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The UMass Journalism Department is an excellent landing place for transfers, whether you took journalism or communication classes at your former school or if you’re brand new to the field. We love to welcome transfer students to our program. All transfers can finish our program in two years, even if you have never taken a journalism class before. If you enjoy writing, storytelling, photography, video, broadcast journalism, public relations/marketing, sports coverage… You’ll find something for you in our department.
In the journalism major, you’ll find enthusiastic and welcoming students, faculty, and staff, and you’ll get to know your journalism academic advisor very well throughout your time here at UMass. The advisors work closely with students to identify career paths, course selection, campus media involvement, and internship placements.
Potential transfer students are always encouraged to reach out to journalism advisors to talk about the program and what UMass has to offer. You can see the advisors here. John Ciampa advises students with the last names A-K, and Beth Wallace advises L-Z. Please contact your to-be advisors because we enjoy getting to know you right away. You’re always welcome to tour our facilities and observe classes.
When you transfer into UMass, we’ll go over any potential journalism transfer classes to see where they fit in our major requirements, and we’ll explain the three different concentrations our program offers: General Journalism, Public Relations, and Sports Journalism. We encourage you to check out our prospective students page, including a virtual tour of our facilities with many short videos from our faculty, staff and alumni. Check out our faculty and their areas of expertise and research. We have a dynamic faculty who teach a variety of topic areas to interest you.
Most of your journalism classes will be small (16-30 students). You will gain hands-on experience in at least half of your required classes, and you’re welcome to take more. We offer courses in newswriting and reporting, radio and podcasting, video and photojournalism, broadcast reporting, sports and public relations specific courses, and so much more.
When you start at UMass, we’ll ask you which campus media outlets you’d like to explore, and we’ll help you make those connections. We send a weekly newsletter with meeting times and locations, as well as internship postings and campus events of interest to journalism majors.
Visit our student media page to see a list of descriptions of places you can explore. We encourage you to follow them on social media to get the latest updates. All the UMass media outlets encourage students who are brand new to journalism. You’ll find mentors and editors to help you get started.
As students build up their portfolio via campus media, we help you brainstorm internships in your field of interest. The public relations and sports journalism concentrations require an internship, and we suggest at least one internship for the general track, too. Often our students will start with a smaller internship and then build up to bigger ones. Students may internship during the summer at home or local to Amherst (or remote) during the academic year. Your journalism advisors and the SBS Pathways Center career counselors will help you with your resume, internship search, and eventual job search.
Again, we welcome all transfer students to reach out to the advisors to inquire about the journalism major here at UMass. You’ll find a kind, welcoming community here. We especially welcome and embrace the new experiences you’ll bring as a transfer student here at UMass.
