Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism - Students

Jackie Spinner, MJ 1995,
Washington Post, Washington DC

Here is my postcard from the edge. Dateline: the Washington Post. Summer 1997. I spent three weeks in Army boot camp and fired my first M-16. I even led the troops on a morning run. I met with sources in the back rooms of dark restaurants. I camped out in a hotel for weeks and weeks. My mission: a seven-month assignment to write about one of the most sensational military trials in history and help put my paper out front on a national story about drill sergeants, sex and abuse in the Army. When one of my stories led the front page of the Washington Post for the first time, I actually cried. You see, these weren't exactly my caviar dreams back in graduate school. I had merely hoped for a job. And I still can't believe that I'm now a reporter for the Washington Post.

I sweated for this all of those late nights in the upper newsroom, the unpaid internships, the hustle, the times when I took on too much and crashed. Even so, I know that there are others who deserve to be here, too, and are not. Or are happy where they landed. Not everybody has to like what I do. There are long hours, longer days. Sometimes they edit the heart and soul out of my copy. Sometimes the pressure of working for a major newspaper gets to me. But those are the times when I look ahead and think about next summer, the possibilities I cannot even imagine: Maybe one day they'll let me go overseas. Maybe one day I'll have an editor as good as Neil Henry. Maybe one day I'll be an editor. Maybe. But in the meantime, I'm having a really great time. You can pinch me now.

Student Body at a Glance

Students enrolled 2005-2006:
Total Number of Students	118
Percent Men	37 %
Percent Women	63 %
Underrepresented Students	32 %
International Students	8 %
Most Common Undergraduate Majors	English / Literature Journalism / Mass Communications History
Students on Financial Aid	Approx. 75%
Average Undergraduate GPA	3.5
Average GRE Score (Verbal)	610
Average Class Size	Under 10
Students on Financial Aid	Approx. 75%
Number of Courses Offered Annually	50-60
Number of Faculty	13 Full-Time; 20 Part-Time
Concurrent Degree Programs	Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, International and Area Studies, Law

Life After the Journalism School

Berkeley graduates are working in print, broadcast and new-media as reporters, editors, writers, producers, photojournalists, documentary filmmakers, and media industry executives. You'll find them thriving at news organizations around the world, including:

ABC
Arizona Republic
Associated Press
AP/Dow Jones
BBC World Service
Bloomberg
Boston Globe
CBS
CNN
CNET
Dallas Morning News
Detroit Free Press
Harper's
Infoworld
La Reforma, Mexico
Los Angeles Times
MacUser
MarketPlace
Minnesota Public Radio
National Public Radio
New York Daily News
Newsday
New York Times
NBC
Orlando Sentinel
Oregonian
PC World
Philadelphia Inquirer
Reuters
Sacramento Bee
Salon
San Diego Union-Tribune
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Examiner
San Jose Mercury News
Sante Fe New Mexican
Seattle Times
South China Morning Post
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Wharf Cable, Hong Kong
Wired