Lesser-Known Schools with Excellent Newspapers

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Hello all. Here’s the scenario:</p>

<p>I have (almost) finalized my college list, but I want to add/subtract a few more schools. I have my reaches (Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, Northwestern, and W&L) and some matches/safeties which I really like (Wake Forest, Tulane, Richmond), but I want to add a few more safety-ish schools. Parents are currently pressuring me to apply mainly to schools with merit aid (we’ll get zero need-based aid and if I get significant merit aid, I won’t have to take on debt for grad school).</p>

<p>Writing is extremely important to me. I’m the editor-in-chief of my school’s run-of-the-mill newspaper, and I would like to continue to write for a paper in college. I want the college I attend to have an excellent newspaper or other periodical (it’s always been a dream of mine to write with a very dedicated staff, something my school paper lacks). However, as nice as it would be to write for the Daily News or the Daily Pennsylvanian, I am looking for less selective, perhaps smaller, less well-known schools which might offer me money to attend. Any suggestions?</p>

<p>My other criteria in a school:</p>

<p>-fewer than ten thousand students (didn’t initially want to consider small LAC’s, but will happily upon further reflection)
-Private
-Coed
-Student body friendly and diverse–would like students to be engaged in campus life and possibly a little preppy (because I am preppy, but preppiness isn’t very important to me). Don’t want super-nerdy campus culture, basically.
-Competitive but not cutthroat
-Moderate (not overpowering) party scene
-Attractive campus with defined boundaries–definitely don’t want the NYU feel
-Located outside of Midwest/Plains region (preferably West or East coasts or nearby, although willing to make exceptions)
-High-quality student newspaper (want to write for one in college)
-Surroundings (city/suburbs/rural area) not too important; as a small-town girl I’d probably feel more comfortable in midsized town/suburban area instead of urban, but I’m definitely interested in the city.
-Merit aid <–Please!</p>

<p>My stats:
GPA: 4.0 UW, most challenging courseload school offers (several AP’s this year and more next year, including self-studying).
Class rank: Currently valedictorian in midsized, mediocre public school (~200 kids/class).
SAT: 2220: 800 CR, 780 W (11 essay), 640 (!!!) M
ACT: 34 C (3 36’s, 29 in math. AGAIN!)
ECs/Awards: Good, but not earth-shattering: One national writing award, several regional writing awards, EIC of school paper, band section leader, 300+ volunteer hours, probable NMSF, part-time job. I’m trying to get more recognition for my writing.
College major: English (I want to become a writer.)</p>

<p>Any suggestions on lesser-known schools with amazing periodicals which might offer me merit aid? Any schools I should take off my incomplete list?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Have you taken a look at schools in the southeast? Emory, Vanderbilt, Duke, and UNC all offer merit aid. They seem to fit your criteria. If you go by graduate school rankings, Duke has one of the best English programs in the country. Also, slightly preppy, not too nerdy, well-defined campuses, not in the middle of nowhere, etc…</p>

<p>As for their student newspapers, I can’t comment on any of theirs but Duke’s. In my opinion, it’s pretty good and definitely has a very high readership rate, but I don’t know much about newspapers.</p>

<p>[OUSF:</a> Office of Undergraduate Scholars and Fellows](<a href=“http://www.aas.duke.edu/ousf/programs/]OUSF:”>http://www.aas.duke.edu/ousf/programs/)</p>

<p>Here’s our merit scholarships. They’re difficult to get, but it doesn’t hurt to apply.</p>

<p>Sorry, I know you were looking for less prestigious schools, but if merit aid is that important, it seems that you might want modify your reaches.</p>

3

<p>I remember hearing something great about Whitman’s paper, but I’m not sure…</p>

4

<p>Thank you. I have considered Vanderbilt, Emory, and Duke. I like the South and southern schools. However, I feel that I am not at all competitive for merit aid at Duke (will probably apply to Duke as a reach). Vanderbilt and Emory, maybe.</p>

