@octaviablake Kenyon only requires a 300-word essay. The acceptance letter states that they took students from 42 states and many countries. Their teacher’s recommendation form looks like they ask a lot of questions, and I guess they also look carefully at the high school transcript. But I’ve previously asked on CC how they could be so selective without a larger writing sample - it seems like other people have had the same thought. Apparently they are very selective, but their process is hard to understand, I guess.
I’m a newbie to this and hope can get some help here. So trying to revive this thread if possible. First of all very helpful information and I’m grateful that I found this forum. Thank you for those who provided all these valuable info.
I want to help my 8th grade daughter (so next fall she’ll start as a 9h grader) to find a summer writing program/camp next year so that in the next couple of years she can get ready to apply for Iowa/Kenyon/Interlochen etc that kind of programs. Yes she loves reading/writing but I always feel that she would need some guidance in order to get the best out of her. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all!
My youngest son, who attended both Iowa and Kenyon as an older high school student, began attending creative writing programs first as a middle schooler at SUNY purchase, which is a wonderful program. At your daughter’s age, he went to Columbia University summer pre- college program and took a great creative writing course for those heading into 9th & 10th grades. Summer before 10th, he did Iowa; summer before 11th, he went to Kenyon.
Sorry, I got that wrong. Summer before 11th, he did Iowa; summer before 12th, he did Kenyon. At your daughter’s age he did SUNY Purchase and the summer before 10th, he did Columbia.
@RenaissanceMom Thanks for the info! When your son went to SUNY were Alysa Robin Hantgan and Jenna Lynch his instructors (currently listed on their website)? On the website it says 9-12th grade but I guess they did accept middle school since your son went there? What’s his experience (+/- both) there if you don’t mind me asking?
Your son must be very good at writing. Iowa/Kenyon are our choices too in the next couple of years. But I heard it’s not easy to get in. Do you think attending these programs helped your son in some ways when he applied for colleges?
Greatly appreciate the info you shared.
@RenaissanceMomJusy wondering which your son liked better: Kenyon or Iowa?
I am wondering as well, and does he have any comments on the differences between them?
Does anyone here have any idea about which workshop is better: Kenyon or UVA Young Writer’s Workshop? I have already done Iowa in 2015 and was also accepted for Sewanee in 2015 (but did not attend it). I am an international student from India, by the way. UVA’s 3-week programs seems more rigorous too. Plus, they emphasize on revision techniques, publication, editing etc. Any suggestions/advice?
I attended the Juniper Institute for Young Writers at University of Massachusetts Amherst during this past summer. While it’s not the most prestigious of the creative writing camps out there, I had an absolutely amazing experience there and would recommend it to anyone who’s interested. Feel free to PM me if you want to know more. 
@VictorianLass My understanding is that Kenyon is slightly more selective/prestigious in terms of admissions, but I would say whichever you think suits your needs as a writer
@florida13mom and anyone else interested…
I attended the Bard College at Simon’s Rock YWW last summer, and (I know everyone says this, but it’s true!) it was the best three weeks of my life. The campus is beautiful and the general environment very homey–Jamie Hutchinson, the director, actually sends you feedback on your application materials in a personalized acceptance/rejection letter, and he makes it a point to welcome you as you arrive. The 83 of us were split up into workshop groups of about 12 each, and we met with these groups three hours each morning and three hours each afternoon, Monday to Friday, doing anything from freewriting to reading out of an issued anthology and responding to prompts to designing skits to workshopping each other’s work. It was a very eye-opening experience for me because of the exploratory nature of the work we did–I didn’t know I loved poetry until we read and wrote some there. Basically, if you know your genre and want intensive training in just that genre, this YWW isn’t for you, but if you love writing in general and want to explore it in many different, mind-altering ways, you need to go 
What’s more, the location is half an hour’s walk from the quaintest, most beautiful small town, and on weekends you’re allowed to go into town and explore unchaperoned. They also provide, free, opportunities to see local performances of Shakespeare and other amazing plays, which was one of my favorite parts. Anyway. This program was an absolutely mind-blowing experience–culturally, academically, and in all respects–and if you’d like more info just DM me
Interested in finding out more about faculty at Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Seems the faculty bios they posted this year are all Program Assistants, many of whom are young and current MFA degree candidates. Is this true? How does this compare to other programs like Kenyon, Iowa, Sewanee, and UVa where they boast distinguished faculty of published, award winning authors who have their MFA? Do these other programs tout the faculty publicly, but in actuality have the bulk of the workshops and interaction be led by younger assistants and grad students?
