The Daily Plan-it / Dean of Students Blog, Columbia J-school

Dear Incoming Students:

The School bulletin explains that the Faculty expects all students to type at a “reasonable speed,” 35 words per minute or better. While we don’t test our students on their individual typing speeds, students who can’t type at at least that speed, will find it hard to keep up with all the work (at school and home) or be able to do well after graduation as professional journalists.

We strongly suggest you find out how close you are to the 35 wpm threshold and, if you need to speed up your typing, practice, practice, practice.

Feel free to try this test (which the School has no way of monitoring your results!). Remember, accuracy is even more important than raw speed…



In evaluating applicants, the Committee on Admissions looks for the following:

6. Students must be able to type in English
at a reasonable speed (35 wpm).

For more typing resources, scroll down on http://www.calculatorcat.com/typing_test/

-30-

From Dean Lemann.

Dear M.S. Students,

I’m writing to remind you that tomorrow evening, at 6 p.m. in the Lecture Hall on the third floor, there is an information session on the Master of Arts in Jouunalism program. I hope you’ll come.

The M.A. program, as most of you probably know by now, is an optional second year that focuses on imparting deep subject-matter expertise to journalists. It is generally considered to be the most ambitious attempt to expand the boundaries of journalism education now going on in the United States. It is in its first year of operation. At tomorrow night’s meeting, various deans, including me, will be there to describe the program in detail, and faculty members and students from all of the program’s four majors—Arts and Culture, Business and Economics, Politics, and Science—will be there too, so it will be easy to get answers to any questions you may have.

The one question we can’t answer yet for sure is the one that I would guess is uppermost in your minds: What kinds of jobs does the M.A. program lead to? That won’t be answerable until the second year of the program has already begun. But, mindful of the uncertainty, we are offering the program once again on extraordinarily generous financial terms: full-need tuition assistance. So in return for being a brave early adopter, you’d get a deal that is not going to last into the years when the program is a proven success.

The application deadline for the program is three weeks away. Please try to take the time to find out more about it tomorrow evening. Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you then.

Best,
Nick Lemann

From Dean Klatell.

To all M.S. Students:

As you know, next Tuesday evening (1/17) we’ll be holding an information session on the M.A. program in the lecture hall. I urge you to attend, because much information as well as current participants (faculty and students, not just administrators) will be available. Dean Lemann will orchestrate the discussions.

Frankly, this is the best time to consider applying for the program: the job market is tight, so the extra expertise gained in the M.A. will give you extra oomph in the eyes of employers; tight times in industry inevitably produce a surge of people heading back to various kinds of graduate schools, preparing themselves to be more-attractive candidates for the smaller number of jobs, when employers can be much pickier in their recruitment efforts. And the M.A. doesn’t duplicate what you’re gaining from the M.S. - - it provides not only greater specialization, depth and mastery of in-demand subject matter, but employs a very different model of teaching and learning, habits of the mind which have their own, intrinsic value over the course of your career. The faulty is terrific, the classes very small (half the size of the average M.S. class) and the students committed, eager and engaged.

You may also want to remember that the university’s substantial financial support for this program offers M.A. students this wonderful education at an amazingly low price – a situation that cannot be counted on to last forever. So, if you’re interested, come to the briefing and Q&A Tuesday evening, and be prepared to fill out an application quite quickly; as you are aware, we’ve extended the deadline by a couple of weeks, but it rapidly approaches.

Regards,
DK

From Dean MacDonald, rm37.

To Columbia Journalism Students:

The application deadline for the Master of Arts program is now
February 9, 2006 at 11:59 p.m. (PST).

The deadline to submit the Financial Aid application form remains the
same, February 28, 2006.

Use you time wisely. Enjoy your short break.