Best colleges for advertising and public relations – Get ahead of the competition
A college degree in advertising or public relations can be a great start on the path to your career, but it’s not always easy to choose the right one.
With dozens of online and in-person colleges to choose from, finding the best college for advertising and public relations can be difficult.
To help you along with this process, we’ve compiled this list of some of the best online and traditional programs available today.
We’ve based our rankings on factors such as the competitiveness of admissions, reputation, and job placement success rate, so you know you’re choosing from the best.
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What are Public relations?
Not to be confused with publicity, which is getting your name out there without necessarily generating business, public relations (PR) involves having a strategy to get your organization’s image in a positive light.
It’s also about building credibility among potential consumers as well as stakeholders such as investors, employees, and community leaders.
Public relations involves both traditional methods (press releases, articles) as well as new media channels (Facebook posts, infographics). In short? It’s a way to make sure people are paying attention to you when it matters most.
Below are some college majors that can help prepare you for a career in Public Relations.
3 Best Colleges for Advertising & Public Relations
- The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Media:
The Illinois program combines print and broadcast journalism, marketing communications, and advertising into one department.
Students have access to real-world opportunities through on-campus placements or an internship option called Cooperative Education/Internship Program (COEIP), where students alternate semesters on campus with semesters working full time at an employer’s office or agency.
- Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism:
Located in Evanston, Ill., Medill offers a bachelor’s degree in Journalism with a concentration in Advertising & Public Relations as well as a minor in Business Communication.
- Michigan State University, Broad College of Business:
MSU’s Broad college offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing that provides a strong foundation for careers in advertising and public relations by combining coursework in both areas while also including courses from other disciplines such as psychology and sociology that help develop critical thinking skills necessary for success across all areas of business.
How do I become a Public Relations professional?
If you’re interested in entering a career in Public Relations, know that there are many routes to becoming a successful Public Relations professional.
It’s also important to understand that even though most students typically earn a bachelor’s degree before going on to do a Master’s program, both programs are very demanding so it might be hard to find time in your schedule.
The best colleges for advertising and public relations make sure their programs will prepare students both academically and professionally with real-world experience.
So if you want to become an expert at your craft with an edge over your competition, then these schools might be what you need.
But first, let’s look at how you can break into public relations(PR) without having any formal education.
This is how some people get started, but they may not have as much credibility or knowledge as someone who has earned a degree in PR(public relations) or Communications.
According to social media marketing platforms like LinkedIn, writing high-quality content is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an industry leader online and get found by potential employers.
If you want to become a PR professional but don’t have any formal training, then you should start blogging about your interests in PR or related topics.
This will help you build your network and credibility online so that when people are looking for someone with your skillset they can find you on Google.
Your posts should be detailed and informative so that readers will keep coming back for more information about your niche topic.
Also, remember that it’s important to write in a way that makes people want to share what you have written because doing so will help increase your visibility across different networks and make it easier for recruiters or hiring managers who are looking for PR professionals in your area to find you through Google searches or social media profiles.
And if you want to become a PR professional without having to go back to school, then consider finding a mentor or joining an organization where you can learn from other professionals in your field.
You could also volunteer at non-profits or local community organizations where there might be opportunities for you to use your communication skills while helping others out at the same time.
So how do these three ways compare? It really depends on how much time and effort you’re willing to put into building up your reputation online, which may take years before anyone notices that you know what you’re talking about!
What can I do with an advertisement degree?
Everything. But that’s a bit like asking what you can do with a hammer. The short answer is, that you can use it to drive nails into almost anything.
That versatility is an asset to professionals in any field, but especially creative ones, who are always looking for new ways to solve problems.
To get a sense of where communication majors may lead you, here are just a few careers that may be on offer following your studies:
- Public Relations Manager
- Sales Representative
- Media Buyer/Planner
- Copywriter
- Website Designer
- Writer or editor in publishing
- Event Planner
- Marketing Specialist
- Advertising Account Executive
- Social Media Manager
If you’re interested in pursuing one of these options, check out our list of best schools for communications majors.
We ranked them based on five factors: resources (like how many faculty members have won awards), job placement rates, starting salaries, tuition costs, and graduation rates.
And if you don’t find a school that interests you here, check out our full ranking of more than 1,000 undergraduate programs.
It includes data points like academic reputation (as reported by other students) and affordability. You might also want to look at a program’s accreditation status.
Many fields require accreditation, so keep that in mind when deciding which degree to pursue.
For example, some states require real estate agents to hold a degree from an accredited university; without one, they won’t be able to get their license.
For information about individual universities’ accreditations, check out Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS).
One big question about studying marketing is whether or not you should major in it right away or double major with another subject area first.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in marketing, we recommend starting out by taking as many courses as possible that relate to your future goals.
You can always change your mind later on, but if you choose to focus on one thing early on, there’s a good chance that will be what you end up doing with your life.
If possible, work alongside professionals who are already doing what you want to do when you graduate from college; internships are a great way to get real-world experience without spending money on tuition (and they’re usually available through your school). And if all else fails, don’t worry too much about it!
25 Bests Colleges For Advertising And Public Relations
A recent ranking by Ragan Communications, an online media company that publishes industry news and career advice for marketing, communications, media, and technology professionals, looked at five factors to determine which schools are best at preparing students for a job in advertising or public relations.
This included graduation rates (40 percent), placement rates (20 percent), salary after graduation (20 percent), the average starting salary (10 percent), and student quality (10 percent). What they found was that certain institutions offered a better overall education as well as higher starting salaries.
Here are 25 top schools across a variety of categories and all with high starting-salaries.
1. Northwestern University – Evanston, IL
2. Syracuse University – Syracuse, NY
3. The University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI
4. The University of Texas at Austin – Austin, TX
5. Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University – Blacksburg, VA
6. Boston College – Chestnut Hill, MA
7. The Ohio State University – Columbus, OH
8. The George Washington University – Washington, DC
9. Penn State University Park – University Park, PA
10. The New School – New York City
11. Fordham University – Bronx, NY
12. Temple University – Philadelphia
13. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick
14. American University-Washington Dc
15. Miami Ad School Berlin
16 . Arizona State University
17 . California Institute of Technology
18 . Carnegie Mellon University
19 . Columbia Business School
20 . Cornell University
21 . Dartmouth College
22 . Duke University
23 . Florida International University
24 . Georgetown University
25 . Oklahoma State University
If you want to get into one of these prestigious programs, make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into before applying.
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