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

Here are some of the postings about surviving & thriving at the J-school.

1. TIPS: “In the months BEFORE J-school I wish I had…”
   Tips from alumni about preparing better for the school.
2. TIPS: Surviving the Fall Semester
   More than 75 tips from alumni about doing well in the Fall.
3. TIPS: Surviving the Spring Semester
   More than 75 tips from alumni about doing well in the Spring.
4. ESSAYS: “If I Could Tell Myself in August What I Know Now, It Would Be…”
   Two essays from J2006 with tips everyone can use.

The Daily Plan-it asked recent alumni to share tips about surviving and thriving in the Spring semester. Responses (some of them contradicting each other, some of them repetitive) are continuing to trickle in and will be added here throughout the semester, lightly edited for clarity. More than 75 below, with the latest ones being added to the top. You can bookmark this posting separately by clicking on http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2006/01/17/tips and adding it to your favorites/bookmarks.
MAY 2006 UPDATE: We are now collecting Fall semester survival tips, too. Send your tips for either semester to ss221@columbia.edu

In the Spring semester at J-School, I wish I had…

1. (this is for international students..while it may apply to local students too) not allowed myself to feel like a loser because I didn’t have an internship, while everyone else around me did. Remember, you are an international student and already have
   restrictions — so whatever you have achieved, even if it seems less than the others, is actually more. Look beyond the J-school listings for internships and most importantly BREATHE!
2. taken an internship. Yes, even in the Fall semester (no matter how busy you get with school, internships in New York are the best way to improve your resume and get a job).
3. attended more on-campus talks and guest lectures.
4. applied for more internships and jobs.
5. attended more lectures and networking events.
6. gotten to know my professors better.
7. helped our J-School intramural basketball team win a game. Somewhere, Pulitzer was rolling over in his grave watching us lose to those law students every week.
8. more free time
9. taken every opportunity to learn how to use all the software available on the school’s computers (even if, at the time, it seemed irrelevant).
10. gotten to know more professors. It slowly dawns on you how many incredible people are at this school and how little time you have.
11. …taken a class on where good ideas come from. Quite a few people can report. Nowhere near as many know what makes a good story idea.
12. …considered working in a smaller market than New York City. There are definite downsides to joining a big news organization.
13. …not worried about the huge amount of money I owed Columbia. The 10 years it took to pay it off went by much quicker than I expected.
14. …mingled more. Journalism is not only about whom you know, but whom you get to know during your career.
15. …taken a deep breath. While the Master’s Project is important, I can count on one hand the number of times it has come up outside of J-school since graduating.
16. …gone to more informational interviews.
17. …crammed in as much writing and reporting as possible in order to get more feedback from professors/editors. You’ll never get that much feedback and training in one place from editors in the commercial world. There’s just not enough time.
18. …made an effort to meet five new classmates a week.
19. …pitched more stories (to editors outside J-school), not necessarily to get something published (although that’s always nice) but to practice getting in touch and making contacts; later you realize it isn’t as hard as it seems once you’re done it several times, so don’t be afraid of rejection.
20. …taken a big deep breath and appreciated every single second!
21. …gotten enough sleep (no matter what party you have to leave early, it’s worth it).
22. …started on my Master’s Project a week earlier and better communicated my concerns and challenges with my adviser and set a goal of finishing a week before deadline.
23. …networked more with guest speakers at the school.
24. …had more chocolate milkshakes at Tom’s Restaurant - they are the best.
25. … bought my own domain name.
    [DAILY PLAN-IT TIP: Info on buying a personal site from Dean Sreenivasan.]
26. …played more intramural softball– long live the “J-school Swingers.”
27. …extended my Columbia health insurance beyond graduation
28. …taken the time to socialize with my friends a little more.
29. …hung out on the front steps more.
30. …worked to get at least one piece of writing published — probably my Master’s project, but anything would have done. This would have boosted my confidence (I didn’t realize how good the work was compared to so much that is out there) AND helped with the job search.
31. …invested more in the stories that meant something to me and simply let the others go.
32. …gone to my grandfather’s funeral against the recommendations of J-school
    brass (I would have needed a week to go to California) — one of the only serious regrets of my entire life. Family always comes first — don’t let faculty or bosses convince you differently.
33. …not been afraid to network.
34. …taken a break at Coney Island.
35. …taken the Book Writing course with Sam Freedman.
36. … done an internship.
37. …written my Master’s Project with actual publication in mind (and in
    reality).
38. …pitched more stories for publication.
39. …taken a radio course.
40. …kept better track of my schedule. Make a schedule for every week, for every task and every assignment and stick to it. Especially important if you’re working with others on a project to be sure everyone commits time - the same time - to get together.
41. …gotten out and seen New York - not only as a journalist but also as a
    curious foreigner.
42. …sought out mentors and take advantage of their advice.
