To begin: When I share my information, it'll look a lot like what's going on at the CUNY topic. Sorry if that bothers anyone! I just wanted to start up a topic that was labeled in a way that's accessible to people who apply to j-schools next year, as well as this year.
Accepted: CUNY (health/science), NYU (magazine), Mizzou (environmental reporting)
Waitlisted: Northwestern-Medill, but offered winter quarter admission
Denied: Columbia, Berkeley (I imagine I'll have to find some other way to express my love for Michael Pollan)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Finishing bachelor's in 3 years)
GPA: 3.6
GRE: 510 verbal, 690 math, 4.5 writing
Double majoring in environmental studies and creative writing
College magazine: Wrote for music, food, community sections; served briefly as music section editor
Volunteered at an environmental non-profit for one summer (got a rec from them)
President of a social club, served since first year
Head coordinator for the biannual Earth Week events
No professional experiences or formal internships
Strong recommendations
Strongest essays went to NYU and CUNY; weakest essays went to Berkeley (since they had the earliest deadline)
Current thoughts: Most likely deciding between CUNY, MIzzou, and Northwestern's Winter quarter.
CUNY offered me money, has excellent facilities and has an extremely ideal location in New York. Their curriculum might be best for my low experience level and they have that paid internship program. However, they're still rather brand new and I'm not sure if that will deter employers, especially since their alumni network has just started to build.
Mizzou has a long history of teaching journalism--therefore, a more developed program. Award-winning faculty and will provide opportunity to network properly especially with the number of Mizzou J-school alumni out there. However, I would love to get out of the midwest. I have been in this region all of my life and, more than anything, I'd like to get out and experience other parts of the American landscape.
Medill is also extremely famous and shares many of the same benefits as Mizzou. However, I'm not sure what the cons are with attending during the winter instead of fall just yet--I imagine it depends on my life situation. And its location is just barely an hour away from where my family lives. I know I'll get criticized for applying to schools in a state, let alone region, that I personally find exhausting. Then again, my familiarity with Chicago might come in handy.
Sorry for all of the wordiness. Essentially, I am favoring CUNY above the others, but the program's so young, I'm not sure if that's bad from a networking point of view--or good in that journalism currently needs a fresh perspective and innovation to keep it alive.
