many years, and one that flies under the radar. Winters can get chilly, but it’s southern Ohio so they aren’t horrible.
Athens is a great small college town (says this proud alum)
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I have no idea why I mis-typed that; I definitely knew it was Ohio U.
Synapse failure.
Edited to correct.
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I agree with @aquapt regarding Chapman.
According to its Common Data Set, rigor, academic GPA, and class rank are very important while test scores are “considered.” Almost 91% of students are in the top half of their class, and if your high school’s GPA is a 3.7, you would not be in the top half.
Since less than 40% of Chapman’s students submit a test, I don’t think a score at the 25th percentile is going to be a problem. And the overall admit rate is actually higher for females than for males (75% for females compared to 69% for males).
Based on that info, I’d classify Chapman as a toss-up (40-59%).
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You should try to avoid taking on any debt at all for your bachelor’s degree if this is possible.
I would recommend that you pick out one or two in-state public colleges or universities that are safeties for you and that have your major, and apply to them. You do not need to go there. However, when your parents get the “sticker shock” of seeing what university actually costs, it is nice to have at least one affordable acceptance in your back pocket just in case something else does not work out.
But then to me, “warm climate” would be New Jersey.
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Thanks for everyone’s advice!! Can someone chance on the College of Charleston
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You’ll get in - but they don’t have sports admin or journalism.
Apply early - someone with stats like yours last year didn’t get in (but late applied if I recall).
It won’t be inexpensive.
There are far better schools for journalism than either of these.
I saw Ohio U above from a couple posters; check out Mizzou, Miami Ohio, Indiana, Kansas. Down South you have Alabama and Ole Miss would both be excellent in these major areas, etc.
Mizzou has a great journalism program and I know two students who have gotten in (one this year, one last year) with stats similar to yours…and got scholarships! Good luck!
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College of Charleston will most likely accept you and they have a great communications dept and wonderful places to intern for your interests.
Look at UNC-Wilmington and Coastal Carolina for additional safeties.
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@ld14, can you explain more about what you’re hoping for in a college?
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If you like big schools with big rah rah sports, you might want to add LSU to your list. The Manship School of Mass Communication has an excellent reputation. Manship’s career coach strikes me as really invested in their students and super helpful with internship and job leads. It is in a warm climate, should be a match for your GPA/SAT and COA is very reasonable.
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One of my priorities is having a good broadcast/journalism program where I can focus on sports. Here is basically a summary of my “dream school”. No school is going to be perfect but here are some things I really want
- Good broadcast/journalism program where I can focus on sports
- Warmer weather (not in Florida parents won’t let me apply there)
- In an urban area
- Medium to Large school
- Greek life big but not anything insane
- Enthusiasm on sports (hopefully football)
To add I’m not super picky hence why my list is a bit all over the place
Ill add why every college is on my list:
Arizona State: Safety, cousin went there and she really liked, like the student life, has a lot of major options, ASU grads are some of the most employable, too big
JWP: Mom wants me to apply there
Ithaca: Good sports media program, good college town
College of Charleston: This would probably be dream college if they had a football team and a program where I could focus more on broadcast journalism
Syracuse: Also probably would be my dream school if it wasn’t in New York
SDSU: I LOVE San Diego, great student life, a bit too big though, a bit too much on Greek life
USD: Pretty much the same reason
Chapman: Probably my first choice as of now, great broadcast journalism program, not much emphesis on sports which is a downside.
Coastal Carolina is a likely admit, has great weather, reasonable cost, and has a Journalism and Sports Media major.
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I’m still thrown on this and Ithaca/Syracuse.
I have to be honest, when I think of BJ, I don’t think Chapman.
That said, and I’m a Newhouse BJ alum, one of my classmates (who’s very well established in sports media) did a presentation last year and said - you all have the tools to practice your craft - you have a phone. So go to the game, start doing play by plan or stand ups from an event, etc. Practice your craft.
There where you go to - doesn’t matter. You can look up sportscasters - your top guys come form schools like SU, William Paterson, Beloit, BC and more. They don’t have to be BJ powerhouses.
I thought the SU program (now it’s 30 years ago) wasn’t good. I had one chance in class to do news, one sports, and one weather. In four years. That was it. The reputation - stellar. But the top BJ guys likely were destined to be top. They just had it. They didn’t learn it.
My friend transferred to Montana from SU (they couldn’t afford SU). It was a small school - I visited her. 20 kids or so. All had their own heavy duty cameras and she told me they were 20 for 20 in placements where I’d be shocked if 10% of my Newhouse classmates ended up in on air broadcast roles.
BJ isn’t a good major (hopefully your school will make you do a double). It could be a great career though - and you can find opportunities at college radio stations, etc. no matter where you go.
But the odds of success aren’t great. And you want to choose a school that is affordable and has things like a college radio station open to all.
But I would not obsess with the school name - because you can do great no matter where you go - if you have greatness within you.
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Thank you! I heard it was in unsafe area so could someone give me any insight on that?
