Is J-School Worth It?
Opportunities for hands-on learning, but payoff is not guaranteed
Historically, there has always been a tension between journalism schools and the industry. In the early part of the century, many editors viewed education, in journalism school or elsewhere, as something of a handicap. Today, that attitude has changed dramatically, but there remains a certain admiration of those who have trained in the school of hard knocks rather than at journalism school. Says Greg Jarrett, an anchor on the Court TV cable network: "You can learn more in six months on the job than in four years of school. It's not brain surgery."
Big bills. Perhaps the most important issue students pondering enrolling in journalism school need to consider is the cost. Tuition and fees at schools like Medill and Columbia total around $20,000 a year, plus room and board. Even at a public institution like the University of Missouri, the total cost exceeds $16,000, without room and board, for the school's two-year program. In an industry in which salaries usually start in the low to middle $20,000 range, that means graduates may find paying off student loans very difficult.
In the end, new statistical evidence about the value of a journalism degree is not very supportive of J-school proponents. A study for the Freedom Forum, to be released this spring, found that only 9 percent of recent hires in print and broadcast news had a master's degree in journalism, while 48 percent held undergraduate journalism degrees, much lower numbers than expected. Says Betty Medsger, onetime chair of San Francisco State University's journalism department, who did the study: "There are still an awful lot of people without journalism degrees walking in and getting jobs."
Perhaps Howard Kurtz, the media critic for the Washington Post and a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, best sums up the industry's attitude. Comparing getting a graduate degree in journalism to eating chicken soup, he says: "It can't hurt." But given the cost, it is a much more expensive remedy than the kind Grandma used to make. LIBRARY SCIENCE For the first time, U.S. News this year rated not only graduate journalism schools but also the 50 accredited graduate programs in library science. Surveys were sent to deans and senior faculty; response rate: 73 percent.
1. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 4.4 2. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 4.3 2. Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 4.3 4. Syracuse University (N.Y.) 4.2 5. University of Pittsburgh at Main Campus 4.1 6. Indiana University at Bloomington 3.9 6. Rutgers Univ. at New Brunswick (N.J.) 3.9 6. University of Wisconsin at Madison 3.9 9. University of Texas at Austin 3.8 10. Drexel University (Pa.) 3.7
J-SCHOOL OVERVIEW Varied roles There are, to be sure, vast differences among America's graduate schools of journalism and mass communications. Some, like the Columbia School of Journalism and Northwestern University's Medill School, stress practical training. Others, like the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, emphasize research methods and theory. And still others, like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Oregon, combine the practical and the theoretical.
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