Here are some tips for selecting schools, based on an analysis comparing each school to all others across dozens of factors:
Schools Concentrating On Public Relations Specialists
- Focus: For schools with a focus on this career area, look at Montgomery College, Towson University, The Community College of Baltimore County, and UMUC.
Fastest Response From Schools
- Request Info: For the fastest information for prospective students, look at the Spotlight schools on this page.
Student Body
- Part-Time: For schools emphasizing part-time studies, consider Bowie State.
- Female: For schools particularly welcoming to female students, consider College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
- Diverse: For a diverse student body, consider Bowie State, Prince George's Community College, Montgomery College, and UMUC.
- Adult Learners: For lots of adult learners, consider Anne Arundel, Hood, College of Southern Maryland, and Carroll Community College.
School Setting
- Out of State: For geographic diversity, take note of Johns Hopkins, Goucher, Loyola, and Washington Adventist.
- Dorms: For a residential campus environment, take note of Mount St. Mary's University, Goucher, Loyola, and Washington Adventist.
Excellence
- SAT: For students with high SAT scores, look at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Loyola, and Goucher.
- % Accepted: For selective institutions, look at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Bowie State, and Salisbury University.
- Class Size: For small class sizes, look at Goucher, Mount St. Mary's University, Loyola, and College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
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Bowie State University • Bowie, MD
Studying Communications (completion in 2011)
• 12/23/2011
"I was pleased with the education I received. However, I would have liked to spend less time in general education classes."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Bowie State University is a school that truly prepares its students for life. If there was any lesson I did not learn, I have myself to blame. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | The communications department is one of the most beloved majors on our campus. Students within this department hold prestigious internships during their matriculation, as well as obtain competitive jobs. |
| Program Quality | 9 | I strongly think that there should be more professors, so the students could have more opportunities to network while they learn. I had classes with the same professor for four courses. |
| Instruction | 10 | Each professor previously held (or simultaneously worked) in the public relations field. Their careers spanned the entire public relations spectrum. |
| How Difficult | 8 | Public Relations came easy to me, as I held a 3.8 major GPA. I have been studying PR since my sophomore year of high school. Some of my classmates struggled with the intensity of the coursework and the amount of writing we were required to complete for this degree. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Our professors made sure that we knew how to apply what we learned. While we referenced our books, we were usually assigned a principle for each assignment. We had to make realistic choices using the information we learned. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | Bowie State University offers evening classes, summer and winter sessions, online classes, and weekend classes for the convenience of the students. Online and evening classes helped me a lot during semesters with heavy course loads. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | Bowie State University has the potential to improve in these areas, but they do not have all of the resources. While they do have a lot of technology, many of the older faculty members are not trained in making use of them. |
| Social Life | 10 | BSU has over 80 different campus organizations. While I attended the school, I was an editor for the school paper, president of the student alumni association (for 3 years), and president of my sorority (Alpha Nu Omega). |
| Placement Services | 5 | I have never really made use of the career services office. I can credit many of the professors for this. They helped me to inform myself of job and internship opportunities, which would launch my career. |
| Alumni Network | 10 | Bowie State University prepares each student to become an active alumni during freshman year with its Student Alumni Association. Through this organization, students and alumni network with one another to discuss career opportunities and ways to enhance the university. |
University Of Maryland • College Park, MD
Studying Journalism (completion in 1972)
• 3/5/2012
"The education I received at Maryland was modern and thorough. I did not really feel that I was in a traditional college atmosphere, however."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Maryland at College Park is ideally located for someone interested in public relations. Washington, DC, which is just down the road, is the Spin Capital. Faculty bring real-world experience to their work. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | Maryland has some well-known alumni in journalism and has achieved top national recognition for its public relations program. This reputation has helped open doors. |
| Program Quality | 10 | The University of Maryland had the great advantage of attracting faculty members who had professional experience in Washington, DC. Its location also provided interesting internship opportunities. |
| Instruction | 8 | The faculty at Maryland was enthusiastic, for the most part, about their jobs. Most had extensive professional experience and conducted class in a real-life manner, not from an ivory tower. |
| How Difficult | 8 | Journalism, at least at the time, was not a very scientific subject. The courses were training for professional work. The courses in editing, photography and business I took were rigorous but I would not characterize them as difficult. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The program at Maryland was practical and involved writing and reporting assignments in the real world. Only the classes outside the department were involved in heavy reading and theory. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | As a full-time student, I had little problem filling out a class schedule. The only great difficulty was an inability to register for radio/tv courses, which were in a separate department. |
| Academic Facilities | 7 | Resources were convenient and accessible. In particular, the daily newspaper was housed in the journalism building, which made it easy to work for. Faculty members were down to earth and easily reached. |
| Social Life | 5 | In those days, the College Park campus was dominated by commuting students (including me). That meant our social lives were not focused on the campus. |
| Placement Services | 5 | Forty years ago, most of the career services involved placing students in internships and in temporary positions. Finding full-time positions was largely left to the students themselves, with advice from faculty members. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | The reputation of the University of Maryland in journalism and public relations has grown significantly in recent years. That helps. Also, grads from the program have tended to keep track of one another. |
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