Western Kentucky University vs. Ohio University

[skphoto]

I am a senior in high school and am passionate about photojournalism, enough so that I want to major in it. I just visited University of Missouri, Western Kentucky, and Ohio University, all of which have strong programs in the field. I am wondering if any one has any insight on the differences in strengths and weaknesses of the programs between Ohio and Kentucky, they both seem so similar to me. I am having a lot of trouble making this decision. Any insights on Missouri too would be wonderful. Thanks so much.

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[craig]

Photography centers around LA and NYC. Be sure to consider those options as well.

Love & Bass

[Mike_E]

How liberal are they? And the communities? What do the models (students) look like? What about places to photograph?

What are the opportunities for part time employment should you need it? How close are the hospitals should you need one and how good are they?

You are going to be living there, how are you going to like living there. Unless you are going to be doing research or are going into art the course work is the same and whether you get a quality education will be entirely up to you.

If you want to go into art then you'll need to find the place with the best network of alumni.

Good luck.

[Sam6644]

OU is in the middle of NOWHERE. You better LOVE Athens if you decide to go there or you will hate going to school there. A lot of people leave there after their first year just because they can't stand it.

I don't know where you're from, OU has a reputation of being a good school for partying, getting really drunk, and partying. Not to sound like some elitist douche, but us people fro other colleges in Ohio usually think of OU as the place where kids from our high school we didn't expect to go to college end up going.

That being said, they do have a good photojournalism program (blow my mind, considering its location), but I talked to someone just today who left OU photoj for Cincinnati because they couldn't stand Athens.

You should take a look at the University of Cincinnati. Our photojournalism program is fairly new (journalism program has been around a long time though) and has a lot of opportunities for people to make a name for their self as the program gains notoriety.

UC has one of the top co-op/internship programs in the country. UC has one of the oldest student run newspapers in the country, AND we just won all kinds of college news paper awards at this big state competition- one of which was First Place for Photojournalism. The News Record is also one of the top college papers in the country.
The News Record - News Record receives five ONA awards

Cincinnati is a happening town, it's the largest metropolitan area in Ohio, the tri-state area offers a TON of opportunities for employment and internships and stuff, UC is the second largest college in Ohio (39,000 students this year). Honestly, I think its a journalism students perfect town.

I think you should check out UC. The professor of one of my photojournalism classes this quarter is a pulitzer prize winner and graduate and former teacher at WKU, actually.

Kent State is also a great school for photojournalism.