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Offered jointly by University of King’s College and Dalhousie University, the Master of Journalism (MJ) program has two start dates, depending on where you are in your educational journey:
September entry (20 months)
Applicants are required to hold a four-year undergraduate degree (or equivalent).
January entry (16 months)
Applicants who do not meet the standard admission criteria above may be considered using a Prior Learning Assessment (PLA). Click here to learn more.
For application purposes, unofficial or official academic transcripts and degree certificates (if degree conferral not stated on transcripts) are required for every post-secondary institution attended. Transcripts should include your first and last name, degree (if relevant), program type and name of issuing university.
Unofficial transcripts can be uploaded to your application status portal after you have submitted your application.
Official transcripts: should you be accepted for admission to your program of choice, all official and final transcripts will be required for each post-secondary institution attended within 90 days of the start of your program. For more information on official transcript submission, please visit these Next Steps.
Additional transcript details
Your MJ application requires a personal statement, in two parts.
PART 1 should tell us a little bit about yourself and address the following questions:
Part 1 should be no longer than 750 words.
PART 2 is an initial proposal for an MJ professional project. Your project will be at the core of your MJ studies at King’s, so we look carefully at these project proposals in assessing applicants.
An MJ professional project is completed over nine months. As the King’s MJ is not theory-focused, the project is not the kind of scholarly research you might do in a communications or media studies degree. It is a major work of journalism.
A professional project can be investigative – but doesn’t have to be. If your project is not investigative it still needs deep research, interviewing, storytelling and compelling characters. Think of consequential long-form articles or multi-part series published by online or print magazines or newspapers, or of video documentaries and multi-episode podcasts, and you’ll get a sense of the depth required.
We would like to know about the research you would do for the proposed project, prospective interviewees, what documents and data you would use, why this is an important project and anything else we should know about your idea.
Be as specific as you can. Name individuals you would interview, and documents and datasets you would use, rather than giving generic descriptions. For example, when proposing a story about rising sea -levels, instead of writing, “I will use data on sea levels,” you might write, “I will analyze the International Monetary Fund Change in Mean Sea Levels dataset to determine where sea levels have risen the most.”
The admissions committee will look for evidence of your aptitude to do a large, important work of journalism. We don’t expect you to know all the details of the proposed project, such as everyone you would interview or all the documents or data you would use. We also don’t expect applicants for September admission to have more than a basic understanding of journalism. But we want to have a sense of what you might do.
That said, remember that this is an initial proposal only. Our experience is that these project ideas usually evolve, and not all students will stick with the one they propose when they apply. That’s natural; as you learn, perspectives change.
Once admitted, we will work closely with you to help you make your professional project the best it can be. The goal is publication at a national level.
Your proposal should be from 500 to 1,000 words in total and this template can be found and submitted within your application package.
Two reference letters are required:
Additional reference letter details
A maximum of five selected samples of your best-related work (copies of published articles, media files, etc.).
Use of AI tools in personal statement, project proposal, portfolio or other supporting materials: use of AI or other tools for checking spelling, grammar and punctuation is permitted as long as the applicant uses the tool in such a way that requires the applicant to accept individual changes, so the applicant is aware of and approves each suggested spelling, grammar or punctuation change. AI tools may not be used for any other editorial work or for autonomous content creation. This includes using AI to suggest, generate or implement editorial changes that go beyond spelling, grammar or punctuation.
Submitting your supporting documents: Supporting documents can be uploaded to your application directly, except for official transcripts. To prevent any delays in processing, we recommend your school(s) send official transcripts by email to admissions@ukings.ca.
For more information on providing supporting material that cannot be uploaded to your application, please see these Next Steps.