The Daily Pennsylvanian. Is it the best?

Colleges & Universities University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>How good is the Daily Pennsylvanian compared to other college newspapers? The Princeton Review has it rated the 5th best in the nation (only Yale had a higher ranking among Ivy League Schools). I think it is phenomenal and I can hardly contain my excitement about writing for it, hopefully this fall. Feedback please.</p>

2

<p>Princeton Review rankings are nonsense; they depend on how students view their own schools, and they change pretty wildly from year to year. Also, how do you even decide if one school newspaper is better than another?!?!?!?</p>

3

<p>million dollar budget, huge staff, big conference every year where dp alum come back to talk to current staff (writers at time, newsweek, other places), really good journalism opportunities…</p>

4

<p>By many objective measures, the DP is definitely one of the best.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Pennsylvanian[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Pennsylvanian&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>It’s definitely up there among the “top tier” of college papers – I’d say the rest of the top tier is Yale Daily News, Harvard Crimson, Berkeley (maybe), Northwestern and Michigan. That’s not to say there aren’t a few other decent ones out there. The objective quality of any college paper can vary somewhat from year-to-year but the ones listed above are all very well read, (relatively) very well written, and more importantly from a student’s perspective, all maintain the “infrastructure” that someone described above – the 100+ year old alumni network, internships, special funds, special dinners with famous people, famous guests, somewhat-lavish headquarters buildings, the overall “tradition” of excellence to live up to, etc.</p>

<p>The “top tier” papers definitely function as their own “journalism departments” – and if you look carefully, you’ll see that their alumni do significantly better than alumni of any of the country’s “journalism schools.” The best journalists out there, generally speaking, didn’t study “journalism” or “mass communication” as undergraduates – they studied subjects like math, chemistry, history or political science.</p>

<p>As an example, see <a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/20829[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/20829&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Recent Newsweek article featuring the DP:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10216907/site/newsweek/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10216907/site/newsweek/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The most important factor about the DP is that it is totally independent from Penn, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the same way and I suspect that most of the papers that PosterX mentions work the same way…this lets these papers have editorial independence from the school without having to worry about having their funding cut if they offend anyone…That being said, the DP could use a grammar editor sometimes…</p>

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<p>^ Agreed - it’s very important.</p>

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<p>kk19131,
Nobody even suggested that the PReview is the “know-it-all” about this or any other college-related subject. They obviously did some research to come up with their list and it gives me an idea about what college newspapers are of a very high quality (considering that the college newspaper I last worked on was of very high quality). It gives me a good idea where to start when asking a question like I posted on this thread, so don’t be confused, the only “bible” I swear by is the King James version (and not all that much).</p>

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<p>it seems like the DP also isn’t afraid to bash penn, which they often do.</p>

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<p>The best in media reporting go after any and all who operate in the dark. That’s the media’s job; to investigate and report their findings, even when it is inconvenient to do so.</p>

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<p>“They obviously did some research to come up with their list and it gives me an idea about what college newspapers are of a very high quality”</p>

<ul>
<li>PR changes the methodology very often in order to cause shifts in the rankings. Further, the ranking is based on survey data… They ask students how they feel about their schools, and from that make their rankings. How can this tell you anything about which newspapers are of “very high quality”?</li>
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<p>I still don’t know how one decides which newspapers are better than others. To me, a good paper is just one that has its finger on the pulse of the campus, community, and nation, and provides information in a well-organized and interesting way. In my opinion, fancy awards and big budgets don’t make good news, and most certainly don’t always make better papers.</p>

<p>I’m sure the Daily Pennsylvanian is a fine paper, but saying that it is some how the “best” is, to me, little more than over-reaching school spirit.</p>

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<p>No one here has said it’s THE best, just one of the best. And that’s pretty widely acknowledged.</p>

14

<p>“No one here has said it’s THE best, just one of the best.”</p>

<p>-Nevertheless… I still think the premise of saying that there is… even a group of papers which is the “best” is silly. Like I said… </p>

<p>“To me, a good paper is just one that has its finger on the pulse of the campus, community, and nation, and provides information in a well-organized and interesting way. In my opinion, fancy awards and big budgets don’t make good news, and most certainly don’t always make better papers.”</p>

<p>“And that’s pretty widely acknowledged.”</p>

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<li>Just because several people may believe in something - especially something as subjective as which newspapers are “better” - doesn’t make it fact.</li>
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15

<p>Your dissent is duly noted. Nevertheless, several respected national awards are given out every year for college journalism, and the DP has scored quite a few of them. And so has your school’s paper–ALSO one of the best (though you may wish to deny it). :)</p>

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<p>Those “several people” include the Columbia School of Journalism, by the way:</p>

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<p>kk19131
The Princeton Review, like all other websites a billion people use out there, is good as a point of reference. The additional research is up to you. For example, after doing some HW by visiting sites like PR and CC, I learned about different schools and what they had to offer. I never suggested that whatever PR said was based on fact. Furthermore, awards are a way of measuring quality. The intent of the original question was to get a better idea about some other great college newspapers out there, because the DP is definetely a super paper by my standard.</p>

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<p>45 percenter,
Thanks for providing some clarity with your last post. I didn’t intend to ruffle feathers with my question, but it seems like I may have. I myself majored in journalism, wrote quite a few articles for my college paper and interned at a daily newspaper. My writing ability was probably the biggest reason I got accepted to UPenn in the first place, so I know you can understand the point of my question.</p>

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<p>You’re welcome. I was just pointing out that in addition to the few posters in this thread, there are some highly respected national organizations that do indeed attempt to identify every year those papers that are some of the best in collegiate journalism, and the DP has been so identified on many occasions.</p>

<p>Are you transferring to Penn? Or going to grad school there?</p>

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<p>In addition to the major daily papers, don’t overlook some of the campus magazines - there are a handful that also have well-established “structures” like the major daily papers, and are renowned for their investigative journalism work.</p>

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<p>45,
I’m going in as a transfer from a community college, so I’m going for my B.A. I will major in communications. How about yourself.</p>