@MoreACubMom While I can’t attest to the faculty at any of the other programs, at Juniper, each “pod” of about 12 students was under the direct supervision of one program assistant. These program assistants were current students at UMass and, in my experience, were all amazing writers who were incredibly dedicated to the program. They were essentially RAs, but they led lots of writing exercises. The workshops themselves were led by older (Relatively speaking- my workshop leader was maybe 30.), perhaps more experienced writers, called instructors on the website, I believe. My workshop was led by David Feinstein, and under him I learned so, so much about technique and stepping out of my comfort zone and different styles of writing, etc. I absolutely loved all of the faculty at Juniper, but if you’re looking for world renowned authors teaching the courses, you most likely won’t find that here. Hope I helped, let me know if you have any questions about Juniper specifically.
@pa18teng @desie1 @MoreACubMom ,
I’ll try to answer the questions you’ve asked both here and in PM.
My son enjoyed every one of his summer creative writing experiences, and they were all a bit different, although I think Iowa was his favorite. I don’t remember who his instructors were at SUNY purchase, but the lead instructor was someone who had an MFA and she was assisted by undergrad TAs. At Columbia, his instructors included someone who had her MFA and two instructors who were Columbia MFA candidates. (Columbia has the kids rotate each day between classes with 3 different instructors.) He loved two of them and actually disliked one (one of the grad students). He also liked this program the least because he was the only boy in it…the rest of his classmates were girls who were international students from India. He felt like the odd person out. In creative writing classes, you share your work and get feedback from your peers. He felt that his feedback was limited bc the class was so gender skewed. The girls were essentially focusing on romantic stories and he wrote in different genres that they weren’t as keen to read, like magical realism.
At both Kenyon and Iowa, there was a more gender balanced representation and they wrote in all sorts of genres. He also felt that his peers were among the best writers his age that he ever met. It was a thrilling experience for him. (Interestingly enough, many of the ppl he had met at Iowa, attended Kenyon the following year. These kids really get to know each other.) All his instructors at both these programs were not just MFAs from those respective schools, but also published authors. No undergrad TAs. Also, because the programs are probably the most selective of all the creative writing programs in this country, the kids who attend are super serious not just about their own creative writing, but about literature in general. I’m not sure about Kenyon but I remember that he told me at Iowa, they spent time dissecting great lit, and he felt he not only learned how to write better but also how to analyze literature better. He attributed his 800 SAT CR and his 770 SAT2 Lit scores in part to that program, although truthfully, that kid has been a prodigious reader and writer since elementary school.
One of you asked if I think these programs helped get him into college. I don’t know. They obviously didn’t hurt. He did them all bc he was/is keenly passionate about writing. His application certainly had a writing narrative. Beyond his reading and writing standardized scores, he won several national and regional writing awards. He was on the board of a national magazine dedicated to creative writing for kids. He attended the leading creative writing workshop in NYC every short school break; he applied and was accepted to the New England young writers conference at middlebury bread loaf. He was an editor of his school paper and involved with the lit magazine at school, and published in a national magazine. His other passion was photography, and he won awards for that too & was published in the ny times.
I do know that the UPenn Kelly writers house recruiter met him at middlebury and after he sent her his resume and college app, he was invited to Penn for a private tour beginning at the KW House. Unfortunately, he didn’t love Penn after that tour. He did do well in college admission despite being an overall A- student (he was lopsided…not as good a math student as humanities. He, however, punched about his GPA weight, especially when it came to merit awards, although his over 2260 SAT probably helped there).
