Jordan Wade applied to nearly all of the graduate journalism programs in Canada, among them Ryerson, Carleton, and Western. But the first-year student from Toronto always had his heart set on attending the University of British Columbia.
“I wanted to go to UBC first and foremost because I wanted to be in Vancouver,” Wade (pictured right, hiking Grouse Mountain during the fall 2011 semester) said. “I realized I wanted to be in a major media market on the West Coast where I could integrate my interest in journalism with the West Coast lifestyle and attitude.”
Wade said the curriculum at UBC also best mirrored his areas of interest.
“As someone who would like to get more into the multimedia side of journalism, courses like International Reporting and Advanced TV Reporting were very appealing to me,” he said.
Indeed, for many students, the draw of UBC’s Graduate School of Journalism was not only its comprehensive curriculum, globally respected professors and award-winning students, but its location in Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the world.
An integrated approach
Aleksandra Sagan, a second-year student who also hails from Toronto, said she ultimately chose UBC in order to expand her horizons — both from a geographic and a journalistic perspective.
“I have always wanted to live in Vancouver and as a Canadian journalist it would do me well to know different parts of Canada,” she said. “What better way to do that than to move to a different city in a different province?”
Sagan, who received a B.A. in English and Bachelors of Education from York University, knew exactly what she was looking for when it came to graduate studies.
“For what I wanted from an MJ program, UBC and Ryerson came incredibly close to offering the same thing,” she said. “But I was drawn by the fact that UBC didn’t make you take separate classes for print, radio, and television, that it was all intertwined in first year.”
A world-class reputation
Alexandra Minzlaff said that UBC was one of the few schools in Canada that is well known and respected in her home country of Germany.
“According to reviews and also to my professors back home, UBC had a very good reputation,” said the first-year student from Munich. She is particularly concerned that her training be recognized on a global scale because upon graduation she hopes to pursue a career as a foreign correspondent.
“It sounded like the program would be the perfect combination of theory and practice,” she said. Plus, “the professors are all professional journalists, which I think is important.”
UBC journalism student Shannon Dooling interned at New Hampshire Public Radio
