myskepticsight,
Does that explain why I always see different people on KMOU news every time I visit friends in Columbia? I wondered why there was so much turnover at that station. Sorry for the digression, fortifyedfaith.
Yep. Working for KMOU is a class or two (Broadcast 4000whatevernumber), so no one is on for more than a year, probably more like part of a semester. My roommate was a writer for Vox for one semester last year. She has a nice portfolio now.
But to round out my earlier post, just write. Whether or not you get it published doesn’t matter that much. Try to, but write anyway. Music, movie, book reviews, interview your friends, whatever you feel like writing about. Maybe get your hands on an AP Stylebook to learn some of the more mundane journalism necessities (what numbers you can write out and what you use digits for, grammatical stuff, etc). The text for the first journalism class here is called The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. It’s pretty interesting. If you want to write newspaper, start reading more newspapers. Same thing if you want to write for a magazine. Read a variety of them - there are thousands! Broad to specialized interest ones. In one of my into journalism classes, professors told us small local newspapers will sometimes take anyone. You probably won’t get paid crap, but it’s a way in. Just try to get all the experience you can - journalism isn’t for everyone and it’s best to find out before you pay 4 years tuition. 
I came into college wanting to be a magazine writer, then realized, hey I really don’t enjoy writing. So now I’m going into photojournalism and I think it will be for me. My roommate started out really wanting to write, but she decided she’d rather edit. So try a variety of things as well.
First of all I just want to say thanks to everyone. I got a lot of good advice. Secondly I just want to ask myskepticsight a few questions…
Initially I was actually looking at photojournalism. Photography is also one of great passions…however, i live in New York and there really arent any schools anywhere near here that offer photojournalism.(i want to try to stay in-state) Is there any way I could still pursue photojournalism or not? and is there any way that my credits in journalism/photography could transfer to a photojournalsim carreer/ photojournalism program at another school in the future??? thanks again!!
I’m not myskepticsign, but I am a photojournalist (who has since left the newspaper and magazine world to concentrate on wedding photojournalism). I can tell you this much: this industry is based on experience and your portfolio. What a good journalism and photojournalism program will do is provide you with a way to get experience through internships and working at the school paper. I went to Northwestern, we did not have a photojournalism program (and still don’t, I believe). Yet we still turned out a half dozen professional photojournalists from a variety of majors: music, English, history, and engineering I know for sure. The key was working at the school newspaper every day, getting as much experience as possible, and during the summers finding internships. I actually never went the internship route and just picked up jobs through the local photo community.
The key is getting that experience. Build up a basic level of competence in photography and go to your community papers–get to know the photographers, try to arrange for someone to give you a portfolio review. See if they offer internships. If getting experience means starting at the school newspaper, start at the school newspaper. It’s a lot of knocking on doors and legwork to find someone to give you the initial start, but that’s the way to do it, by doing.
Photojouralism is like journalism–there’s only so much you can learn in class, and nobody really cares where you went to school. In my ten years, I’ve only had an employer once ask me about where I went to school. They want to know where you’ve worked and to see your book (portfolio). In fact, while I wasn’t in J-school, we did have a speaker from Newsweek come to talk to our journalism majors at Northwestern, and she said point blank to budding reporters: major in anything but journlism and use the summers to gain experience through internships.
The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University has an endowed chair in photojournalism. That’s graduate work, though, I believe. You can explore what they offer as undergraduate work. The program there is well-known and well-regarded.
Sure. Most schools will accept credits from other accredited universities.
Don’t they always ask:
Were you on the school newspaper? 
pulykamell answered your question best.
The reason I am still here is because of my original decision to do magazine. Now that I’ve changed my mind, I am very unsure of whether or not to continue in the journalism school. I would much rather go in the Annie Leibovitz direction than working for a newspaper. And I am also extremely interested in psychology so I am also considering that. Maybe art school later. Damn me, I am one indecisive junior! I’ll be here forever.
The best advice is get out there and take pictures! Maybe take a photography class, a lot of community colleges and such offer them at night/on weekends for fun. Experience is number one. Journalism is a competitive field and you really gotta put yourself out there and distinguish yourself from the pack.