Program Overview

The magazine major prepares students to be magazine writers, editors, designers and creative directors.  As part of their coursework, students:

• write magazine articles for consumer, trade and organization magazines
• work as staff members for the nationally award-winning
  515 Magazine and other titles and Web sites published through the E.T. Meredith Center for Magazine Studies
• produce a business plan and design for a magazine of their own
• In recent years, students have also produced magazines for the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the Making Connections initiative in Des Moines, on the issue of prisoner re-entry in Iowa, and early childhood education in Iowa.
• Unique to Drake: Drake is one of the few private, liberal arts colleges to provide a full four- year sequence for magazines. Our competition comes from larger schools such as Northwestern, the University of Missouri at Columbia and the University of Kansas.

Many magazine majors also work outside of classes on the nationally award-winning Drake Magazine.

Staff of 515 to receive award from Columbia Scholastic Press Association (more)

Degree Options and Program Size

• B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication
• About 100 students are enrolled in the magazine program. The average class size is 15.

Graduate School

Students who complete majors in the SJMC generally opt to work in the field after graduation rather than going directly to graduate school. However, about 7% of SJMC graduates annually opt for additional study, often in law school.

Time Inc. in famed Rockefeller Center in New York was one of 11 magazines visited by this group of magazine majors in April 2006.From left, Lars Hulsebus, Christy Feller, Katie Shaw, Kaelin Tripp, Katie Knorovsky, Nic Young and Alex Harkness

Magazine majors visit Meredith Corporation's New York headquarters ontheir job-recruiting visit to the Big Apple in April 2006. Many students work for Meredith in Des Moines while attending Drake. From left, LarsHulsebus, Alex Harkness, Nic Young, Katie Knorovsky, Kaelin Tripp, Christy Feller, Katie Shaw.