<p>I should clarify my family CAN afford expensive schools like the Ivies; I won’t incur debt for undergrad no matter which school I attend (yes, I understand this is a luxury). It is graduate school where (barring merit aid in undergrad) I will have to take out loans. And my parents want me to emerge from grad as debt-free as possible. As much as I would like an Ivy undergrad education, I see their point, and would like to know some schools where I could emerge from undergrad debt-free which fit my criteria.</p>

5

<p>As a Tulane Alum, I can tell you that everyone I knew actually read the school’s newspaper. It was great. I had a few friends on the staff and they always said that it was as much fun to work for the paper as it was to read it. I can tell you that it’s rare that that many students would take the time to read their school’s paper as religiously as they do at Tulane. I subscribe to its online edition to this day.
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulane_Hullabaloo[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulane_Hullabaloo&lt;/a&gt;
If you really want to write for your college’s newspaper, I would write to the editor or at least to some of the staff and ask about their paper. Also read some of the paper’s articles to see how censored the paper is. One of the great things about Tulane’s was that anything was allowed. And I do mean anything. All of the schools you mentioned plus Whitman, Vandy, Emory, Duke and UNC should have good papers overall. Try to judge the censorship. If something is wrong with the administration’s handling of some incident ect., you want to be able to write about it. If you want to write a sex column where people ask questions and you respond, you should be able to. I highly recommend writing to the staff members directly and looking for articles from various papers that may be posted online to get a feel for a paper’s style. Best of Luck!</p>

6

<p>Awesome, Benetode! This makes me like Tulane even more. :slight_smile: I’ll definitely apply.</p>

<p>Anyone else? Bump!</p>

7

<p>Bump before prom?</p>

8

<p>Ohio University. Obscure school with a fantastic communications/journalism program and, I’m assuming, an equally fantastic newspaper. Definite safety.</p>

9

<p>Another bump?</p>

10

<p>just a note (which i’m sure you’re already informed of)…</p>

<p>the newspaper industry is under siege. between the economy and internet, many newspapers are laying off and even shutting down. it’s not a good career path. i won’t discourage writing or wanting a good school paper, just keep that in mind before you pursue journalism. things are radically changing.</p>

<p>p.s. i’m currently interning for one of the most famous newspapers in the country :/. it’s scary…</p>

11

<p>Yes, I am aware of the situation in print journalism currently. This doesn’t affect my desire to write for a college newspaper, though. I’ll probably major in English in college, and if worst comes to worst I’ll go to law school or go into publishing or PR or something else English-related.</p>

12

<p>I know you’re from the prairie region and want to leave, and also want a smaller private school, but I’d recommend two schools…one that fits your criteria and one that doesn’t. Both are preppy and both have excellent newspapers and journalism alumni.</p>

<p>Gotta tout my school Oklahoma State, “the Princeton of the Plains” even though you want to get away from the plains. Our newspaper, the Daily O’Colly, has won the Pulitzer Prize recently (in the 90s) for college journalism, and received a top tier rating from the Associated Collegiate Press every year since 1989. Notable alumni include Paul Miller (the j school bears his name) who built the Gannett media empire, and served as president of the AP. The comic strip Dick Tracy first ran in the O’Colly, believe it or not–its author Chester Gould, who was a Lambda Chi here in Stillwater, wrote it to help pay for school. Then it took off and became a huge comic strip sensation.</p>

<p>Here’s the O’Colly’s website.
[The</a> Daily O’Collegian](<a href=“http://ocolly.com/]The”>http://ocolly.com/)</p>

<p>Another school I would suggest is TCU, located in Fort Worth. They have about 8,000 students in a really cool yuppie-oriented part of innercity Fort Worth. Students there are same as OSU…real preppy and mostly from the DFW or OKC area. Bob Schieffer went there, and their school of communications bears his name I think.</p>

13

<p>Checkout the following recipients of prestiogious awards:</p>

<p>[ACP</a> - Contests](<a href=“http://www.studentpress.org/acp/contests.html]ACP”>http://www.studentpress.org/acp/contests.html)</p>

