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How can I study journalism abroad?

I want to to study journalism at university - how does university work?

  • I'm quite ignorant on the workings of post-secondary education and thought Quora would be the place to come for knowledge. I'm looking to major in journalism. One school I am interested in applying to will not let me take the journalism course without already having a bachelors, whereas another had no requirement. Is this dependent on the school in applying for, or will I always need to first take other courses, such as Creative Writing or English beforehand? How does the major/minor situation work? Do I simply choose one area I would like to pursue a career in, and then take others of interest? Any additional information you may think will aid me is appreciated.

  • Answer:

    This is a great question! On Courses Very generally, a Bachelors degree requires two types of classes. General Education Requirements are classes designed to broaden your experiences. Science students have to take humanities classes. Humanities students have to take science classes. Required classes are classes in your topic that you have to take to get your degree. You will always have to take general education requirements for a bachelors degree. As you're Canadian, I can get a little more specific. You can use Community College credits or distance education credits to satisfy your General Education requirements. This can save you some money, and it can be something you can do while you're still in high school or over the summer. Talk to the student affairs office first, and get confirmation in writing from the registrars office that the credits will transfer. Two educational institutions you might look into are Thompson Rivers and Althabasca to get some General Education requirements out of the way early. I took 12 credits in English classes from Athabasca to graduate early. Major's and Minors A major is an official set of classes that the university requires in order to grant you a degree. A minor, is a smaller set of classes that the university officially recognizes . The major/minor situation will differ substantially between universities. Hacking College Higher education is fairly arbitrary. Most majors outside the hard sciences are a union card that allows you to move on to higher education or into training on the job. The hard sciences are intensive training AND a union card that allows you to move onto higher education. Think about this seriously before choosing a degree. You won't be done learning, ever. Talk to an adviser in the student affairs office. They are there to help, and they can help you arrange your schedule to maximize your use of your time. Don't be afraid to drop a class that is not working out. Prior planning works, but if it's not working and you know you won't be passing, talk to the professor and find a way to exit the class officially. Take education seriously. Beer will call, but get your shit done. You'll be a lot further ahead if you look at college as a job. Having said that, while you do need to pass, you also must network. Pick a club, go out with friends, go to conferences, get to know people. Try to help people, that's one thing that gets you remembered. Get an internship, an apprenticeship, an independent study or a workterm. Work hard at it. These are becoming essential to finding a job after college. Try to live close to the campus, and get your own room. Choose your roommates carefully. Get a good bed, a good pillow and something to make noise that will drown out your roommates. Sleep is very serious business. Find a spot in the library, and a coffee shop or two that you can use for study locations. Tip well, be super polite to the baristas and buy a drink at least every 2 hours. If you are having mental health difficulties, or a friend is, get to the university counselling office. You'll never have the kind of mental heath support available in the same way ever again. As a journalism major, you must work on at least one student publication. You should also be blogging and active in social media. You also need to be reading good journalism all the time. Do you have an RSS reader? If not, get that together. At least read through Longform's articles, TechCrunch and Memorandum/Techmeme every single day. Immerse yourself in your profession.

Brett Williams at Quora Visit the source

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There are a number of different paths to a journalism degree. You could get a journalism certificate or diploma without any degree at all. You could get a bachelors degree in journalism. Or you can get a master's. The Master of Journalism at UBC is designed for students who already have a major area of expertise (this is what a 'major' means), such as in Political Science, Science, Literature, etc. that will allow students to specialize once they graduate. So it requires a bachelors degree first. On average, according to stats I saw in Forbes some years ago, a Journalist with a master's would earn about 10% more over the course of their career. That could well have changed with the changing face of journalism. MJ students can usually anticipate rising higher in the field too, though that completely depends on the individual. Really I suspect it's because you have to be smart to get into a Master's program so graduates are going to be very intelligent which never hurts in a career. UBC Journalism has a great rep for its social media and international journalism classes. It won an Emmy for a documentary a few years ago. So it's an excellent choice if you already have a degree, are about to finish a degree, and/or you've been a working journalist for a long time and want to upgrade your skills. Nobody becomes a journalist for the money, however, and six years of school might seem daunting if you're just starting out. If you know already you want to be a journalist, then Langara and BCIT's diploma programs are a great choice. They will get you started on your career with practical courses. You can always enhance a diploma later if you're careful about taking transferable courses. I believe there are a few bachelor degree programs in the lower mainland now as well. This is where a major/minor comes in. If you want to be a political reporter, for instance, you might take a political science major with a journalism minor or vice versa depending on what the school offers. If you want Arts and Entertainment, you could major in Lit or Film or Drama or Music - emphasis on popular culture - and minor in journalism or vice versa. A major means the majority of your third and fourth year courses will be in that field, and a minor usually means almost all your other courses during those years will be in that field. Credit requirements vary. It really comes down to how much time and money you want to invest in training for your career. Also, the face of journalism has changed because of the internet. A full-time 9 to 5 job on a newspaper is an unrealistic expectation for a new reporter. That's not to say there aren't jobs out there!  But I'd say a good journalist nowadays needs not only the writing,social media tools, and interviewing skills of the past and present, but a really large helping of hussle!  I'd also say that's not usually a problem for students who are attracted to journalism in the first place!

Barbara Curtis

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