Breaking Into News: Journalism Education in US

A student in Vietnam asks about American J-schools.

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A student at Vietnam National University has a question for our Foreign Student Series. Phuong Lan wants to earn a master's degree in the United States and would like to know about journalism programs.

109 programs are recognized by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Some of the best-known include the ones at the University of Southern California, the University of Missouri and the University of North Carolina. They also include the journalism schools at Columbia University in New York City and Northwestern University in Illinois.

Northwestern, for example, has the Medill School of Journalism. Medill says it provides its graduate students with the chance to study and work in the real world. Local newspapers and television stations carry their reports on government, crime and civic issues in the Chicago area. Other subjects include magazine publishing and Web design. And the Medill News Service offers experience reporting in Washington.

Graduate students at Medill can expect to pay more than 58,000 dollars this coming school year. That includes a place to live, meals, books and costs like health insurance. Medill also has an undergraduate program.

Medill scholarships or financial aid are not available to international students. Foreign students are advised to seek aid from their home country or groups like the Inter-American Press Association Scholarship Fund. Scholarship winners from Latin America and the Caribbean spend a year at a journalism school in the United States or Canada.

Journalism schools offer professional degrees, and some offer doctorates. Students may be able to earn a joint degree with another program like law or public policy.

It is true that the value of a journalism degree has been a traditional subject of debate among people in the media. But journalism schools offer training in skills like reporting, writing and production. They also teach about legal issues like plagiarism and libel law and freedom of speech. In addition they may offer classes in other areas, including public relations.

US Colleges for the Deaf

A look at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York.

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We are going to talk again this week about higher education for disabled students who want to study in the United States. As we noted last time, the National Federation of the Blind says there are no special colleges or universities for blind students.

But there are for deaf students. One of them is Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Gallaudet says it is the world's only liberal arts university where everything is designed for deaf or hard-of-hearing students.

On May 9, Robert Davila became the ninth president of Gallaudet University

About 2,000 students attend Gallaudet. The cost for international students is about $33,000 a year.

Financial aid is available in the form of scholarships, but only after the first year of studies. Most scholarship aid goes to students in financial need who do well in their first year.

One scholarship for international students is for deaf students from developing countries. Another is just for students from China.

The university also offers an English Language Institute. But Gallaudet says this program does not guarantee acceptance to the university.

In the past year, students at Gallaudet protested over the administration's choice of a new president for the university. The protests resulted in the choice of a different president who is more popular with the students, Robert Davila.

He is a former chief executive officer of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. This technical college is in Rochester, New York. It is one of eight colleges in the Rochester Institute of Technology.

More than 1,000 students attend the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. About one hundred of them are international students. They come from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

The cost is about $28,000 a year for an international undergraduate student. Foreign graduate students pay about $28,000.

Both undergraduate and graduate students can receive limited financial aid. They can also take part in the student employment program. This program makes it possible for students to work at the school.