<p>I’m going to be crossposting this at both the Princeton and Columiba 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>What do you think I should do?</p>
<p>Just a few points</p>
<ol>
<li> Princeton has a few General Education Requirements for A.B. Students which may or may not matter to you</li>
</ol>
<p>Writing Seminar -- one course
Foreign Language -- This requirement can take one to four terms to complete, depending on the language students study and the level at which they start.
Epistemology and Cognition (EC) -- one course
Ethical Thought and Moral Values (EM) -- one course
Historical Analysis (HA) -- one course
Literature and the Arts (LA) -- two courses
Quantitative Reasoning (QR) -- one course
Science and Technology, with laboratory (ST) -- two courses
Social Analysis (SA) -- two courses</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I'm not sure of the financial aid components of the thing but if you tell Brown or Columbia of Princeton's better offer -- they might change their offer a bit.</p></li>
<li><p>I can say that to take an intro-creative writing class at Brown you need to pre-register [getting up early one day and standing in line] and then you're in [usually]. For advanced CW classes, you need to submit writing pieces.</p></li>
<li><p>Manhattan or Providence or Princeton? Where would you like to spend four years? What are you looking for in a location?</p></li>
<li><p>Check out, <a href="http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Literary_Arts/webLAConcentrator.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Literary_Arts/webLAConcentrator.html</a> It is a very new program and seems to have a considerable creative writing component. Then again, it wouldn't be hard in the least to just make your own major if you are willing to do a thesis. </p></li>
<li><p>Definitely make a trip to all of your candidate schools for the atmosphere-test. Brown is generally seen as a laid-back school and my experiences totally support that claim but you may not feel that way so make sure you check it out and decide for yourself. But, the S/NC option and no pluses and minuses make it quite mellow.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Congrats!</p>
<p>some advantages to Brown</p>
<p>1) collaboration with RISD
<a href="http://risd.brown.edu%5B/url%5D">http://risd.brown.edu</a></p>
<p>2) Literary Arts Program and opportunity to do a capstone with MacArthur and Pulitzer prize winning faculty (John Edgar Wideman, Carlos Fuentes, etc)
<a href="http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Literary_Arts/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Literary_Arts/index.html</a></p>
<p>3) Unique academic programs such as MCM (many MCM concentrators go on to careers in creative writing
<a href="http://www.brown.edu/Departments/MCM/%5B/url%5D">http://www.brown.edu/Departments/MCM/</a></p>
<p>From what you're saying, I would avoid Pratt. Definitely not as rigorous/serious, and the people I've met there are kind of pretentious.</p>