Tulane vs. Penn State for communications: which is better for internships and job opportunities?

The biggest practical tradeoff is location and employer pipeline versus scale and alumni reach. Tulane gives you a more city-centered experience in New Orleans, which can make local internships during the semester easier to access, especially in PR, events, hospitality marketing, nonprofits, and regional media. Penn State offers a much larger alumni network, a bigger overall employer base, and a communications environment tied to one of the country’s most established communications colleges.

For communications specifically, Penn State has the stronger reputation and deeper infrastructure. Its Bellisario College is a major draw for students interested in advertising, PR, journalism, digital media, and related fields, and that usually translates into more student media, more structured recruiting, and more graduates already working in those industries. For media, marketing, and agency-style career paths, that scale matters because it creates more entry points.

Tulane’s advantage is that it can be easier to build hands-on experience early if you take advantage of New Orleans. The city has real opportunities in branding, live events, tourism, arts organizations, politics, and public-facing nonprofits, and Tulane students often use the semester itself, not just summers, to gain experience. That can be especially valuable if you want communications work connected to culture, social impact, or place-based storytelling.

For national job mobility right after graduation, Penn State tends to give more reach. Its alumni presence is broad, and for communications fields where networking drives hiring, that network can be very useful beyond one city or region. Penn State also tends to have more built-in student organizations, campus media outlets, and employer touchpoints simply because of its size.

Penn State is the safer bet if your main goal is maximizing internship volume, alumni connections, and post-grad job options across media, PR, and marketing. Tulane can be an excellent choice if you want a more distinctive city-based experience and expect to actively turn New Orleans into your internship base, but on pure career infrastructure for communications, Penn State has the clearer edge.