Civics: Journalism Schools, relevance vs. cost

Frederic Filloux:

Should students pay $30,000 or even up to $100,000 to attend a journalism school in the United States? Is it realistic considering the starting salaries in the profession? Is teaching journalism schools actually needed?

An interesting discussion was prompted last week by Rafat Ali, about the cost of tuition in journalism schools in the United States. Rafat is a creator of Skift and a pioneer in digital journalism and media entrepreneurship. On February 21, he tweeted the following:

On average, a student will pay $57,000 per year to attend one of these J-schools (living expenses not included). Compared to that, at $16,500 per year, the SciencesPo Journalism school where I teach in Paris looks like a bargain (students actually get generous aid: only 2% pay the full rate and 35% of the SciencesPo J-School pay zero tuition). For that price, you get the best journalism school in France, with some of the classes taught in English, and the curriculum also offers a dual degree with the Paris School of International Affairs — end of our commercial break.