I can’t give you insight on the area, but I know it is a VERY hot school for those in that GPA range coming from our area (MA). It seems to be the sweet spot for kids with GPA’s in the mid 3’s. It has everything they want (sports, greek life, nice dorms, good weather) and is usually one of their most affordable options.
Others may know more, but what about James Madison?
I guess I’m not seeing why Chapman comes out on top, given your criteria. It has neither the sports journalism focus you want, nor the sports fandom experience vis-a-vis its own teams. Plus it’s going to be crazy-expensive if you don’t get significant merit, which isn’t likely since your stats are well below their averages. Do your parents understand that a Chapman degree could cost upwards of $350K?
A lot of great suggestions have been made. If you were to respond to those with indications of what you do or don’t like about different schools, that would help to fine-tune the advice. Some of the schools already mentioned seem, to me, to satisfy a lot of your criteria.
UNLV, for example, has a Sports Media concentration within its Journalism & Media Studies major. It has its own student-run sports broadcast and social media platform. There’s also Sports Media research, and student opportunities, through the Sports Innovation Institute. It has D1 sports, including football, plus, Las Vegas acquired the Raiders NFL team in 2020. Greek life is present but not dominant. It’s a large school (but less than half the size of ASU) in an urban area, with warm weather. Total cost of attendance for OOS students is under 45K/year. (So, around half the cost of Chapman. You could pay for a lot of excursions to the CA coast and still come out ahead… not to mention that there’s tons to do in Las Vegas.) It’s hard to imagine a setting with more sports journalism opportunities.
In addition to the many great suggestions that others have made, I would add:
- Chicago is cold, but you have other cold schools on your list, with fewer major-city assets, so maybe DePaul would make the cut. It has 14K undergrads, of whom 10% participate in Greek life. This is another “toss-up” school like Chapman, but a little better odds - your SAT is above average here which helps to offset your GPA being below.
Sports Journalism Concentration, Sports Communication (BA) < DePaul University - U of South Carolina has already been mentioned, and it’s reachy for you, but possible. 27K undergrads, 30% Greek. Sports Media Concentration - College of Information and Communications | University of South Carolina
- This page about sports journalism at Mizzou speaks for itself Sports Journalism – Missouri School of Journalism Your stats are right around median here, yet the School of Journalism is internationally recognized.
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Which of these things are you most willing to compromise on? Also, how confident are you that you’re going to stick with a desire to do sports broadcast journalism? Is it just what’s in the lead right now, or you think you’re more likely than not going to do it, or you’re 100% convinced this is what you’re going to do and you’ve had experiences to back up your reasoning?
For instance, let’s take U. of Hartford. It’s warmer than Ithaca and Syracuse, but folks are unlikely to be parading around in shorts and t-shirts in January. There’s Greek life, but I’m not sure how big it is. It has D3 sports with no football. On the plus side it’s mid-sized with about 4k undergrads and located in the state capital. But the main thing is that it has some really interesting opportunities for someone who’s interested in sports broadcasting, especially the UH Hawks Production mentioned below:
Using a combination of real-world and classroom experience, you build a strong portfolio through internships and by working in one or more of our media-oriented student firms:
- The Agency: A school wide firm, where you create media content for profit and non-profit organizations
- The Studio: A production company that develops TV shows and web series for our student-run television network (STN) and other clients
- The Newsroom: A media outlet for you to write and publish online news content about the University and the Hartford area
- UH Hawks Production: A mobile broadcast studio, where you produce live University sports programming for streaming services.
And it seems to be working, as both a '21 and '22 grad are working for ESPN’s SportsCenter. (ESPN’s headquarters are about a half hour away from campus.)
Alternatively, we can consider Butler. It’s also mid-sized and in a state capital with both major league and minor league professional teams. About 25% of the men are in fraternities and 36% of its women are in sororities. It has a lot of sports enthusiasm, especially for basketball. Like U. of Hartford, it has a production truck for broadcasting coverage of sporting events as well as a sports media major, and though it boasts of its facilities, it doesn’t make mention of having its own radio or tv stations.
Iowa State: This is a big school and is probably going to have the sports (and football) enthusiasm you’ve been envisioning. With 14% of its students in Greek organizations, that would make a decent size pool of students (about 3500), but not enough to overwhelm the 28k undergrads. Ames is considered a great college town, and is about 30m from the state capital. Its student media include tv and radio stations (open to students of all majors) and it’s launching a sports media major, in addition to its current core offerings. But warm would not describe Iowa during most of the school year.
Or we can think about a school like U. of Houston. It’s another big school and there will definitely be enthusiasm around football here. Only about 3% of students participate in Greek life, but that still equates to more than 1100 students. There’s no special “sports media” major, but there are majors in journalism and in media production. And Houston is definitely a warm climate (and one of the biggest cities in the U.S.).
So, these are examples of schools that are hitting some of your wishlist items but not all of them. What do you find particularly compelling (or repelling)? The more we know, the better suggestions we can make.
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