Ivies and Communication

Answered

This is an excellent question. I do want to mention that Brown has a department of "Modern Culture and Media," which I believe is quite related to communications. Other elite private schools like Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Northeastern, Boston University, and NYU have a variety of communications programs - Northwestern and BU even have their own colleges of communications! Many elite public schools - University of Michigan, Ohio State, University of Florida, and more - have excellent communications programs as well.

In terms of why some schools don't offer this major, this depends very much on the given school. Harvard, for example, prides itself on offering its students a "liberal arts" education, and this means they don't have specialized pre-professional majors outside of engineering. Given that Harvard doesn't offer any undergraduate concentrations in business, accounting, nursing, journalism, or hospitality, it shouldn't be so surprising that they also don't offer communications. I believe many other liberal arts-focused schools are somewhat similar in this respect.

In terms of what might be a good alternative, it depends on what most interest you. Communications is typically a very interdisciplinary major, so some facets of it may be more appealing to you than others. If you're interested in media, then journalism does make sense, as you've already mentioned. If you're interested in marketing/public relations/advertising, in sales, or in HR, you could look to pursue an undergraduate business degree or a specialized degree in one of these fields. If you're interested in writing about politics or working in diplomacy, you might consider studying political science, international relations, or government. If you're interested in understanding people, you might pursue psychology or sociology. If you're interested in creative writing, but not necessarily in journalism, you might pursue a degree in English.

Finally, I just want to note that going to an Ivy usually isn't a bad choice even if your preferred major isn't available. If you're interested in working in business or finance, for example, going to Harvard or Columbia and pursuing a quantitative major like economics, mathematics, or statistics, can be better than doing an undergraduate business degree at nearly any school.

Hope this helped!