43. …gotten out of the Journalism building and explore what other
    departments have to offer.
44. …started putting my resume out earlier and attended more job conferences.
45. …stuck to a tighter budget during the second semester and saved a bit more money for when I was interning over the summer.
46. …eaten more cruciferous vegetables and gotten more sleep.
47. …tried to enjoy the process of writing my Master’s Project a bit more, because I won’t be working on a long-form feature story again anytime soon.
48. …kept a blog or journal of my J-school experience (I did try to keep a J-school blog but it turned into my personal treasury of rants).
49. …taken courses that focused on writing and style, rather than two reporting-heavy classes.
50. …had done the vast bulk of reporting on my Master’s early, because it made for a tough semester for colleagues, especially those on the Bronx Beat.
51. …asked my professors for pitch letter pointers and tried to get more things published. It would have been worth it for the practice even if everything I submitted got rejected.
52. …I had done an extra draft of my Master’s Project, so it could have been revised and improved more.
53. …lined up an internship to gain New York work experience and make contacts.
54. …written thank you notes and sent stories back to people on my beat, not just to be polite but because their feedback would have been invaluable.
55. …typed more on a regular-sized keyboard instead of my 12-inch laptop because I ended up with RSI in both wrists.
56. …worn a cuter dress to the J-school graduation instead of a stupid blazer and denim skirt.
57. …paced myself better through each assignment, each class.
58. …taken advantage of all of the special events/speakers the school offers.
59. …enjoyed myself more. This could be your last university semester for a while.
60. …had taken more advantage of being in New York City. Now that I don’t live there anymore, there are so many neighborhoods and museums I wish I’d visited, restaurants I wish I’d eaten at and shows I wish I’d seen.
61. …taken my internship more seriously.
62. …worried about the job search less. I know that sounds completely counterintuitive, but I think I wasted a lot of time agonizing over worst case scenarios. I was also so worried that I would have jumped at any job that was offered me. For example, I interviewed with Vogue Knitting magazine after I saw an ad on MediaBistro.com. I love knitting, but I don’t think that would have been a good start to my journalism career. As it turns out I didn’t get the job (they needed someone to start right away), but I did get a job at WSJ.com three months later. In fact, most of the people I knew from j-school were hooked up with pretty good jobs by the end of summer. It is hard to find a media job, but not so hard that it warrants breaking out in a cold sweat or taking a job you’ll
    want out of one month later.
63. …dabbled in a few more courses completely outside my area of
    concentration, and gotten to know more of my classmates better.
64. …gone to the gym (Columbia’s gym is open until
    midnight for a reason).
65. …switched from coffee to herbal tea (ultimately a
    life-changer)
66. …updated my resume and supporting materials long before the job fair
67. …gotten more sleep (but that’s just not realistic)
68. …done more freelancing and gone on more informational interviews — you’ll need those clips and contacts in a few months.
69. …gone to the gym more.
70. …freelanced more.
71. …befriended even more part-timers, arts fellows and Knight-Bagehot folk.
72. …taken advantage of living in Manhattan for the last time in my life.
73. …learned HTML.
74. …better befriended my professors and adjuncts.
75. …done an internship.
76. …believed all those who kept on telling me (Sree included) that the
    Spring semester passes by in a flash (Carpe Diem!)
77. …tried harder at establishing relationships with guest speakers
    and/or professors
78. …cultivated more relationships and done many more informational interviews with journalists in ALL mediums. Journalism is on a convergence path - you never know where you might end up (or how badly you might need a job).
79. …pitched & published more clips.? For the aforementioned reason.
80. …NOT interned. As a broadcast concentrator it’s better to intern AFTER you finish your Master’s Project. The quality of your work and relationships count, never spread yourself too thin.
81. …realized earlier that you should think of yourself not as a student, but as a freelance writer, with J-school professors for editors.
82. …started looking for a job months before graduation.
83. …taken more Skills classes.
84. …organized my time a little bit better. When all the big projects were due at the end of the semester, I fell behind because I spent too much time on one and neglected another. The Spring is not the same as the Fall term in terms of structure (RW1 all the time), so be prepared.
85. ..asked my Master’s adviser for feedback sooner on the first draft. If you don’t get feedback within a week or so, press your adviser.?Especially if you are going to India for the Covering Religion trip, it is imperative you get as
    much critical analysis as possible so you know what kind of work you
    need to do for the second and third drafts.
86. …attended a non-J-school event or something Columbia related
    (basketball game, film showing, etc). I know time is rough, but you’re at Columbia so try to make the use of the university’s amenities while you have the time.
87. …stuck around for the post-graduation on Wednesday reception longer instead of having to rush to an early dinner reservation and miss saying congratulations/goodbye to a few people. When its time to call the restaurants to reserve a spot in April (or earlier), schedule your party into the evening hours of graduation day because that reception may be the last time you see professors and friends.
88. …bought real estate.

