June 11, 2008
Admissions season is over and the results are in: The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism is preparing to welcome the largest class in its two-year history.
Some 70 students are expected to arrive in August at the J-School’s midtown Manhattan headquarters to begin studying for their Master of Arts degree in Journalism — substantial increase over each of the two preceding classes.
Once again, the J-School has attracted a diverse body of students from around the country and abroad. Among the students are alumni of Brandeis, Columbia, McGill, NYU, Oberlin College, Pomona College, Smith College, UCLA, University College Dublin, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, Vassar College and Wesleyan.
The group also includes graduates of six CUNY colleges — Brooklyn, City, Hunter, Lehman, Queens, and Staten Island — and four State University of New York schools — SUNY Albany, SUNY Binghamton, Purchase College, and SUNY New Paltz. Several incoming students already have worked as professional journalists. Others are coming from fields of law, music, finance, and medical research.
The new class will have a 68% to 32% female-to-male split and an average age of 27. About one-quarter of the students are non-New York State residents, including citizens of Finland, Trinidad and Tobago, India, China, and Canada. Underrepresented groups will make up 42% of the student body.
More than 90% of the incoming students applied to at least one other graduate journalism program, and many turned down competing offers to attend the CUNY J-School.
"We had a great recruitment year," said Stephen Dougherty, director of admissions and student affairs for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
"It shows that students are finding what they're looking for in our program: a converged journalistic environment, state-of-the-art facilities, the right media concentrations, a paid internship program, and an unparalleled program of student services from the time they become interested in the school to the time they graduate," he said.
The newcomers will join the 47 members of the Class of 2008. Students are put through a rigorous three-semester program at the J-School, which is the only publicly supported graduate journalism program in the Northeastern United States.
