Rising Comms/Journalism Senior Needs Help w/ College List

[old patio]

• Location/Region: City, Suburbs, I live in NJ but am open to surrounding states + large cities close to home

• Major: Comms/Journalism, minoring in Psychology potentially

• GPA/Test Scores: 3.833 weighted, 1020 SAT (will be taking SAT again)

• Curriculum: Open to anything, but nice to have a good arts program

• Size: Open to any size

• Costs: Open to any, will likely be getting aid though

• Schools You're Currently Looking At:

• Montclair State: Applied early with their Early Bird Program

• Boston U: EA

• Drew University: Torn between EA/RD

• Fordham: EA

• George Mason: EA

• Hofstra: Rolling

• Kean: RD

• Northeastern: EA

• Northwestern: RD?

• NYU: RD

• Pitt: Rolling

• Princeton: RD

• Penn State: RD

• Rider: RD

• Rowan: RD

• Rutgers: EA

• Saint John (NY): EA

• Seton Hall: RD

• TCNJ: RD

• Temple: RD

• William Paterson: RD

Schools I'm considering adding to my list, but haven't decided for sure:

• Duke

• Yale

• Northwestern

• Syracuse

• Temple

• Additional: No huge dealbreakers, but should be reasonably safe

• Be Detailed! Should be diverse, nice to be good in athletics.

[ebon coyote]

One thing I would do would be to revisit your application types (EA/ED/RD). For example, Cornell and UPenn don't have EA, they do ED which is a contract-based early application which mandates you to enroll a the school regardless of your other options if you are admitted.

Contractually, you can only apply to one school ED. You also want to keep in mind whether applying ED is the right option for you at all. Are you 100% confident that there's only one school that you would want to go to and can you afford that school's financial aid package?

Additionally, Princeton does "Single-Choice Early Action", they don't mandate that you attend the school if you're admitted, however, they do mandate that you don't apply to any other private school early action. So, if you chose to apply early action to Princeton, you can then only apply Early action to other public schools.

I don't know about this for the other schools on you rlist, so you'll have to research that thoroughly because you can run into issues across multiple universities if you don't follow their application rules.

I think also if anything, you need to narrow down your list, the common app only lets you apply to 20 schools maximum. Same with the Coalition application. So in theory, you could create numerous application portals to be able to submit applications to all of the schools on your list. However, that's unlikely to be useful since at the end of the day you can only attend one school, so, you should start narrowing down your options now instead of widening them.

[old patio]

fixed - thanks!

but yeah i have no idea how to narrow down my list

[ebon coyote]

what is currently based off of? just closeness to your home?

[old patio]

closeness to home, salaries, pricing, and safety

[ebon coyote]

Ok. I would look at the median GPA and test scores and then also look at the different majors/minors curricula.

Also ask yourself like if you prefer cities or lots of sports or parties or a quiet secluded community or something that sort of has all of the above.

But I do know that communications/journalism majors aren't at every school so that could be a good place to start in narrowing down your list, but you can also keep in mind you could enter the communications/journalism field via other undergraduate majors

[old patio]

yeah, i want cities and decent sports - doesnt have to be like national champs js decent

[dawn canopy]

Northwestern is a must imo

[ebon coyote]

ok, I feel like that should narrow down your list pretty significantly because idk if many of those schools have sports scenes ? and some of them are pretty rural

[dawn canopy]

UCLA also has good journalism

[ebon coyote]

I think Northwestern could be good depending on like where @old patio feels like they can get their SAT score up to

[old patio]

yeah i might replace like monmouth with northwestern

[ebon coyote]

what's your tentative score for your next SAT ?

[old patio]

im hoping to get it up to 1100 but im not sure

[dawn canopy]

1100 is gonna hurt a bit for test required schools

[old patio]

yeah which sucks but i dont think im gonna be able to get it up much

[ebon coyote]

Yeah, it looks like Northwestern is still test-optional right now, so I would go that route with them and any other ivy-league-esque school on your list. Most of their median SATs are going to be like 1500 +.
What does the rigor of your class curriculum look like?

