Specialized Journalism (The Arts) (MA) Summer 2023

When is the application deadline?

The application deadline is January 15, 2023 for admission and scholarship consideration.

What content should be in my résumé?

List all employment (paid and unpaid) including nature of work and dates of employment (note if self-employed in your own business). Also, include academic and professional awards, honors, teaching experience, exhibitions, work published or produced, subject matter expertise, language(s) proficiency other than English, and your familiarity with research or communications technologies, e.g. web design, television or radio production, video editing, podcasting, etc.

What should I address in my personal statement?

For the Specialized Journalism (The Arts) master’s, we invite three different kinds of applicants: working journalists who consider arts and/or food culture their domain; or recent undergraduate students with basic knowledge of story structure and a deep training in the performing or culinary arts; or experienced artists and food culture professionals who are called to journalism. 

In a single personal essay no longer than 1500 words, please consider and address the following: Why are you pursuing the Specialized Journalism (The Arts) degree? Describe the specific subject area you intend to pursue. Knowing that our program encourages you to take electives from USC’s art schools and others outside of USC Annenberg, what excites you about this possibility? Explain how you expect to apply your new skills and knowledge to your future work. 

Some questions to consider: What motivates you to be a journalist? In a world that craves leadership and creativity, hope and engagement, where do you anticipate fitting in? What do you want to do, and learn, and contribute to the craft, and to the public interest? What stories inspire you, and what kind of journalism do you want to make? Where do you see the profession going? Where do you see yourself in helping to remake journalism going forward? Provide at least one relevant anecdote that reveals a time when your assumptions were challenged and how this connects to your decision to apply to this graduate program.

This statement should be representative of your best writing.

What pieces comprise the professional portfolio?

For journalists, submit both of the following:

1. Samples of professional journalism work that are the equivalent to five short pieces (550 words or less) or two longer features (up to 3,000 words). You may submit video or podcast, in which case the short pieces should be no longer than three minutes and the long pieces should be no more than 20 minutes. If live links are unavailable to upload to SlideRoom, upload the samples as attachments.
2. A bibliography of up to 10 — and no fewer than three — of your published, broadcast or online works in journalism, ideally two years old or less. In addition, if you design or manage a website, include the link.

If you are an editor or producer, supply up to 10 — and no fewer than three — samples of work with an explanation of your contribution.

For arts practitioners (artists) and recent graduates, submit no fewer than five links to your recent work (from three years ago max), each being no less than 550 words and not more than 1,100. These may be video or podcasts of your visual art, music compositions, etc., no longer than 20 minutes. Written work unrelated to the arts is accepted, but there should be no more than two of these. Blogs are considered published work; provide links. Academic papers will also be accepted. If you want us to look at your body of work as an artist, submit no fewer than five links to your recent work (from three years ago max). In addition, show us written work samples, as per the instructions above in this section.

*OPTIONAL: Audio and video content may be uploaded to the USC Graduate application in SlideRoom. Content must be solely created by you. You will access the SlideRoom application under the “Programs Materials” section of the UCS CAS application. In order to ensure that your USC and SlideRoom applications sync properly, it is important that you access SlideRoom via the USC Graduate application only.

How many letters of recommendation are needed and from whom?

Two professional recommendations are expected. If you are a recent college or university graduate with no work experience, submit one academic recommendation and one from an internship supervisor.

What admission test scores are required?

USC Annenberg has suspended the GRE requirement for all graduate applicants for admission to the 2023 admission cycle. All international student applicants are expected to demonstrate adequate English-language proficiency. To learn more about how to satisfy this requirement, click here. Also, review the USC Graduate Admission video tutorial titled, “English Proficiency Requirements for International Students” for more details.

What financial support is available?

Departmental merit scholarships and fellowships are competitively awarded. All completed applications are considered for admission and departmental awards.

All US citizens and permanent residents are urged to submit a FAFSA after the admission application deadline.

International student applicants will find critical information at http://gradadm.usc.edu/international-students-financial-documentation.