<p>MM: me? Playful? Well I never!</p>
<p>Fwiw, I took nothing tonally amiss in either your or your D's posts. </p>
<p>As often observed, the lack of tone of voice and body language can make on-line communication a little dicier than in-person.</p>
<p>It's true that Smith is extremely weak in creative writing instruction. My D almost decided not to go to Smith for that reason, but then decided that she didn't have to take classes specifically in writing to write creatively. Plus, there's always Amherst and Hampshire. The courses in writing that Smith does offer are great; however, the number of offerings themselves is not.</p>
<p>I should add that one of my D's favorite courses after her first year was an English course. She still calls the professor "amazing" in how he led them through subtleties and interpretation.</p>
<p>Would it be easy for me to take creative writing courses at Amherst and Hampshire?</p>
<p>can anyone tell me anything about the "modern drama" course with luc gilleman? what is his reputation like? </p>
<p>how about the "methods of literary study" with floyd cheung? i've heard great things about cheung, but my rough pre-registration sketch looks a little MWF-heavy..</p>
<p>"Extremely weak" in creative writing instruction? That's a pretty strong statement. Smith is much stronger than most of the other liberal arts schools that we saw. My D took Advanced Poetry with the visiting writer- in- residence, and she loved the course as well as the opportunities at the Poetry Center. There were students from the other schools in the area who came to Smith to take the class. In her opinion, the English dept. at Smith is excellent.</p>
<p>Smithies take classes at Amherst and Hampshire all the time. The shuttle service is not only in-bound.</p>
<p>Yes, but (and by a large margin) Smith is an incoming magnet - far more students come to Smith for classes that go outbound to the other colleges. </p>
<p>But Bard it isn't.</p>
<p>Yes, Mini, but the point is that it's easy for BK to take writing classes at Amherst & Hampshire.</p>
<p>MWFN, is the professor you're referring to C. Davis?</p>
<p>momofasmithie - The creative writing classes that are at smith are generally of a very good quality, but there just aren't many of them. I loved the writing courses I took, but like I said earlier, there's 100 levels, there's 300 levels, there's nothing (or little) mid-level and there's not a huge selection. Not trying to put down my own school (obviously, I'm proud of it), but our very good English department is honestly not a very deep writing department. But as someone pointed out earlier, creative writing courses, or a CW degree are hardly required to be a writer. In fact, i think that the discipline and background knowledge of a regular English curriculum is a great skill builder for writers. Picasso had to learn classical techniques before he invented cubism, and I'm sure Steinbeck read shakespeare. </p>
<p>Mardou- Floyd Cheung is supposed to be excellent, and he's a very nice man. Having a MWF heavy courseload is not uncommon or bad (it always seems like I have all MWF or all T/TH courses). You get to sleep in the other two days. :-) Sleep is good. </p>
<p>blindkite - Easy is not exactly the word I would use for taking Amherst/Hampshire courses simply because you have to plan your courses to allow for travel time, which can be tricky, but if the class is good, ultimately rewarding. It is pretty easy to get into and take five college courses though.</p>
<p>"Sleep is good." Motto peaking in frequency of being uttered just before Spring finals.</p>
<p>I definitely don't need an education that focuses on creative writing, I can do that on my own. I want a well rounded education, especially since I plan on pursuing journalism. At least that seems to be logical?</p>
<p>BK, pursue journalism by all means but keep your powder dry. Conventional journalism is contracting rapidly...TheMom's and related communications departments at UCLA are full of people who used to work for the LA TIMES, where, as with many papers, jobs have hemorrhaged. And the number of bureaus maintained outside a paper's home town have fallen to "on life support" levels.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the number of people who can make a living writing for the on-line media channels is very small...the mantra "information wants to be free," while idiotic, is widely held by on-line readers...nobody wants to pay for anything.</p>
<p>So by all means: learn to write, learn to think, learn to analyze, learn how to communicate effectively with different audiences...just don't count on journalism in your adult life having much resemblance to what has inspired you. And if it's not something you want to do in its New! Improved! form, then you still have skills that will apply to other fields, some of which probably haven't been invented yet.</p>
<p>"MWFN, is the professor you're referring to C. Davis?"</p>
<p>I don't know, but I doubt it. The professor in question taught a little studied area, so probably isn't one of the popular profs.</p>
<p>It's difficult to make a living as any kind of writer. </p>
<p>IMO, excellent writing skills are often dismissed in this country, primarily because writing is something almost everyone can do. Most don't understand the difference between the clumsy and the good.</p>
<p>Taking classes off-campus is only hard when you have to figure out how to fit them in your schedule (it's often easiest to have an entire morning or afternoon to travel there, take the class, and travel back to Smith). The only other obstacle is that you can't normally take a class off-campus in your first semester (there are a few exceptions, but not many).</p>
<p>thanks, SmithieandProud.. there's a good chance that i won't get the exact courses i want, anyway. professor cheung seems to be quite the rock star, but i'm still looking for more info on luc gilleman. i'd be interested in taking "modern drama" if i can't get into the cheung class, but i'd have to know a little more about it.</p>
<p>MWFN, the response to "I always wanted to be a writer" is "I always wanted to be a brain surgeon."</p>
<p>At one time I thought I was a good writer. Then I took my first couple of writing workshops....</p>
<p>I have always made my living as a writer. Never made as much as a good real estate agent though, but it's a great way to avoid people. ;)</p>