<p>My daughter will be a HS senior in September and is looking for a college with a strong creative writing program/department. Any info greatly appreciated!!</p>
<p>Use the search button. There are tons of threads on this.</p>
<p>University of Oregon....JK but if you want to be a journalist it's the best...</p>
<p>University of Iowa has one of the best (maybe THE best) creative writing programs in the country. I was looking into the school for another major.</p>
<p>Excellent school, great college town too.</p>
<p>I agree with the University of Iowa-it was the first college in the country to have a writing program.</p>
<p>Here's my advice: Start by encouraging your daughter to come up with the more general parameters of what she wants in college. Would she be more comfortable in a large university or a small liberal arts college? What type of people would she like to be around? Does she have any preferences in terms of location? What does she like to do for fun, or socially? Will you need financial aid, or is money no object? Also consider her admissions profile -- there's no sense looking at a school that's way out of range and she might not be happy at a school that is way below her admissions profile, no matter how wonderful the writing program may be. Figuring out what your daughter wants overall should come first. Writers need to be in an environment that is conducive to them -- no sense looking at schools where your daughter won't be happy or comfortable in other ways, no matter how wonderful the writing program may be.</p>
<p>After you have the overall parameters, figure out what specifically your daughter wants/needs from a creative writing program. Lots of people will have ideas about what the "Best" programs are, but the "best" program for YOUR DAUGHTER may be one that no one here has ever heard of (and, believe me, if you only read this board, you'd believe there were only 15 or so schools in the entire country). In fact, she may not even need/want a creative writing program but really just a very good English department with writing opportunities. Think about what type of writing she's interested in, what type of support and feedback she's hoping for, who she wants to learn from, etc.</p>
<p>Finally, begin tracking down creative writing programs at schools that fit both your daughter's overall college desires, and her writing desires. Start with these two resources, and use the overall criteria your daughter has for college in general to narrow down the options:</p>
<p>The Association of Writers & Writing Programs has a book that describes the creative writing programs at various colleges and universities across the U.S. Information on the book including a few excerpts can be found at:
<a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/bookshelf/guide.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.awpwriter.org/bookshelf/guide.htm</a></p>
<p>Poets & Writers magazine offers a list of links of U.S. creative writing programs. The list is alphabetical so be sure to click on next 10 to see the entire list.
<a href="http://www.pw.org/links_pages/Writing_Programs/%5B/url%5D">http://www.pw.org/links_pages/Writing_Programs/</a></p>
<p>As you look at the specifics of the writing programs themselves, here are some important questions to ask: How hard is it to get into creative writing classes as a freshman -- at some of the "best" schools for creative writing, getting into those entry level courses can be tough. Is the focus of the creative writing program on graduate students or on undergraduate students? (The focus at U of Iowa, for instance, is on graduate students - there are undergraduate writing courses, but the real "mission" of the program is the MFA program, not the undergraduate program.) Who teaches the undergraduate creative writing classes? Are they mainly taught by graduate students, by faculty members, by English professors, or by practicing poets and fiction writers? Is there a specific focus of the program - some schools focus more on fiction, some on poetry, some on creative non-fiction, some on a combination of all three -- and how does the focus fit with your daughter's individual interests? How much depth is there to the program in the specific area your daughter is interested in -- in other words, if she wants to write poetry, how many actual poetry workshops/courses are offered? What other courses/subjects/general distribution requirements are there outside of the major -- some writers want only to focus on writing, others want and benefit from a broader educations. There are programs that can satisfy both tastes. What opportunities are there to work outside of the classroom - literary magazines, internships, etc. </p>
<p>Here's a very good article about three creative writing programs that will give you some further questions to ask: <a href="http://www.pw.org/mag/0501/ciabattari.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.pw.org/mag/0501/ciabattari.htm</a> However, in reality, there are many fine places to study creative writing, and many other schools where future writers can find what they need to develop their skills.</p>
<p>Creative writing programs from Rugg's Recommendations:
Agnes Scott
U Alabama
Bard
Middlebury
Beloit
Barnard
Bennington
Brown
Carlow
Carnegie Mellon
Columbia
Creighton
Dana
Denison
Dominican
Eckerd
Emerson
Fla St
Grinnell
Hamilton
Hobart
U Iowa
John's Hopkins
Kenyon
Lewis-Clark State (ID)
Linfield
Long Island U Southhampton
Lycoming
U Maine Farmington
U of Michigan
SUNY New Paltz
NC State
Northwestern
Oberlin
U Oregon
U Pitt
Redlands
St Andrews (NC)
San Fran St
C of Santa Fe
Sarah Lawrence
Stephens
Susquehanna
Sweet Briar
Temple
UVA
Washington Coll (MD)
Webster
Wheaton (MA)
Wichita State
Wittenberg</p>
<p>US News graduate creative writing programs:
1. University of Iowa 4.5
2. John Hopkins University (MD) 4.2
3. University of Houston (TX) 4.2
4. Columbia University (NY) 4.1
5. University of Virginia 4.1
6. New York University 4.0
7. University of California, Irvine (CA) 4.0
8. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MI) 4.0
9. University of Arizona 3.9
10. Boston University 3.8
11. Cornell University 3.8
12. University of Massachusetts, Amherst (MA) 3.8
13. University of Montana (MT) 3.8
14. University of Washington 3.8
15. Washington University (MO) 3.8
16. Brown University (RI) 3.7
17. Indiana University, Bloomington (IN) 3.7
18. University of Arkansas (AR) 3.7
19. University of Utah 3.7
20. Arizona State University 3.6
21. Emerson College (MA) 3.6
22. George Mason University (VA) 3.6
23. Hollins College (VA) 3.6
24. Sarah Lawrence College (NY) 3.6
25. Syracuse University (NY) 3.6</p>
<p>i would suggest Sarah Lawrence</p>