OTHER TIPS:
• Buy a Frisbee. Seriously, as the weather gets better, it’s a great way to meet/talk to people who aren’t in any of your classes. Some of my best memories CJS are hanging out by Thomas Jefferson, throwing the Frisbee barefoot in the grass. And if there was a cold Sapporo in a brown paper bag nearby, so much the better.

After the success of the “Surviving the Spring Semester” tips, The Daily Plan-it is asking recent alumni and graduating students to share tips about surviving and thriving in the Fall semester. Responses (some of them contradicting each other, some of them repetitive) will be added here throughout the semester, lightly edited for clarity and style (the newest ones on top).

Please send your suggestions (for either semester) to ss221@columbia.edu. Contributors include: Regina Woods, Joe Orso, Andrea Lee, Jason Anthony, Kimberly Atkins, Ron Brownlow, Rebekah Gordon, Laura Johnston, Jacob Goldstein, Ramin Ganeshram, Anna Bengel, Shira Schoenberg, Badru Mulumba, (your name here)

1. chosen my elective based on the professor, not the subject.
2. taken time to enjoy the city rather than obssesively fret over RW1 due to an obsessive professor. Do your best but don’t let someone else’s obsession permeate to you.
3. taken an internship. Yes, even in the Fall semester (no matter how busy you get with school, internships in New York are the best way to improve your resume and get a job).
4. taken a deep breath. What seemed stressful then, I realize now was just part of the normal J-school process.
5. drank less coffee (especially the jet-fuel type served downstairs).
6. gone to Career Services earlier. It’s not as scary as it sounds - and you’re going to have to get a job sometime!
7. realized that switching into the part-time program for the spring semester isn’t that hard after all. If you’re serious about freelancing or spending lots of time at a spring internship, it can be a good way to go.
8. sought resume feedback from people outside of the Career Services office. Take every opportunity to have someone currently in the industry look over your resume and clips.
9. built a better list of story ideas for my RWI beat in August. Scrambling to find a good housing story idea on a Tuesday in October — with a Thursday morning deadline — was not fun.
10. taken new media classes. Online skills are so important and you should take advantage of being in a school environment to learn as much as you can. It will pay off after you graduate.
11. taken more advantage of opportunities to re-write articles.
12. tried to freelance some of my articles and possibly radio pieces.
13. explored New York City more because it is a lie that you have more time in the spring semester.
14. …known that feeling overwhelmed isn’t a catastrophe. Instead, it was the first step toward finding my own priorities. On the other hand, I’m glad I told some of my profs that I was feeling overwhelmed. They helped me to remember why I sought out the M.A. program in the first place and led me to some great insights into whatwas important to me. In the end, it was all good for me: the workload, the brain strain, the stumbling, and the getting back up again.
15. …gone to more Happy Hours.
16. …spent more time on my Master’s Project so I could have taken more of a winter break.
17. …gotten to know my classmates better.
18. …attended more of the optional lectures.
19. …stayed in better touch with non-journalist friends.
20. …took the narrative writing elective (so that I could experiment with those awesome narrative techniques in my Spring classes and in the Master’s Projects).
21. …taken more skills courses. I only took one, and now I wish I had also taken the others in photography, radio, etc. just to have that broad base of skills under my belt that would make me much more marketable to employers.
