Does Central Michigan University have a highly rated and respected Journalism program?

Question

I'm also looking at Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Syracuse for Journalism.

Answer 1

The best journalism schools are:
University of Missouri-Columbia, Northwestern, UNC Chapel Hill, Indiana University-Bloomington, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Berkeley

Forget about "Central Michigan". Also you need a graduate degree in journalism, not just an undergrad. OR you need a great nose, some seed money to get you through the unpaid internship you'll have to take at a small-town paper, and a bunch of guts to get yourself some clips. Get a job as a stringer for a mainstream newspaper like the NY Times or Chicago Tribune or LA Times or WSJ while you work for your University paper.

Your goal in school has got to be to a) get on the crime beat, cuz that's the best way to get the best clips; b) become an editor, c) get as many clips as possible; d) get assigned to stories that mainstream paper reporters are assigned to, so you can see how they work. That's why the crime and court beat is good. Those skills are transferable to the metro beat in a daily metro paper. Also, put everything in back of succeeding in your career. A personal life can come AFTER you land a job.

If you want broadcast journalism, same thing, just with feature stories not news.

Getting into journalism is like getting into politics, so much is about making the right connections. YOU GOT IT?

By the way, this guy below (James) gives the same answer to all his questions. I think he's selling that website.

You should do an article about Yahoo Answers!

Hey Taranto -- thanks for the compliment -- I'm kind of a snob about colleges. :)

Answer 2

I'm sure you can get a decent education at Central Michigan -- but it is not even in the same league as the other schools you mentioned.

In general, the best public university in a state is the University of XXXX (like U of MI). The second best is usually XXXX State University (like Michigan State). Directional State Schools like Northern Michigan or Central Michigan are usually nowhere near as good -- but are usually better than bidirectional schools (like Southeastern XXX State University).

----------------------

Teresa's list of schools is a good one -- though University of Minnesota and Columbia University should be added to her list.