Best University for Becoming a Creative Writing Professor

College Search & Selection
1

I want to become a creative writing high school teacher/professor. I was wondering what schools have good programs? Please list into undergraduate/graduate/PhD.

More importantly, what majors do you need to teach creative writing in high school? I was thinking a double major in CW and English, but what about education?

Also, is it worth the trouble of spending 5-6 years to get a PhD?

2

To get started, you can read a USA Today article, “The 10 Best American Colleges for Writers.” These are the ten schools:

  1. Emory
  2. Hamilton
  3. JHU
  4. MIT
  5. NYU
  6. WUSTL
  7. U. of Iowa
  8. Columbia
  9. U. of Michigan
  10. Colorado College

I favor the smaller Hamilton and Colorado College from this group, particularly for writing; but you could reach your goals from any of these schools, as well as many others not on the list.

Personally, I think a double major in English and creative writing would be superfluous, as well as counterproductively narrowing. You will not need a PhD to teach high school, but a graduate education degree of some type may be necessary.

Good luck!

3

Thanks!

4

Also, do you think it’ll be okay to teach with just a English degree without an education degree?

5

If you want to teach creative writing at the high school level (anyone with a passion to teach writing in high school should be lauded as a humanitarian… we need more folks who are passionate about this)… then you will need an English degree and a teaching certificate (usually one-year, depends on the state)… a MA or MFA in creative writing would be optional.

I have a number of friends who are writers, and they rave, rave, rave about the University of Iowa. Personally, I would tend to favor smaller colleges for English… I think the smaller classes would be conducive to more classroom interaction than large lectures, and your writing will be graded by professors rather than graduate students.

6

I don’t know much specifically about the educational field, April. I think you can do something like majoring in English and becoming “certified” as a teacher within either four or five years. “Professor,” btw, is a title normally reserved for college teachers, and for that a PhD may be required, though not always.

Whichever college you choose, you will have the benefits of their career counseling center. Their admissions representatives will even guide you before you apply. And other posters may still give you more specific information here. You won’t have to do any of this entirely on your own.

7

Iowa for graduate school.