作者简介：Kathryn Cannady,毕业于美国西北大学，梅迪尔新闻学院新闻学学士、历史学学士和艺术历史学学士。日落杂志研究助理，知名电视剧《圣诞丘比特》制片助理（美国迪斯尼集团），成功辅导学员录取：西北大学（综合12名）、卡内基梅隆大学（综合23名）、维克森林大学（综合23名）、加州大学洛杉矶分校（综合23名）、南加州大学（综合23名）等美国名校。

---------------------------------

翻译：敏杰

Studying journalism at Northwestern is, in the beginning, like being a member of a super exclusive club. You’ve been accepted into a top journalism school, and you and your peers know it. The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communicationsis a place where you are able to really excel, but only if you take advantage of what the school has to offer – they won’t hold your hand through it. By the end, however, it’s just like any other major – full of some people who are driven and will do well in the field, and others who can’t wait to get out.

在西北大学学习新闻学时，刚开始你会觉得你像是成为了一个入会条件非常严格的俱乐部的成员。你和你的同伴都知道你们被这个顶尖的Medill新闻学院录取了。Medill新闻、传媒与整合营销传播学院是一个你能真正一马当先的地方，但前提是你得能够充分利用学校提供的资源，学校是不会牵着你的手带你走过大学历程的。但是，新闻专业最终也像其它专业一样，充斥着两类人：一类是有动力去学习实践并在这个行业里有突出成绩的学生，另外一类就是迫不及待想结束新闻学学习的学生。

Journalism classes begin with the basics – how to craft a story, how toreport, and how to do so with perfect grammar. If you make a factual orgrammatical mistake in a story at any time in your four years, you’re automatically given a “Medill F.” Some people got so many that they used their“F’s” to make wallpaper in their dorms. I’m not sure how, but I managed to escape without one, and never felt the soul-crushing reality that your lack of a capital “D” on Dumpster led to an “F.” Watching fellow classmates get them,however, made me extremely cautious when writing every line in my stories.

新闻专业从基础开始学起，基础就是如何去叙写一个故事，如何去报道还有如何用恰当的词法去做前两件事。在你学习新闻学这四年间无论何时你如果在描述一件事情上犯了弄错事情真相或者用错词法的错误，你将自动得到一个“Medill F”的成绩。一些人因为得了太多的F以至于他们把他们的F贴在他们的寝室墙上可以做成墙纸。我不大清楚我是怎么做到的，但我可以逃脱每一个F的惩罚，从来没有因为大小写这种微不足道的错误而得到一个F这种悲剧尝到累觉不爱的滋味。看着我的同学们得到F的时候反而警醒我，使我在叙写每一件事情的字里行间都格外小心。

After your freshman courses on writing and basic multimedia (photo and video)reporting, you begin to take more specialized classes in your “track.” This prepares you for your Junior or Senior year internship, called Journalism Residency, at one of America’stop news outlets. Medill allows you to do print, online, broadcast,orintegrated marketing communications “tracks,” but most people specialize even further in design,production, writing, editing, ordigital news. This means that you’re constantly surrounded with people who have a wide range of skill sets in writing, designing and putting together stories –a fact that is as inspiring as it is daunting.

上完入门级写作课程以及多媒体（摄影与录像）报告基础后，你的学习轨道上就要开始排上更多的专业课。对于大三大四的实习，即在一家美国顶尖新闻媒体进行的新闻实习，这些课程能够让你对实习有所准备。在Medill，你可以学习到印刷、在线、广播或者是整合市场营销传播上的运行“轨迹”，但是大多数人研究得更加广泛深远，他们甚至研究了设计、生产、写作、编辑或者数字新闻。这意味着你身边的人永远都是具备多种写作、设计以及整合事件能力技术的。这既让人振奋又让人感到压力山大。

Because Medill is such a small school, you become close with certain professors, and learn to avoid others. You also learn which students are likely to “make it big”and which are likely to end up in something unrelated to journalism. By the end of my freshman year, I knew I was one of those students who had no intention of actually becoming a journalist. However, I stuck out the classes, picking up skills in design, writing and communication that would be useful in any aspectof my future career.

