Journalism Department Welcomes 81 New Students

By Olivia Nelson

The Journalism Department continued a trend of growing enrollment this fall, welcoming 58 first-time freshmen and 23 transfer students into the program, bringing the enrollment total to 312 students, the largest enrollment in recent history.

The department has seen a steady increase in enrollment for the past three years. Fall 2016 saw 68 newly enrolled journalism students, a 4.5 percent increase from the year prior. The expansion continued this year with a 22 percent increase in enrollment from fall 2016. Most of this year’s expansion comes from an increase in transfer students.

The graph displays how surveyed students responded to the
question “Why did you decide to major in journalism at Cal Poly?”

There has been increasing demand for the major as Cal Poly’s overall reputation has grown, and target numbers for incoming freshman and transfer students were raised in fall 2013 to accommodate the demand.

To find out what today’s new students expect from their major, an informal survey was distributed in JOUR 102, Introduction to Journalism, a course primarily composed of journalism freshmen and transfer students, including students from other Cal Poly majors planning to switch their majors to journalism.

Among other questions, students were asked what motivated them to major in journalism at Cal Poly. Potential responses included things like, “I wanted to go to Cal Poly,” “I can see myself as a reporter,” “I’m not sure what I want to do and a journalism degree provides flexibility.” Students were asked to check all answers that applied to them.

The three most frequently selected responses were:

I want to work in public relations or marketing. (50%)
I want to write about a specific topic, such as sports, fashion, travel, etc. (50%)
I wanted to learn tools like video editing, audio storytelling and website design. (42.5%)

These responses seem to suggest that the new students have a specific career path in mind within journalism, and they see the degree as giving them the skills to be successful in today’s multimedia world.