Honors in Journalism

Graduate with Honors in Journalism!

JRL Seniors (and JRL Juniors, who will be graduating in December 2013)

The Journalism Program offers AJRL 499 in the Spring. This is the Honors Seminar, which meets once a week, usually on Wednesday evenings, from 5:45 to 8:35. Taking AJRL 499 allows you to graduate with Honors in Journalism. If you qualify for the seminar, you should sign up for it!

AJRL 499 is open to senior majors, graduating in spring 2013, who qualify as Honors students (see below). It is also open to junior majors, who plan to graduate in December 2013. The course will be taught this year by Professor Thomas Bass (tbass@albany.edu). Write to him for information about the course or to get a CPN.

The Honors Seminar is devoted primarily to student work. It focuses on writing and editing a portfolio of journalistic pieces, producing a student film, assembling radio scripts, or designing a web site or other multimedia project. The course is centered on students critiquing each other's work and producing a portfolio useful for securing jobs, internships, scholarships, or admission to graduate school. Small and informal, the class is designed to offer a capstone experience to your UAlbany training as journalists.

To graduate with Honors in Journalism a student needs to: (a) be a declared Journalism major; (b) have completed 12 credits in AJRL courses; (c) have a minimum 3.25 overall GPA and a minimum 3.50 GPA in Journalism; and (d) submit an application essay to Professor Bass. The "essay" consists of a brief statement about your work as a journalism student and a writing sample - a piece of work that represents your best efforts as a journalist.

In addition, in terms of the curriculum and the required courses for satisfying the major, the student must have completed (or be in the process of completing) at least one course from the Contextual courses menu: AJRL 340 Global Perspectives on the News; A JRL 330 History of Journalism in the United States; A JRL 420 Media in the Digital Age; or A JRL 480 Public Affairs Journalism. The student must have earned at least an A- in the chosen course. Senior Honors students will then complete A JRL 499 Senior Honors Project. The Honors sequence requires 39 credits.