When deciding where to go to college how important is it to access location?

I would say do what you feel is right for your situation. I went to a state college locally. I lived off campus and went there because it was affordable for me. While your in college try to learn as much as you can that is related to what you want your future career to look like. Join clubs or meet with people. Internships are very helpful to get you into the field. Search the listings of internships that your college offers. Also, look at internships others are offering outside of your college. You can search the web for internships your college might not have on their list. I found an internship that my college did not have and later while interning they added it to their list. Don't be afraid to travel if you need to for a good internship. You can build connections while doing an internship that meets your needs. Hope this helps.

Hi, Riley: a while back I wrote a book about careers in mass media (including journalism and entertainment) and the most important piece of advice I gathered from those in the field was to practice your proposed craft, wherever you are geographically. So, if you want to be a journalist, you should be writing every day, for your school paper, for your local paper, start a blog, tweet . . . just keep writing. As for location? Well, the entertainment industry is most active in Los Angeles and New York. Of course, entertainment is going on everywhere. If you're in Washington, what's going on in Spokane? However, internships and coursework having to do with your passion (journalism and entertainment) should be a big part of whatever college curriculum you choose. USC, UCLA, NYU are schools with very strong programs. But, you should definitely shop around. Don't forget to look at possible grants and fellowships. Try looking at this website: http://staff.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/3jrnlism.htm. Let me know if you have other questions.

I grew up in rural New Jersey and deciding to go to a school that was both in a major city and well-known within the production and journalism industries is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Your best asset in these industries is experience, and you can get experiences that are more frequent and of a higher quality in areas with more opportunities. The quality of a school's program is also of paramount importance, so do plenty of research on schools with high quality journalism and production programs and be sure to read reviews.

With that said, the quality and affordability of some schools in these fields does not always correlate with their proximity to large cities/ markets. The more research you can do, the better.