Does your school make or break you in the industry?!?!?

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I agree with the general concensus that it’s what you do with your education that counts. That said, a school that has a good journalism/communications program will get you places sometimes because it’s likely that they’re known for their programs and your editors may have attanded, or know people who did. I went to a school in Connecticut that had a great communications department, which played a part in my landing a freelance position.

I do have to say, my brother goes to St. John’s and loves it. He’s a communications major and they also have a good media department. He’s going to their audio school in the city next semester. It is pricy but you have to really look closely at the programs all of the schools have and talk to the career center at each and figure out which is right for you. Your education is something no one can take from you. Do your research and make the best possible decision.

Oh and in regards as to whether a brand name school counts..it does in my experience. Most of the interns I’ve worked with at larger titles come from name brand schools and some of them don’t even have much experience. If your school is known for something like the journalism department or business school and that is the industry you’re applying for an internship they will probably ask you about the program in your interview and assume you have better training than most. On my first day an editor mentioned how all the interns came from great schools and even knew which of the schools were specifically known for journalism.

I read somewhere that a survey was done where business employers were interviewed and asked to list the top schools they would hire from in a specific order and Harvard was number one despite the fact that Yale (at the time) was ranked the top Business school. The alumni and prestige associated with Harvard moved it to the top of the list. It sucks but thats how most industries are. I think if you gain a lot of experience and network you will be able to do well at any school but you would really have to network well to “compensate.”

Well if you don’t mind DC (which is great for newspapers and ad agencies, so so for regional mags) you should consider Howard University. I know its a Historically Black University and if you are not a “minority” or even not Black you probably would never consider it but because of their large endowment they are ranked (2nd?) in the top value schools for their less expensive tuition and in the top 100 for academics in general.

Their journalism department/School of Communications has been ranked pretty well and received quite a few awards so perhaps you should consider it an option. The campus has a 10% non-black population (basically the reverse of most TWI/schools in the tri-state area) and I believe there are minority(for non-black students) scholarships and such despite the low cost of tuition (tuition did recently increase though $10-12,000 I think). HU is home to the only student run nat’l magazine conference and has one of the largest communications job fairs in the area and if you’re going for marketing rather than communications, Howard’s business school is ranked incredibly high by Businessweekers and the such which coincidently is why a lot of “non-black” students are interested in Howard.

Most undergrads are aprehensive about applying but the more mature? grad students have said Howard was a no brainer and that they could careless about the racial make-up so perhaps you should look into it. Its not that easy to get into though so I hope you’ve been keeping your grades up. Good luck! and FYI my friend went to Pace and if you’re going for Journalism the alumni support/network is not so good but business majors find themselves at home.

I am probably going to get a lot of hate for this comment, but the fact is, if you’re dealing with someone who really cares about the brand name of a school, neither St. John’s or Pace is going to attract their notice any more than St. Francis would. They’re certainly fine schools, especially Pace if you’re getting a degree that has a creative component, but they’re not Yale or NYU or one of the upscale liberal arts colleges that really attract attention from someone who is a snob about that kind of thing—and if the person to whom you’re applying is someone who didn’t grow up in New York, they likely have not heard of any of them.

My advice would be to go to the school that offers you the best internship or work/study program and seems like they have the most comprehensive career help for your chosen field. I am of the opinion that while schooling can be really important if you’re on a certain level, you can compensate for by doing tons of real work. Someone in advertising is going to be as attracted to a resume that has “St. Francis” and “Saatchi & Saatchi” as they will be to a resume that has “Princeton” and “student newspaper” on it. And if your school has a good network of contacts to get you internships, it’s likely that they have a good alumnae network that you’ll be able to plug into as well. You’ll have a big advantage just by being in New York and being able to intern all year round—as long as St. Francis lets you do that, you’ll be just as well off going there as anywhere else.