<p>My son is choosing between these two schools. He is most interested in creative writing, which neither Swarthmore nor Kenyon has as a major, but rather as a concentration. He would like to get a PHD in English / Creative Writing after college.</p>
<p>Does anybody here has experience with creative writing emphasis at Swarthmore and what are your thoughts on it? Are students who are doing this emphasis happy with the program? How easy is it to take additional creative writing classes at Haverford or other consortium schools? Will there be enough free time at Swarthmore for writing outside school work? Any other considerations that would come into play for a writer at Swarthmore?</p>
<p>Another consideration, although not as large for us as the quality of the program, is that Kenyon after financial aid is about $8,000 a year cheaper than Swarthmore.</p>
<p>I posted similar questions in the Kenyon forum to get a different perspective.</p>
<p>Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>Swarthmore creative writing classes are frequently taught by visiting writers and poets, some of whom are Swat alumni. My daughter has taken three creative writing classes and has appreciated the opportunity to have the workshops led by the visiting writers. The professors who teach creative writing classes are also great. Because the classes have a workshop format, students read and critique each other’s work. The students are very supportive of each other–snarkiness or competitiveness is very uncharacteristic of Swat students in creative writing. I would agree with the earlier post that one feature of Swat is that students in the creative arts tend to have multiple interests and passions. As a consequence, creative writing classes have students with a variety of majors who hope to be writers plus biologists, anthropologists, psychologists, etc. The best way to choose between colleges is for your son to visit and also sit in on a creative writing class at each college. A Swarthmore degree opens the door to top-rated graduate programs if your son wants a Ph.D. If he wants an MFA in a creative writing setting (the MFA is the terminal degree in the creative arts), the creative writing courses at Swarthmore should help him prepare a compelling portfolio. Letters of recommendation from visiting writers who may be on campus during his four years will also help him make his case. A graduate degree program or MFA should be a free ride (which may compensate for the extra cost of Swat if financial aid cannot be persuaded to cough up more bucks).</p>
<p>Just so you know, the most prestigious programs in Creative Writing (the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, for instance) tend to offer MFAs, not PHDs.</p>
<p>I’ve taken two creative writing workshops at Swarthmore, in Fiction and Poetry, and passed up the opportunity to take two more. I didn’t have the schedule space for the advanced workshops, since writing is a side interest for me and I’m not an English major. I’m also double-majoring in a science, so your son’s experience would be much more intensive in creative writing if he so chooses. Overall, I’ve LOVED both of my workshops and felt that the quality of my peers’ writing was very high.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen of people who do concentrate in creative writing at Swarthmore–and it can be an Honors preparation, too–usually they specialize in one genre and take both the introductory and advanced workshops, then a directed project with a professor. I know at least two people who have taken workshops off-campus, at Bryn Mawr and UPenn; surprisingly, the Penn class got mixed reviews in comparison to Swarthmore’s workshops.</p>
<p>I don’t have personal experience with the Scriptwriting class, except for watching a play written in the course and then performed the following semester. There is also a workshop in translation through Modern Languages and Literatures, with an awesome professor, if foreign languages are an interest.</p>
<p>To be more specific to your comparison: I think that Swarthmore offers significantly more diversity than Kenyon, in terms of creative writing experience. There is a critical mass of students working in speculative genre fiction, for example, an area of writing that Kenyon’s professors explicitly denigrate (or did two years ago when I was applying). Even if your son doesn’t write [X subgenre] himself, there’s important value in being exposed to all types of writing. The creative writing workshops at Swarthmore are by application only (with writing sample), and the introductory-level workshops are usually half freshmen (out of 12 students max). So the workshop quality remains high, but admission is not so competitive that a serious writer with previous experience would be in danger of not being admitted.</p>
<p>My third-party sense of Kenyon is that its reputation for creative writers leads to somewhat more aspiring writers than the program can handle without disappointing some people. Moreover, Kenyon’s writing culture is still steeped in the tradition that <em>Kenyon Review</em> exemplifies–a wonderful subculture, but not particularly diverse.</p>