Now, after saying all that, what I will say is most important is that my son, and his older brother (a STEM kid who loved performing Shakespeare), only engaged in extracurricular activities that they loved. They never did anything to pad their resumes. And that continued onto college. All I did while they were young was listened to what they said they wanted to pursue and found them avenues to do it in middle school. By the time they were in high school, they were finding their own programs and I was just there to let them know if we could afford them.
So, if your kids have the opportunity to attend any of these programs, they will learn a lot and in all likelihood, love them.
I’ve gotten some more PMs from ppl asking about some of the specific awards and programs my son engaged in that were mentioned above. I’ll try to link to as many as I can here. Also, want to say that the New England Young Writers’ Conference is for kids (juniors) across the country, and that Penn’s recruiter attends specifically to find applicants for Penn. As far as I know, the University of Pennsylvania is the only university in the country that recruits writers in the same way that colleges recruit athletes. Middlebury also does outreach at the conference, held at their famous bread loaf site that’s about a 15 min ride from the town. If your kid attends, plenty of kids from a long distance away arrived via plane on their own, but for those of us in driving distance of about 3-6 hours, we stayed over in an Inn in Middlebury and ended up meeting each other at breakfast. The Inn was hopping with parents whose kids were at the conference. I actually had a blast myself that weekend meeting all sorts of people. You drop the kids off and don’t see them again until days later.
The national writing magazine that my son joined as a board member and also submitted writing to for publication early in high school (served 9-10 grades):
http://www.ckmagazine.org/join-the-ck-advisory-board/
The New England young writers conference:
http://sites.middlebury.edu/neywc/about/
Leading NYC young writers workshop (now also in LA, DC and Chicago)–my kid did winter and spring break weeks at workshops and he got an internship here the summer after 12th grade as a writing tutor):
http://www.writopialab.org/regions
Writing competitions my son won:
Probably the most selective and prestigious writing award for high school students:
http://www.youngarts.org/apply
This is the competition he began entering in middle school through high school:
http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/press-release/2016-scholastic-art-writing-awards-call-submissions-opens-new-scholarship-opportunities
His physics teacher recommended to my son’s class to submit to this national contest…a physics-related photo and essay contest…and luckily enough, his work was chosen:
https://www.aapt.org/Programs/contests/photocontest.cfm
If I can think of anything else, I’ll post later.
@MoreACubMom I went to UVa YWW. The morning labs (like 1.5-2 hrs long if I remember correctly?) are taught by graduate students who are getting their MFAs or recent graduates (a few undergrads but not too many). Then the afternoon workshops (2 hrs-ish?) are taught by the “award winning-faculty” the website boasts of, while the grad students assist. Then there are afternoon electives (about 1-1.5 hrs), some of which are taught by graduate students and some of which are taught by visiting professional writers. We also received 2 one-on-one conferences with our faculty teachers (the professional writers). So although the professional writers teach a fair amount, the graduate students definitely do teach a significant chunk too.
@Skycry Thanks for the details. Did you do the 2 or 3 week program? What did you think of it? What were the other students like? How did you feel about their relative writing/editing skills? (Sorry to pepper you with so many questions!)
I did the 3 week program (2 weeks would be too short, I think, b/c it took me 5 days to get totally into the swing of things and then during the last 4 days everyone’s just sad about leaving).
Overall, I had a lot of fun at YWW. I grew a lot as a person, although I didn’t learn as much as I would have liked about the actual craft of writing. It’s great for figuring out what kind(s) of writing you like best and figuring out your individual writing voice - teachers and other students manage to strike a perfect balance between giving you enough praise that you a) know what you’re doing right and b) are encouraged to keep writing, yet also enough constructive criticism that you improve the piece.
I felt like the other students I worked with were among the most talented, intelligent (yet really kind and funny) writers I’ve ever met. As cliche as it sounds, I felt like I really found people who I connected with and understood, and who understood me too. Many of them went on to be accepted to Ivies or other top schools.
You have to walk to class and meals with a counselor and sign out whenever you leave the dorms on weekends, so I felt it was a bit restrictive.
Late on board, any good programs still accepting applications or open registrations at this point? Already signed up for Duke.