One of the bigger questions I get asked during academic advising is, “What else should I take, other than my major classes?” For some folks, it’s about finding a second major, while for others, it’s about finding a good backup plan in case they decide to bail on this whole media thing.

For most, however, it’s the desire to get to the total number of credits required for their bachelor’s degree and graduate without losing their minds.

Most programs I’ve seen have a model that kind of looks like this:

• One-third of your credits go to general education requirements, established by the university as “must have” knowledge. Or, as is the case in some universities, “We hired people who decided to feather their own nests, so they got on a committee and convinced everyone else that an Introduction to Underwater Interpretive Dance is a vital life skill.”
• One-third of your credits go to your major, with some classes required (intro, capstone) and others as directed electives (pick one of the three courses listed here to satisfy this requirement)
• One-third of your credits are kind of random, with some possible caveats. Here, for example, we require that a certain number of your total credits be upper-level (300 or higher), so while you can take anything you want, generally speaking, you need to make sure you’re not fattening up on intro-level stuff alone.

For our students, now that we’ve “streamlined” some of our extraneous requirements outside of our general education credits, this means they’ve got about 40 credits to grab so they can reach the 120 credit level we established. With that in mind, here are some courses I’ve suggested over the years to students looking to grab some outside courses that will have add tools to their journalism toolbox:

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION: If your school has one of these, grab it. Non-verbal communication teaches you how to read other people’s physical cues as well as how to use physical cues to engage other people.

This is great for understanding how a source is handling your questions during an interview. If a source is talking about a delicate topic, you can assess if you’re being delicate enough with that person or if you need to dial it back a notch. (Conversely, if your source is a public figure involved in some sort of weaselly behavior, you can see if you’re on the right track with your questions about said weaseldom.)

Using non-verbal cues is exceptionally helpful for broadcast journalists, because you can show agreement, express concern, display a sense of disbelieve and more while your source is speaking and not have your voice appear in the background sound. It’s usually pretty easy to spot novice broadcasters when you listen to their soundbites because you can hear them saying, “Uh-huh… Uh-huh… Uh-huh…” in the background.

 

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: Huge fan of this as a general concept, as it allows you to understand how to better understand how humans behave in society and what it generally means. Psych was my outside area of my doctoral program and I gorged myself on courses on motivation, intergroup relations, interpersonal connectivity and more. These concepts helped me better understand newsroom dynamics, relate to people who thought differently from me and generally become a somewhat more empathetic journalist. They helped me read sources, but also helped me read my reporters and writers. The old line about how some people need a pat on the back and others need a kick in the rear? Social psych will help you figure out who is who and how best to proceed.

 

BASIC ACCOUNTING: One of the things journalists joke about is a general fear of math, which is well-earned in many ways. That said, if you can add and subtract and learn to really hang in there, you want to take some sort of business/accounting course. This will help you understand how budgets and finance work on the most rudimentary level and that is massively helpful for your journalism career. This is particularly true if you plan to cover education, government or a dozen other beats in which the people you cover have to spend money and keep track of it.

 

DEBATE: If this isn’t a class, maybe a club would be good. One of the biggest things debate teaches you is how to quickly analyze information, particularly in terms of arguments and suppositions. In doing so, you are then capable of countering the position the other person put forth and asking more pointed questions about it. One of the biggest failures I’ve seen over the years is in the area of interviewing, where we let sources just prattle on with total nonsense and we kind of nod along because we don’t know what else to do. Debate helps you break through the BS and dig into things quickly.

 

CREATIVE WRITING: I kind of go back and forth on this, particularly because there is a difference between the writing styles as well as the whole “you need to have facts” thing. That said, in terms of feature writing, the ability to describe something with depth and vibrancy without relying on “I saw X!” or “I heard Y!” is crucial. Creative writing can help you expand your vocabulary and ability to paint word pictures in the minds of your readers. Just make sure you keep a firm line between fact and fiction when you come back to the major.

 

SECONDARY SKILL SET COURSES: Journalists do not live by writing alone, so look for a secondary set of skills you can pick up that might be outside your major but will add tools to your toolbox. This could be a photography course in the art department, a design course in a graphic design major, a digital graphics course through an information systems and so on. Think less about what the department the course is in and more about what you can do with the skills you pick up.