Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

The M.A. program is for experienced journalists who aren't satisfied merely by competency.  They want to go deeper, to navigate complicated terrain and to cover it in a sophisticated, nuanced manner.  Students emerge with the subject-matter grounding that enables them to situate news events in their larger context, to ask more informed questions, and to authoritatively evaluate claims made by sources.

During the application process, candidates select a major in one of four subject areas:  arts & culture; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Program in Health and Science Journalism; business & economics; or politics.  Once enrolled, M.A. students work closely with professors from both the journalism school and academic departments and professional schools throughout Columbia University. Each student also designs and completes a Master's Thesis, an ambitious reporting project that results in a written piece of 8,000-10,000 words or its broadcast equivalent.

The program is full-time, and runs from August through May. The deadline for applications is January 15. The Journalism School is proud to offer generous financial assistance to students who demonstrate excellent academic achievement, financial need and exceptional promise for leading careers in journalism. A grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides generous tuition support for students in the M.A. science concentration, and also covers some of the costs of thesis reporting.

Below is a clip of two M.A. students talking about their experiences in the 2012-2013 program.