<p>I'm going to be crossposting this at both the Brown and Princeton forums.</p>
<p>Ok, to begin, I want to be a writer and will be wither majoring or concentrating in writing at whichever school I go to, so the rigorousness of their programme is very important. I was accepted to all of the schools that I applied to: University of Miami, Florida State, Pratt, Oberlin, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Brown, and Princeton.</p>
<p>Now, Im having a really hard choosing. Right now its between Pratt and each of the Ivys. Columbia and Pratt have the advantage of being in New York, which means there will be much inspiration and contacts that I could make. Brown and Pratt both do not require me to take any core classes. Pratt and Princeton are offering me the most money and Princeton is not so far from Manhattan as Brown. I think I might be willing to deal with Columbias core and Princeton really only has one required class and its a writing class.</p>
<p>Then, there is the fact that Princeton and Brown don't really have Creative Writing majors but sub-programmes in it, Princeton's which is only for a tiny percentage to ger in each class based on an application. Still, I was told even from a teacher at Pratt that it was not rigorous enough for me.</p>
<p>I want to be surrounded by people who want to learn but arent arrogant. I want to get all that I can from the school as a writer.</p>
<p>I'd say Columbia. If you didn't know your general path at this point I would have said Princeton, but the fact that you want to write (and write well, I assume) makes Manhattan more than a factor. Yes, I'm biased (Lion's '09, yay)... But at the same time i've lived relatively close to Princeton for 8 years now. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the town, but from the perspective of a writer (or anyone attempting some sort of creative output) the town eventually becomes reduced to one street (Nassau) with a bunch of expensive boutiques, and very little literary inspiration.
And to get access to Toni Morrison, you'd need to be good enough (and lucky enough) to not need her anyway.
I know nothing about Pratt and very little about Brown, so I wont pretend to assess them.
In the end, I'm just another kid you've never met before telling you where to spend the next four years of your life. What you should really do is visit each place and make a decision that makes the most sense to you.
Best of luck, and oh, congrats!</p>
<p>Congrats! Here are some thoughts that might help you investigate further:</p>
<p>I'd argue against Pratt purely on the basis that a crucial part of the education of a writer is reading, reading, and more reading. You will get a better, broader, liberal arts education at the other schools on your list in my opinion.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I think you should really investigate not only which writers teach at each school (anybody you especially love?), but exactly how much access undergrads get to writing workshops at each place. How many apply, how many get in? If you don't get in to one workshop, can you get into another? If you don't make it first year, is that it? Then, I'd look at the student reviews for those classes and professors. (Columbia has the CULPA website, which is open to the public. I don't know about the others.) Realizing that writing classes are perhaps THE most subjective, you can still get a sense of the atmosphere of the classes and the attitudes of some fellow students.</p>
<p>Whether or not a school has a creative writing major is not as important as whether you are likely to find someone to work with there. If you find someone, can you take the class for credit more than once? do an independent study with that person? (For example, is it possible to do a senior thesis at Princeton that is a piece of creative writing? It would be fantastic to graduate with a novel or short story collection or collection of poems under your arm!)</p>
<p>The money from Princeton, of course, should figure in there somewhere. The atmosphere at Brown is pretty arts oriented from what I hear, so you might find the student body a good fit, and the courses might be more accessible. I don't think the distance from New York makes a big difference -- all these schools will have writers coming through as speakers. </p>
<p>The core curriculum at Columbia would be helpful to I writer, I think. But it does require math and science as well.</p>
<p>Well, first, unfortunately I cannot do any campus visits, so I'm wholly dependedent on other people's words for this, though I have visited all campuses except Brown's before. I just never met any students.</p>
<p>The thing about Princeton's location is that it has a train on campus that will take you to NYC and Philadelphia in about an hour or so, which I don't mind, I could do my homework on the train.</p>
<p>"And to get access to Toni Morrison, you'd need to be good enough (and lucky enough) to not need her anyway." Is the application process that hard?</p>
<p>The only school that has someone that I just love is Columbia, it has Robert Antoni but I'm not sure how long he'll be teaching there. A while back he had just done a 9 year stint at UM, so maybe long maybe short.</p>
<p>I'd have to say that there are less kids in the Princeton programme simply because of its application process and the limits it sets on classes. For Columbia, it's a major, so that's part of the curriculum. I also know that at PRinceton you can do your thesis and independent study with a teacher if you are awesome like that.</p>
<p>Correction to myself: Brown now does have a major.</p>
<p>THe only thing I can say about the core curriculum is that I understand the need of a writer to have a broad knowledge base, but I also know that if my school doesn't force it on me, I'll find it myself anyway. I need workshops and workshops and workshops.</p>
<p>I'm a writer in my 40's who attended Barnard and took many writing classes at CC. I'm visiting this thread bc my d is attending BC in the fall and I'm checking out the scene. I also did an MFA in writing and have workshopped myself blue. What a young writer needs is to read read read read read and live in a stimulating environment where you will be constantly challenged. In this respect NYC has no parallel. Workshops are great, teachers are important, but believe me, most of your development as a writer will come outside of class, off campus. Intern at a literary center, meet writers, go to tons of readings, give readings, edit a lit mag, teach classes yourself...the possibilities are endless. Princeton NJ and Providence will feel rinky-dink compared to what NY offers. The train ride will require you to plan way in advance and make special trips. In NY you can be spontaneous, follow a quirky teacher's recommendation, try out new things, expose yourself to everything. By your senior year, you will be living the NY writer's life already.</p>
<p>There are great writers who focus on the suburbs. Chang Rae Lee, John Updike, Jonathan Frantzen, etc. Powerful feelings and stories and language can be found and created anywhere. Coetze is from South Africa, sure, but his first job was programming software for IBM in London. To be a contrarian, I would say why be one more writer wearing black in NYC? And don't get me wrong, please, I love New York, lived there and would go back. Writing is always about finding your own voice.</p>