Journalism in Grad School

Kyougu

Some of you may remember my earlier thread about what I could do with my Political Science degree. After thinking things over, lately I been gravitating towards pursuing a Journalism education in grad school.

Here's my reasoning: I enjoy and even would say excel at writing non-fiction and research papers. I know it's not the same as journalism, but I think I have writing skills that could translate well to this field. Also, last year I took two English classes (Advance Rhetoric and Editing) which really help me tighten those skills and introduced me to other forms of writing. And I had the same professor for those two classes who really seemed to like me and she told me if I ever needed anything I could go to her. So I think I could get a good letter of recomendation from her.
I still love politics and political thought too. So I think I would really like to get a chance about writing about this topic.

My question is, does all this sound viable? I taken a few english classes (mostly just lit and the two mentioned above), so would that work agaisnt me in grad school? Specially since I know Journalistic writing is a whole different beast than anything else. And general advice, and maybe schools I should start looking at would be appreciated too.

Lewisham

You would have to work very hard to convince me why you need to go to grad school to do journalism. Journalism almost entirely relies on your past portfolio, going to grad school is just a very good way to waste more time and money.

Get an actual job at a newspaper if you're serious about it.

Invisible

Pretty much what he said, but beyond that, I think you'd have a fairly difficult time getting into a good graduate program without any previous experience. Not only are you missing previous experience such as internships, your degree isn't in the field and you haven't taken a single class in it, which puts you at a serious disadvantage since newspaper/broadcast writing tends to differ from standard writing (AP Style is just the beginning).

Just take a look at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism

We seek highly motivated students with an understanding of, and a passion for the field and a keen interest in the world. This may be reflected by outstanding work in freelance writing, by work and /or internship experience at a newspaper, magazine or broadcast station or by outstanding performance in a related field. The majority of our students have at least one journalistic internship or one year of full-time professional experience before beginning our program.

Work Samples

We expect journalists to be sensitive to language and to organize their thoughts clearly and coherently. We ask for three samples of your journalistic work (published or not) that demonstrate these qualities. Please limit each sample to five pages or fewer; Excerpts of longer pieces are acceptable. Two of the three items must be writing samples but the third sample may be an audio or video submission, a Web site or a photoessay. Applicants who are interested in the Broadcast or Documentary sequence may choose to submit a video (DVD format) documentary work sample, but this is not a prerequisite for admission. If students wish to submit a video sample, they may do so, but only if they produced and directed the piece, and only if they feel it is a good representation of their talent and sensibility. Audio tapes should include a script. Photographic work samples should include 6-10 images maximum, 8" x 11" maximum size and slides or a CD are preferred.
NOTE: Work samples cannot be returned.

Edit: Yes, I know Berkeley is the #1 public school, which is why prefaced it with good. But that aside, I also wanted to point out the requirements necessary for practically any graduate program. I don't know any journalism major or journalism grad student who does not have a gigantic portfolio of their work or hasn't participated in at least one internship. I'm just trying to emphasis that he shouldn't jump into something without being prepared for what's required.


To me, it seems like you'd be much better off finding out whether or not you'd make a good journalist and whether or not you'd actually enjoy it.

tracertong

Invisible wrote: »

Pretty much what he said, but beyond that, I think you'd have a fairly difficult time getting into a good graduate program without any previous experience. Not only are you missing previous experience such as internships, your degree isn't in the field and you haven't taken a single class in it, which puts you at a serious disadvantage since newspaper/broadcast writing tends to differ from standard writing (AP Style is just the beginning).

Just take a look at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism

Berkeley is the best (ranked #1 over and over again) public school in the nation so its going to be tough for OP to get into. My dad actually got a full scholarship there for grad school but he had to do a ton of studying in undergrad to get it.

Lewisham

Also: if you haven't worked on your campus newspaper, you'll have to convince grad schools why the hell you weren't on it.