<p>We have now visited 3 schools with outstanding journalism departments–Missouri, Syracuse and Texas–with our oldest daughter, a high school junior who wants to be a sportswriter. With all the talk about finding a great “fit” for the prospective student, it struck us strongly that how a school markets itself is an important part of the decision.</p>
<p>Missouri, our first visit (a year ago), emphasized the practical experience j students get. The student leader of the j school tour talked about the real world opportunities she was getting, then turned us over to a retiring professor who had spent 35 years in journalism and advertising before joining the faculty at Mizzou–he, too, emphasized things like MU’s ownership of the town newspaper (in addition to the traditional colege paper), and the ownership of an NBC affiliate, and the benefits you could get from working with professional journalists. We were taken on a tour of the town paper (The Columbia Missourian), and introduced to editors (student and professional). The gist of the “pitch” seeemed to be; “Come to Mizzou and learn to be a journalist”. The general tour (also led by a j school student) focused on the friendliness of the student body.</p>
<p>Syracuse (last summer), pushed opportunities, competition and “glitz”. There was no student leader of the communications school tour–it was led, instead, by the director of admissions, a 30ish guy who had spent a few years doing PR for various music groups and endevors before returning to SU. He was very charismatic, spoke openly of which schools were SU’s competition for students, and talked about how SU had, in his opinion, the best alumni network for getting jobs after college. He urged students and parents to look at how schools did in the Hearst College Journalism competitions, and noted that SU, along with Northwestern and Missouri, had done extremely well. He then led us down a hall filled with pictures of prominent Syracuse j school grads and what they had achieved into the Placement Office, where we were shown internship openings and spots filled by current SU students. The pich there seemed to be: “Pick Syracuse for a great education and the best networking opportunities.”</p>
<p>Texas (we just got back) had no separate communications school tour–there are specific dates each month when people in the communications school are available, but this wasn’t one of them, and, given that we are from Illinois (1000 miles away), we had to visit over a break and took what we could get. The regular tour was led by a broadcast journalism major, who talked up his school, but focused on how great it was to be at UT (and how he hoped amd expected that his children and grandchildren would go to UT), even in response to questions from those who clearly were interested in the communications program. We did not pass the Communications Building (we did go through the McCombs School of Business), but its location was pointed out to us. The message was: “You should come to UT, where all the programs are great, and choose the one that interests you”.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because my daughter is looking at schools with a specific interest area in mind, but I thought we got a great idea about “fit” which goes well beyond the usual “vibe” one gets from spending a few hours on campus, or even that which one gets from returning and staying overnight. I’m wondering if others have had similar experiences or reactions, irrespective of the interest area or intended course of study.</p>