Interesting article in Slate on Journalism schools -- are they worth it? Is there really anything J-school teaches you that you couldn't learn anywhere else?

I went to Medill at Northwestern for undergrad. I don't have a graduate degree in journalism (or anything, for that matter), and I don't think I need one. When I was at Medill, we only had a few journalism courses the first couple of years, and they were pretty much about writing fast, accurately and well. (And yes, I was in one of the last classes to use those damn manual typewriters for Basic Writing. Yes, I'm still bitter about that.) Then we had several distribution requirements -- stats, history/poli sci, econ, etc. No language requirement, which I think should have been mandated, actually. I think that was a pretty good way to do it -- specializing in the nitty-gritty of journalism without learning about, well, what you might actually be writing about is pretty pointless. So I have no complaints. I had some great profs, some not-so-great profs, and a good experience overall. Did I learn anything I wouldn't have learned if I got, say, an English degree, or a history degree? Yeah, I think so. If nothing else, it primed me for organizing information quickly and coherently. And that probably improved my grades in other classes -- Amy still hasn't forgiven me for that religion class we took together. (She knew the subject matter better, than I did, but I got the better grade.) So, in that it enabled me to piss off my sister, I'd say yeah, the journalism degree was worth it.

I'm unconvinced about grad schools for journalism. There comes a point where you just have to do it. Probably the most useful part of the Medill degree was the Teaching Newspaper quarter, where we interned for an honest-to-god newspaper (The Macon Telegraph, in my case) and wrote honest-to-god stories. You got actual clips from a real newspaper, and you got to schmooze some actual editors and such. That's what gets people jobs.

And a Medill degree was probably actually a hindrance on my first job -- not in getting hired, but in getting the work done. When I started working for a trade mag company in Hong Kong, I was sooooo superior to everyone there. After all, they were importing me from American, I'd gone to this snooty best-of-the-best j-school, and I knew everything. It took Ian Norris, my boss, a couple of weeks to smack that out of me. He did not have a j-school degree -- he didn't have a college degree, actually -- but he knew those magazines cold. I didn't have a clue.

(I did not, however, make the worst snooty American faux pas. That was for a colleague of mine, who, when we were arguing with Ian about the use of the word "bespoke," uttered the phrase "As a highly educated American....." I'm surprised that Ian's glare of contempt didn't incinerate him on the spot.)

With that in mind, I'm actually a little leery of the a new program Medill is starting that's sending students to do their TN in South Africa. I cringe at the thought of highly superior college juniors descending on South African newspapers to tell them everything they're doing wrong. Most 20-year-olds aren't know for their ability to suck it up and admit that they don't know what they're doing. I want to send a pre-emptive apology to the papers of South Africa. Editors, if you get any "Well, in American..." or "At Medill.." or whatever, you have my permission to smack those snot-nose kids upside the head. Trust me, they need it.