[old patio]

5 APs + 2 honors, but planning to take 3-4 next year

[dawn canopy]

Penn/cornell r required just for reference

You got this tho talya I just wanted to say apply medill

[ebon coyote]

... I would take those off then

[ebon coyote]

oh I've never heard of medill

[old patio]

ughhhh alr

tbh i might replace penn w/ temple

[dawn canopy]

Northwrstern’s journalism school

By far #1

[dawn canopy]

I would agree sadly

[ebon coyote]

I am now following

[dawn canopy]

Being 400 below median hurts

[old patio]

yeah

[dawn canopy]

Yale is as well

You Can use AP’s for yale tho

[old patio]

yeah i have 5 APs and will have 8-9 by the end of HS

[ebon coyote]

ok this is good then. I would say most realistically your reaches are going to be schools with 20-30% acceptance rates. And then you can add a 1-3 schools that are more selective than that just to see but I think you just need a more balanced list given your profile between crazy competitive schools and schools that might be safeties for you, you might want a few more "targets". Have you looked at any of the schools in Boston?

[old patio]

i mean i was going to do umass boston

[ebon coyote]

ok, why?

[old patio]

not super expensive, good salary for employment, campus is nice

its also pretty diverse

[ebon coyote]

is the salary for employment specific to communications/journalism?

[old patio]

but im also looking at boston college as well

[old patio]

overall

[ebon coyote]

I don't know if that would help you very much then because it could be skewed by other majors. but usually department websites specifically will have some fact/figures on their students graduation metrics

[old patio]

oooh yeah its a lot lower than what i saw

[ebon coyote]

For journalism what matters most is probably the access to different network, internships, experiences. So whether or not there's actually a journalism pipeline and resources established at a school, otherwise you would probably have to do a lot of the finding of those opportunities on your own. So that's probably something else to think about.

[old patio]

yeah thats true

[ebon coyote]

I just found this post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Journalism/comments/1ecf7s0/best_college_for_journalism_in_the_us/
The information this commenter provided seems like it would be really helpful:

I may be biased because I teach here after working 30 years with AP and Wall Street Journal but don’t sleep on the University of Florida (even though I graduated from Mizzou). UF owns the local public media station (WUFT) so lots of radio, tv and digital news opportunities, and UF partners with ESPN for sports journalism (WRUF). UF’s campus newspaper, the Alligator, is the biggest in the country. We have a terrific narrative nonfiction magazine, Atrium.

Definitely consider the type of journalism you want to practice, if you know yet, and evaluate that school’s strengths and experiences (plus its costs). Talk to graduates and current students, and ask hiring editors where they’ve had success. Go visit campuses.

A decent rubric is how well schools perform each year in the national collegiate Hearst Journalism Awards: You see UNC, UF and Syracuse regularly in the Top 3. You’ll see appearances from Indiana, Maryland, Northwestern, Mizzou, Western Kentucky, too. http://www.hearstawards.org/2024-hearst-intercollegiate-winners-announced/

Editor & Publisher just featured UF’s program in this month’s issue (Page 56): https://editorandpublisher.pressreader.com/editor-publisher

Poynter did a writeup on the Fresh Take Florida reporting program I run at UF: https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2024/university-florida-fresh-take-student-journalism-investigations/

[old patio]

omg ur so right, i acc have fam in florida

[ebon coyote]

I would use whether there are journalism networks/opportunities/resources on campus to narrow down your list. BUT don't throw out safeties and/or schools close to you if they don't have any journalism support, because you still need schools that you can reasonably get into and afford on your list.

That said I would also lean toward schools where your SAT might be above the median, because then that means you would be more likely to get in.

Your ECs and other achievements can also help a lot if you write for your high school newspaper, high school news mamybe, local news op-eds maybe. Good grades/ap scores in your english classes and maybe journalism or other electives at your school will help your admissions chances into journalism programs.

