I am an upcoming senior and this summer I have been doing some research on schools and majors. Over the course of my research, I decided I definitely need some outside input on where I should focus my research on. Currently, I am very fond of majoring in Communications and I aim to obtain a job as a director of public relations for a big firm. However, I am struggling to find a school that I will benefit me the most. I am tending towards universities located on the West/North West regions because I live in California. If you know of any schools that I can focus my research on, that will help tremendously! Thank you for your time.
Since writing is an important part of communications, you might give some weight to colleges that make it a priority. Of the schools in USNWR’s Writing in the Disciplines, two meet your geographic preference: Washington State and UC-Davis. Both have communications programs.
Good choices would include: Occidental, Chapman, LMU, Lewis & Clark and U Puget Sound on the West Coast,
with: Emerson, DePaul, Fordham, Syracuse, Ithaca or Northeastern on the East Coast.
It’s true that for Communications, you just need to find a school with solid writing programs, so most of the UC’s and/or CSU’s will have academic programs to meet your needs.
Note too, that Communications majors can mean different things at different schools.
Most school equate Communications with media and/or film programs.
Others may house their PR/Marketing and Communications within their Business schools or programs.
Many old school Communications programs are now called ‘speech and hearing disorders,’ so be on the lookout for the handful of schools that still define those departments as Communications.
Communications, i.e, the news, i.e. journalism, i.e. print and electronic;
Washington State University-Pullman
U of Missouri-Kansas City
Syracuse University
U of Nebraska-Lincoln
In New York City I met a reporter for the Newhouse Organization (a national chain of newspapers) whom is a Nebraska alumnus. She was a smart cookie.
If you are well educated it doesn’t matter where you got your degree. Al Roker of NBC TV studied at one of the remotely located SUNY campuses in upstate New York, where the sun hardly ever shines, LOL.
Keep in mind, at some universities Journalism is a master’s degree program. Columbia U, for example.
Syracuse University. The idea that the school does not matter is absurd. That isn’t to say that nobody will be successful unless they go to certain schools but the connections and the experiences/opportunities provided to student at schools that are top in a particular field are difficult to match in any other way. The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is top shelf. Also, yes, undergraduates attend the Newhouse School.
By the way…
Major Garrett CBS News, U of Missouri
David Gregory, NBC News, American University
Gwen Ifill, NBC News and PBS, Simmons College
Aaron Brown, ABC News, Nightline, GMA, CNN. Dropped out of U of Minnesota
Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes, Wheaton College (History major)
Norah O’Donnell, CBS News, Georgetown University (Philosophy major)
Jan Crawford, CBS News, U of Alabama and U of Chicago Law School
Mika Brzezinsk, NBC News, Williams College (English major)
Linda Greenhouse, NY Times, Radcliffe College (a.k.a. Harvard)
Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal, Princeton University
David Muir, ABC News anchor, Ithaca College
Lester Holt, NBC News anchor, California State U (dropped out)
So I guess it isn’t such an “absurd” idea after all to consider a broad range of colleges if a young person is interested in journalism.
Just to keep this thread in proper perspective, people trained as journalists who later become Public Relations professionals is by no means uncommon. In fact it is quite common. Keep your eye on the upcoming national elections, for example. PR directors for many election campaigns are former news reporters.
LakeWashington, sorry that you are amused or confused. No need to be. An amazingly talented brilliant person may be successful without going to any college. For the rest of us, we are more likely to be successful if we go to college then if we don’t. It is probably possible to be successful regardless of the school a student attends. But, it is made much easier if a student attends a school that has an outstanding program in the area (which usually means that the faculty members have connections in the field) that the student wants to attend.
I am not surprised to see a long list of successful people in the field of communications who did not attend top notch communications (or arts, drama or performing arts) programs. Yet, if you compare the experiences of students in top notch programs to those that are not, you will probably see significant differences in the opportunities and experience available to students in the top notch program compared to those not in the top notch program. Those experiences usually help students gain entry into the field. Given the same level of talent and motivation, a communications students in a top notch communication program probably has a leg up over those in less strong programs.
Does that mean those in less strong programs are doomed? No. But it will probably require more work and be more difficult to access experiences and opportunities compared to students who attend top programs. So, yes the school matters. Yes the school makes a difference. But yes students in less strong programs can still be successful. It may be harder for them to be successful and fewer may be successful but with enough drive or motivation it is certainly possible.
As I was saying, the idea that the school does not matter is absurd. That isn’t to say that nobody will be successful unless they go to certain schools. It just may take more effort, motivation or luck to be successful.
As others have mentioned, Communications means different things at different universities… the good news is you can study communications pretty much anywhere, but you may want to fine-tune your search beyond a Communications degree and look at majoring specifically in PR, or possibly even studying journalism.
I am less familiar with the top schools/programs for PR/ad-comm, but I do know the best places to look for journalism–I would advise starting at these schools and seeing what their PR/ad-comm programs are like, too: Northwestern, Syracuse, Mizzou, Boston University. I checked another thread and it looks like you may have some Cs, so these schools might be outside your grasp (depending on test scores/essays), but regardless take a look. I know BU has a PR/ad-com major in College of Communications–you could look at that program and perhaps use it to compare against other schools w/ similar programs? The key will be finding programs with a LOT of practical writing classes, taught by professionals, as opposed to theory classes, or a communications program that focuses too much on, say, film/TV.
I would look at the UCs and see if they have anything close–I’m sure several do. I know a communications professional who attended UCI, and several who attended UC Davis. If money is no object, maybe try some out of state flagships. I know UMD & UGA have good journalism programs.
Most of the CA publics and many privates offer solid communications programs. What are your budget and qualifications so i can help you find a appropriate school for you?
I wonder if Norah O’Donnell, David Muir or Lester Holt would say that they were the smartest person in the room when they were in college. Certainly they have that internal emotional drive and motivation to hustle. That’s what it takes to success in a competitive vocation like journalism; print or broadcast. And I think many of the stars of the networks and the publications would say luck had a heck of a lot to do with their success.
@LakeWashington You’re absolutely right that it’s by no means required to be a journalism major to become a successful journalist. There are a ton of people who are hired by media outlets who don’t have a degree in journalism. However, majoring in journalism can be helpful because of the networking/opportunity aspect. Especially in this day and age where journalism jobs can be hard to find, journalism majors might have (if they take advantage of opportunities in college) better networking than non-journalism majors that can lead to jobs. All of the successful journalists you listed who didn’t major in journalism got jobs back in a time when there were plenty of journalism jobs and it wasn’t quite as hard to break into the field. So yes, you’re right in that it doesn’t matter, or at least, it might not matter, but majoring in journalism (or communications, PR, etc.) can be helpful in regards to networking and opportunities for internships, etc.