由于Medill就是这么个小圈子，你会和某些教授变得亲近，也会尽量避开一些其他的教授。你也会了解到哪些学生很有可能在新闻业大有一番作为，哪些学生会最终从事与新闻业无关的行业。在我大一结束的时候我就知道我是那些并不想当记者的同学中的一员，但是我依旧坚持上新闻学的课，同时学习设计、写作以及传播学的知识，我知道这些知识在我未来的职业生涯的方方面面都会助我一臂之力。

Whether it is Medill, Northwestern, or Journalism-specific, the students I went to schoolwith were driven and determined to get good jobs at well-known magazines and TV stations early on in their career. Many students work for big name news networks as internships starting freshman year, and the prevailing idea is that if you aren’t doing the same, you’re lazy or destined for failure (or both). If students aren’t working through internships, most are involved in campus publications, putting the pressure on you to be equally involved. It can be difficult to succeed in this culture, but if you stay focused on doing well in class and picking up the skills you want, you can make it through.

不管是Medill学院、西北大学还是新闻专业本身，和我同届的同学们都曾雄心壮志，希望在他们职业生涯的初期能够在知名的杂志社或电视台得到一份好的工作。许多学生在他们大一开始时就在大名鼎鼎的新闻网站上做实习生，在他们中盛行这一种观念，那就是如果你不这样做，那么你就是懒人一个或者注定会失败（或者兼而有之）。如果没有去做实习，那么大多参加校园刊物编撰的学生也会给你带来巨大的压力，逼着你去做跟他们一样的事情。想在这种文化思想中成功是很困难的，但是如果你一直专心致力于认真学习专业课程，同时兼修你想要的其他知识，你将会克服困难取得成功。

One of the most frustrating things about being a journalism major is when non-majors “take your jobs.” Obviously,no one owns the jobs, and companies are hiring who they think is best, but it’s pretty disheartening when someone who has no experience with writing or reporting gets a great job or internship at a magazine and you can’t find anywhere to work for the summer. However,in the end, the skills you learn from Medill’sfirst-rate professors will come in handy in the hiring process.

作为新闻专业的学生最令人沮丧的事情之一是非新闻专业的人抢了你的饭碗。没有一个人有工作，公司显然就会雇佣他们认为最好的人选。但是实在让人悲伤的是一些没有任何写作或者报道经验的人在一家杂志社找到了一份不错的工作或者实习时你却没地方能找到一份暑期工作。但是，最终那些你从Medill一流教授那儿学到的知识技能迟早会在招聘过程中派上用场的。

Overall, going to a journalism school is probably like anyother major, except you’re competing against each other for a very small number of jobs. While many publications are closing, more are opening and more options for social media-related jobs are becoming available. Medill was a great school to go to, because it didn’t hide the fact that getting a job is getting more difficult, and the school tries to give you all the skills you need(even if they won’t force you to be proactive about it). In the end, like all majors,you get out what you put in, and that was something that taught me to work hard in class and pick up as much knowledge as I could, regardless of my disinterest in being an actual journalist.

总的来说，去新闻学院有可能像其他专业一样，除非你正在为非常小数量的职位竞争。虽然许多出版社正濒临倒闭，但是还有更多出版社正在崛起更多社会媒体相关的职业可供你选择。Medill是一个卓越的新闻学院因为它从不隐瞒工作越来越难找的事实。因此学院尽力为学生们提供所有需要的技术知识（即使他们不要求学生积极参与学生也会需要的）。最终，就像所有的专业一样，你将展现出你所有所学的能力，这也是尽管我对成为一名记者不感兴趣，但是仍旧促使我认真上课，尽我所能学习更多的知识的原因。

【智梦简介】

智梦是一家专注美国本科留学的教育咨询机构。

我们的使命：

“智梦教育团队深知留学申请关系到学生及其家长的前途和未来，我们将竭尽所能帮助每一位智梦学员发掘其潜在的特质，以开放透明的申请方式，让他们能不留遗憾的争取到自己的理想学校。与此同时，培养他们成为诚实守信、独立思考、德才兼备的国际化人才。”

我们的愿景：

“智梦教育将成为一所发掘学术兴趣，培养学术能力，塑造具有公民意识的新时代留学生的学校。”