SUMMARY
Studying Journalism is a valuable choice and ordinarily a requisite first step for scholars planning to pursue a career as a head editor, a news reporter, or a news content writer. Interestingly, nationally, journalism is somewhat popular coming in at the 37th most popular major. In the last year, there were 12,988 journalism degrees conferred. In-state tuition for journalism at private universities is, on average, 3.9 times more costly than their public rivals.
There are 392 colleges which offer journalism. 392 institutions is on par with other majors offered in the United States. If you're looking to immerse yourself with other journalism students, look at universities in California which have the most students admitted to journalism annually. Zooming out, the best region to get a degree in journalism is in the Southeast region with Georgia State University, University of Georgia, and West Virginia University best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick for the best conference to major in journalism is the Big Ten Conference with University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus, and University of Wisconsin-Madison representing the conference. From our list on the best colleges, our choice for the best college for journalism is Northwestern University.
The objectively best school might not actually be the best school for you. There are tons of factors to weigh when deciding on school. Things such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food would affect your choice of where to go to university. Here at Authority, we have examined the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you want to know which journalism school is home to the best campus, the winner is New York University. If, for example, you are mostly interested in which university is home to the finest campus, we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through student reviews, professor reviews, government databases, and more to evaluate every major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our well researched list for the universities with the best student life here and our pick for the school with the best student life for journalism is University of Florida. Curious why? Continue scrolling to learn more about our top recommendations. Some of our conclusions will probably surprise you.
If price is a major influence in your choice of where you attend school, you might consider avoiding University of Southern California. University of Southern California appears to be our most expensive school for journalism, at least for out of state enrollment. That being said, we have a list of the most expensive schools that could put the cost of University of Southern California into perspective. Additionally, you could be interested to know that journalism is the 100th most expensive degree in America, with an average expense of $39,000. On a broader scale, the most costly state for journalism on our list is District of Columbia with costs at the main two universities American University and George Washington University of $49,070 and $54,453 respectively. Even more broadly, the most expensive region for journalism is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Fairfield University with a cost of $49,080, Boston University with a cost of $54,720, and Northeastern University with a cost of $52,420.
Our cheapest region for journalism is the Southeast region which is represented by Henderson State University with a cost of $8,640, Rust College with a cost of $9,900, and University of Southern Mississippi with a cost of $10,786. On the bright side, the most affordable school for journalism is University of North Texas. Our full list of the most affordable colleges can be found here.
In-state learners can anticipate paying about $10,100 for a degree in journalism. That price balloons substantially to a median of $23,200 for the out-of-state public-school student. As such, you might be interested in our pick for the university with the best value for journalism: Northwestern University. Through this link you will find our comprehensive list for the colleges we believe to be the best value overall. Bear in mind, this discussion is based on being an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition is considered, but we do not know in which states any one student has residency.
Earnings for journalism majors can differ, but within two-years of completing the major graduates will typically make in the neighborhood of $46,000. While there can be much variation in earnings potential; top earners can make up to $82,000. Even straight out of school, the lowest end positions within the journalism field earn $26,000, which is an alright wage. The highest earning grads for journalism studied at Lehigh University and if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.
The all-around diversity of journalism ranks on the higher end, being within the 52nd percentile of all majors. The school with the highest composite diversity for journalism is New York University and here you can find our general list for the universities which have the most diversity. The financial diversity of Journalism only is within the 36th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 45th percentile. White undergraduates compose the largest proportion at 63% of scholars studying journalism. Additionally, 69% of undergrads seeking a journalism degree are women.
The median ranking of journalism professors is 4 stars, a score which is surprisingly the median for every major; this is a fine. If you are curious about the most popular journalism instructor in the country, consider looking up Alice Tait at Central Michigan University. It might surprise you, but the top rated instructors for journalism by student are at Medical University of South Carolina. As we incorporate data other than simply rankings we find that the college possessing comprehensively the best instructors for journalism is Northwestern University. One will find an explanation of our evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with many of the top examples of professors in the country.
Finally, the hardest school to get into for journalism is Northwestern University. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we do have a general list for the hardest colleges to get into. Although, here at Authority we hope you believe that approaching higher education with a perspective only formed from superlatives might cause issues. We encourage you to read our other pages on different topics and read a couple of our background 'blog posts' on important things to look out for as you continue your school search.