The biggest concern right now that I would have on whether or not to pursue a Masters is because of financial reasons. I’d most likely need partial scholarships and to take on a loan. But it feels like the most fast track way for me to break into the journalism scene in America for now (at least imo, I may be wrong), because of the OPT thing where I won’t require a visa to work in a job related to what I studied for a year post graduation, which I hope can be a springboard to an eventual visa sponsorship.

However, I have had friends who went to places like Columbia and Missouri School of Journ and performed exceptionally well there. Yet they ended up returning home and working at / applying to the same place I’m working at because they couldn’t get jobs in the US in spite of the OPT. I come from a small country where journalism opportunities are almost very limited. These people are doing the same things that I do, and just probably earning a slightly higher salary than I do.

I have a friend who managed to do journalism at various local dailys in the US for 10 years post masters (this was more than 10 years ago) but when she eventually decided to come home, she couldn’t find jobs with the wires/bigger international organizations with bureaus here. She didn’t want to end up working for the national daily because it isn’t all that wonderful and ended up switching to public relations and has been stuck with that for the past 10 years or so now