[ebon coyote]

yep. and based on that post, Syracuse should definitely be on your list

[old patio]

yeah i have all As in my honors and AP english classes

my school doesnt have a great newspaper so i write for my own blog on substack

and then i have a social media marketing elective, along with a principles of marketing

[ebon coyote]

Sorry I've been rambling a lot, but the one other thing I will say is that you don't need more than 2-3 safeties on your list. Find a couple schools where your SAT is way above the median, it's crazy affordable for you, and there's a lot of features you would really enjoy experiencing. Those are your safeties. Then you can have a good chunk of targets (5-7), and then reaches might be schools with top journalism programs but otherwise higher overall acceptance rates (3-7). and then crazy selective reaches would be schools that overall have <20% acceptance rates and have really good journalism programs (no more than 3 of these).

in summary your school list should look something like this:

2-3 safeties: affordable if not free, close to home, easy to get into
5-7 targets: overall acceptance rates like 40-60%, have good sports, in big cities, well-connected alumni network, decent name brand, has most of the things that you would like in a campus community and has interesting degree programs to you if not communications/journalism, for example there might be a sports media minor or something that you could look into
3-7 journalism reaches: ranked in the top journalism programs, but the overall acceptance rates of the schools are still 30-60%
1-3 highly selective schools: schools with sub 20% acceptance rate, have to be test-optional

It looks like UNC based on this intercollegiate journalism competition stuff would be a good journalism reach for you. It also ticks the sports box big time.

[old patio]

you're good! ok so then my list so far is:

safeties:

• montclair state (already applied)
• rowan
• seton hall

targets:

• rutgers
• temple
• pitt
• saint john (ny)
• TCNJ
• syracuse
• florida
• penn state

journalism reaches:

• fordham? may replace with florida
• UNC
• northeastern

reaches:

• NYU
• princeton
• northwestern

the only thing thats staying no matter what is montclair bc i already applied there

i mean idk if im gonna go there but thats staying on the list 100%

[ebon coyote]

If you're out-of-state I wouldn't consider Penn state a safety for you because there's usually an in-state advantage when it comes to whether a school would be a safety. It's also not going to be a safety for you with the middle 50% SAT score being at 1320-1480. But even still being out of state I wouldn't call it a safety

Also, I would look at the schools on this list because they're accredited for offering degrees in journalism and mass communications http://www.hearstawards.org/about/participating-schools/

[ebon coyote]

northwestern should go in the reach column based on its overall acceptance rate of 7%

[old patio]

honestly ive been interested in SDSU for a bit

[ebon coyote]

so now what I would do is create a google spreadsheet with these college names. And then add columns for location, acceptance rate, median SAT score (or middle 50% however they report it), test-optional policy, major, sports (on a scale of 1-5 based on your personal ranking), net price calculator and then fill that chart out. add other columns as they come up based on what new interesting things you find might be important to you. for example, some people will put another column for minors, or one for a specific extracurricular they know they want to do at that school. a select program like an honors program if that interests you. or a shcolarships column if you want to apply to additional scholarships

[ebon coyote]

ok, why?

[old patio]

i mean i heard about it through an influencer, and then i looked at them and saw that they had decent athletics

and i do love california, i went there in 2021

my main concern is that its far from home, which sucks

[ebon coyote]

that's up to you whether or not you'd be comfortable applying or not if you feel like you'd automatically not go because of distance from home

their page does look really cool though: https://jms.sdsu.edu/

[old patio]

yeah they look cool, i just dont think i would go because of how far it is from home

[ebon coyote]

After or while you fill out the initial attributes of the chart I outlined for you, I would look at each college's website pretty thoroughly. Especially the department website because there it'll outline all the different opportunities for you. Once you've done this for a couple schools you'll be able to compare/contrast them a lot better. For example you might find that one school has a sports media track in their journalism degree and another school offers public-relations instead.