<p>[Columbia</a> Scholastic Press Association : Crown Award Recipients](<a href=“columbiauniversity.org”>columbiauniversity.org)</p>

<p>Also many states have awards… Good luck.</p>

14

<p>I believe the Tulane paper only comes out weekly, which might be a dealbreaker if you are looking to write a lot. List of college newspapers:</p>

<p>[List</a> of student newspapers in the United States of America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_student_newspapers_in_the_United_States_of_America]List”>List of college and university student newspapers in the United States - Wikipedia)</p>

15

<p>dudedad is correct. The paper comes out once a week, or at least it used to. I have the online edition so I don’t know when the hardcopy comes out. I think that is very common for a school paper. Tulane’s was pretty thick and had a lot different type articles. I’m not sure how a school paper could put out a paper of any substantial size and quality EVERY single day. Of course, Tulane has 10,000 students including grad students so a larger (Big 12 school for example) might have a large enough staff to do that. Although I’m not sure how much news happens in Stillwater DAILY to report on. Tulane’s online Hullabaloo edition of will post new articles daily but not all the time. It’s usually also just a weekly.</p>

<p>Also, school papers usually fund themselves. They are free to all so they have to get enough advertisers to sponsor the paper by placing ads. It might be hard to break even for a smaller school if it had to print papers daily. I know most SEC schools don’t even produce daily papers, that is, if the papers are completely student run.</p>

16

<p>I want to add one thing about the failing journalism industry. I wouldn’t pick a major or anything based on what you perceive the market will be for that job in 4 years or so. I was a finance guy and it obviously hasn’t been a great market for the last 2 years. Had you asked me in 2003, I would have told you that it was a pretty secure career longterm. Which it is, it just moves in cycles. Once papers learn to go digital and learn to generate ad revenue online from their digital versions they’ll be much more profitable. I read Nola.com all the time because it picks up the local news faster than any newspaper or even TV news program can.</p>

17

<p>By the way, Freudian slip. I AM still a finance guy, …for now. :slight_smile: I’ve been lucky thus far and didn’t mean to jinx myself there.</p>

18

<p>As a fan of dick tracy growing up, that’s awesome about OSU! John Kennedy Toole, the author of pulitzer prize winner The Confederacy of Dunces, did cartoons for Tulane in his day. Obviously and unfortunately he wasn’t recognized for his writing until years after his suicide. </p>

<p>One more final point about the frequency of Tulane’s paper. I believe the Hullabaloo was around 30+ pages or so for every issue back when I went there. I’m sure it’s still that size. I looked on TCU’s (great!) archival site about their paper ([Digital</a> Issues](<a href=“http://www.skiff.tcu.edu/pdfs/]Digital”>Digital Issues)). I found mostly 6-8 pages per paper. So at Tulane you don’t have a paper due every day to write for (ie more time to work on articles.) You still get to write as much because the issues that do come out are large enough for a weeks worth of articles. It the equivalent (work load wise) of a larger project due every Friday instead of homework due every day. The work load at the paper is about the same at both. You might prefer one or the other. So, schools that produce weekly’s are probably just producing larger print versions than their daily peers (on average) as far as I can tell. </p>

<p>And by the way, TCU’s method of archiving their old print versions of their papers and making them Digital Issues (PDF’s) online is amazing!!! I wish Tulane did that.</p>

19

<p>Usually, the larger schools have bigger newspapers. This is a true fact. If you really like newspaper and do not mind bigger schools, Syracuse Newhouse, College Park, University Park, Bloomington, Austin, Chapel Hill, and Madison may give you merit aid. I think Fordham should be your safety though, because you are NMSF (aka full ride), it has a nice campus, and has a good newspaper. :)</p>

20

<p>Ithaca College has a great newspaper, and with your stats you should be able to get lots of merit aid.</p>

<p>It’s also a good safety because they do rolling admissions so you hear back from them really quickly.</p>