I’ve been a foreign correspondent and political reporter and editor for 35 years. I recently completed six months in Iraq after spending seven years covering the White House.

I never went to journalism school so my view is admittedly biased. But I believe studying journalism in an academic sense is on the whole useless and produces a lot of arrogant dunces.

The best course of study is liberal arts with a few practical classes on news writing, editing, journalism principles and methods. Then go out and get a job under an editor who’ll splatter the newsroom with your blood when you blow it, but also pull you aside and show you your mistake and how to do better.

Nothing beats practical experience.

But I see so many people in my classes who think going to grad school is going to get them somewhere. They’re typically the people who have never had an internship and have been published less than five times.

So I wonder: when exactly are they going to get into “real” journalism? And how will they have a clue what to do once they get there?

I ended up getting another AS degree in computer network engineering about 10 years ago because I knew nothing about computers.

Fast forward to today. I called UF about taking some masters classes (I now own a home in Gainesville) and was told not to go for a masters in broadcasting because no one cares.

So after due consideration, I think I will pick up what I need to know online, to refresh my skills. No cost and more current.

I’m also studying for the GMAT.

Get your experience where you can, get it while in school if you can.

When you are in school you might want to be working, but when you are working you might wish you were back in school.

The newspaper industry is caught up in the dark ages in pay scale and the revoling door just keeps spinning. Good people generally leave one paper to go to another in a couple of years or are let go to bring in new hires “to meet budget.”

I made a transition into public relations where the pay is - finally - on par and the hours and stress are a heck of a lot less.

P.S. - Last journalism job I had was managing editor of a daily at $29,000 a year with a Kentucky-owned chain. My father made more a year on his Teamster’s retirement.