So even for the same major, all the classes and topics can differ from school to school which is good and fun to explore regardless, but just something to be aware of which could help you add/remove schools from your list.

[old patio]

im going to montclair state for their precollege, but will def look at the communications for the rest of them - im on the fence abt SDSU bc i love cali but its super far from home

[ebon coyote]

Add it to the chart for now and then go from there

[old patio]

yeah im def adding it

[kindred gate]

im gonna be honest if you dont improve your sat by a good amount rutgers is gonna be tough (assuming new brunswick ofc, if it's newark or camden ur looking at then disregard what im about to say bc ur chilling). obv with in state theres a little boost but if your ecs arent that good your gpa prob wont help you here if you decide to go TO. and rutgers is only getting tougher to get into.

i think you should move florida to reach ngl, its pretty competitive oos (unless ur doing fsu or usf or some other florida state uni). northeastern is also kinda a wild card college tbh, it's quite unpredictable.

[rancid torrent]

Omg a journalism student

[old patio]

yeah im gonna retake it

[old patio]

omg yes hiiiii

[rancid torrent]

Hello!

I am a2c’s resident journalist here to provide input

Are you planning on being a reporter

[old patio]

i mean i was planning to work with like social media agencies but that sounds cool

[rancid torrent]

If so don’t major in comms. Major in journalism, or major in a major relevant to the beat you want to report on (political science, international relations, etc)

[rancid torrent]

Ah nvm

In that case comms is fine

I def recommend Syracuse for your list

Great for what you want to do

Oh wait you already have it

Haha nvm

Also, once you’re in college advice: the most important thing will be to join your college newspaper

[old patio]

omg im def gna do that

esp bc my school doesnt rlly have a newspaper

[rancid torrent]

Good. For media careers, school paper is far more important than gpa, major, or classes

[old patio]

yeah my HS doesnt have a super active newspaper

[rancid torrent]

I mean the fact that it has one at all is good!

[old patio]

like itll be active one month then inactive the next

[rancid torrent]

Still, many high schools don’t have papers at all

I was very lucky that my hs had one

I used my work samples from it to get a freelance reporter gig for my local paper before graduating hs

[old patio]

mine is virtually inactive

[visual chasm]

I would go for Northwestern

they are like top tier

for jouranlism

[ebon coyote]

are you able to revive it and make it active?

[old patio]

with just a year and officers who wont do stuff? probably not

and advisors who realistically wont do stuff either

[ebon coyote]

I mean can you ask them if there's a position that you can be involved in so you could help them with regular releases?

and/or it could still be helpful for you to join so you can write an article or two

I wrote one article a year for our annual college magazine

[old patio]

they only released like 1 edition iirc? people just wont do the stuff they sign up for

[ebon coyote]

hmm ok it wouldn't hurt to ask to see if yall could do another this year but that's ok if not.

i also no people from my high school who would volunteer right articles for the local newspaper so that's something you could also look into if you wanted

[rancid torrent]

No bad (source: I dropped out of Medill)

[visual chasm]

isn't medill like the best school for jouranlism in the world

or am i tripping

[rancid torrent]

It is for undergrad

[rancid torrent]

No you’re not I’m just being goofy

Graduate-wise, Columbia is the best

[visual chasm]

oh ic ic

[visual chasm]

true

[visual chasm]

oh lol

[rancid torrent]

I just like to shit talk my ex (Medill)

[old patio]

valid

[visual chasm]

fair

tbh

my only interaction with a medill student so far is one person who posted their gpa this year on ig at medill and like no hate to people who's journalism major

but like posting a 4.0 when you've taken easy classes

is not a flex

also why is someone posting their grades on social media

[rancid torrent]

Yeah I was about to say posting your gpa regardless of major is weird 😭

[visual chasm]

facts

when i saw this i was like wtf

the only good thing was at least it was an ig story

i saw someone else posting their grades this trimester as an ig post