22. …reached out and established a relationship with at least one of my professors — this will really help you down the road, whether it’s just to talk you through the stress come second semester or to point you to some good job prospects (on their own terms of
    course).
23. …hadn’t approached profs just looking for job tips. You *will* connect with at least one professor, and just having that solid, genuine, outside-of-just-class-time friendship will be enough.
24. …tried and made my stories do double time by exploring the logical ripples from one drop in the pond. For example: If you have an education story about arranged marriages, see if you can also get a business story about matchmakers, a lifestyle story on new types of dating, and a religion story on converts to faiths that promote marriage arrangements.
25. …realized that every student is supremely talented. I wish I’d shaken off my
    undergraduate, must-get-honors, competitive mentality and just enjoyed — and learned — from all my classmates. Also, I shouldn’t have let my classmates’ designer jeans and giant
    Fendi bags intimidate me.
26. …applied for internships.
27. …prepared a stack of resumes and clips before class started, which would have made applying for internships less of a burden.
28. …chosen professors more carefully. Track down outgoing students — you should be able to find some by looking up their published work online — and grill them about which professors to seek out and which to avoid. If you can make it to campus, read the course reviews on file
    at the J-School library. [DAILY PLAN-IT NOTE: This last sentence is no longer relevant. Starting with the Spring 2005 courses, all course evaluations are now online for incoming students anywhere in the world.]

29. …made a list of the names, numbers and e-mails of managing editors at
    amNew York, Metro, City Limits and the weekly newspapers that covered my beat and pitched my RWI stories to them on a regular basis.
30. …. read Bob Baker’s Newsthinking. It is especially important to read if you do not have a journalism background.
31. …had a copy of the Upanishads to read to put life into perspective for those times when I
    left the J-school feeling overwhelmed. The big questions posed in the Upanishads could have diminished the significance of the little episodes of worthlessness I felt after some of my edited stories came back bleeding.
32. …applied for internships.
33. …pitched more freelance work.
34. …participated in some sort of activity wholly unrelated to school.
35. …gone to more Happy Hours.
36. …explored NYC (apart from my beat).
37. …read more Master’s Projects in the library.
38. …started exploring my Master’s Project during the summer (at least have a general topic you’re passionate about and that you’d like to learn more about before the first day of school).
39. …been more prepared for failure on all fronts (don’t stress
    when your stories suck - you’re there to learn not win a Pulitzer).
40. …bought a bike. (This is vital. You will cover six times the area on your beat, and actually enjoy it. Biking New York lets you see the 90% of the city that isn’t convenient to a subway line, and all of my great RW1 stories came from out-of-the-way places. Then enjoy the Palisades across the GW bridge or take off your journalist cap and ride with us at Critical Mass last Friday of the month, Union Square, 7 pm.
41. …picked an RWI beat neighborhood more off the beaten path (I picked
    Harlem, which is always inundated with J-Schoolers. I wish I’d picked
    a nabe in Queens or the Bronx).
42. …spent less time beating myself up because I wasn’t getting many
    clips, and more time enjoying the experience.