My copyedited version of an
OpinionJournal comment.
"A four-year undergraduate education can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000."
In the high, wildly over priced private sector, sure. But not so in public universities like my alma mater Cal State-Northridge, where it it didn't cost me anything to get the highest quality journalism education. While Mr. Last does a good job outlining the upper echelon of sample coursework, he misses the context of a Bachelor's program in anything. And this is, at least 90 semester hours are in the field of general education both upper and lower division that run the gamut of required area subjects. Yes, Hume and Locke for me. End of that, "they don't take a history class" myth. We did. Moreover, we had to have either a minor or a collateral field in another major besides journalism. Mine is in environmental biology, a current and past profession so out of the 130 units for the BA degree only 30 are actual journalism courses in news reporting, mass comm, one in diversity, article writing, editing, graphics and international journalism, plus a required stint at the school paper the Daily Sundial.
The problem of course, is all those high priced graduates, and a handful low low wage jobs. I haven't been able to get one, so a degree in journalism, as you've illustrated adeptly, is no key to anything except ridicule and insult, even from editors if my experience is any indication, which it is for me.
All you have to do is figure out how to live in high falutin America ca. 2006 on 18 to 23K a year if you can get it. These days that's like the chances of an ice cube in the Sahara; or Alaska.
Then again, some of the lucky get jobs without graduating at all, so there you have it.