SCAD Writing Program?

<p>I've heard a lot about SCAD's animation, architecture, and game design departments, but what about their writing and dramatic writing? Are those any good? I'm almost positive I could get an academic scholarship to SCAD, and with my writing portfolio, I could probably get an art scholarship as well. Since I primarily want to focus on fiction writing, I figured SCAD might be a good idea, but as someone who generally accels in and enjoys academics, I'm not sure if an art school is the right fit. My first choice is Emory (their Oxford campus), but the only way I can attend is if I get a full scholarship (even though I have six siblings, two of which will be in college while I am, we get NO financial aid from them).
Oh, and another reason that I've always found SCAD attractive is because it's in Savannah- call me crazy, but I love that city. :P</p>

<p>HI Aleyna22. I have absolutely no idea about SCAD’s writing program, but my gut reaction is to leave Savannah out of the equation and focus on whatever school offers you the best program at the best price.</p>

<p>I’m a dramatic writing student at scad. I wish I did more research before enrolling but throughout the 4 yrs there are not too many writing classes and for me it is not worth the price. It’s mostly design and art classes, something i am not too interested in. Do the research about the major and youll figure it out! I will most likely transfer</p>

<p>This is a little late, but I went to SCAD for writing and I thought the program was surprisingly good. The advantage over a regular English degree is that it’s not an English major. They treat writing like any other art at school, you’re expecting to work on your craft through multiple pieces per quarter, and you have workshops and a lot of roundtable discussion–not a lot of lectures. The department is relatively small and you will get to know the professors quite well. They take an invested interest in you. The teaching staff is top notch. And it’s an “art school” major that might even get you hired. I’ve landed a job in the publishing industry, which is somewhat hard to do in a sea of English majors.</p>

<p>BUT, I would not recommend this program to anyone interested in fiction. They revamped the calendar in 2010, and there are a few fiction classes now, but it’s still primarily a nonfiction program, where you can focus on creative nonfiction or professional writing. Not only that, but the addition of fiction classes are taught not by the department of writing, but the department of creative writing (a pre-existing minor at the school), and the fiction classes have precisely 1 professor and he’s terrible. Seriously. As brilliant as the writing professors are, the fiction professor from the other department is abysmal. And on top of that, a lot of non-writers take the fiction class as a requirement for animation or sequential majors, so these classes are always packed at the max 28 seats, which is frankly not conducive at all for a workshop. Definitely not worth the price tag, even with a partial academic scholarship.</p>

<p>I wrote this post just for future reference for prospective writers. It’s the only undergraduate program I know of in the country with an emphasis on creative nonfiction, so if that’s your thing, you might love it and the teaching within the nonfiction classes is topnotch. If you want to do technical writing or professional writing (aka where the money is actually at), you’ll get an edge here at a school that actually helps you get a portfolio. If you want to do fiction, go anywhere else.</p>

<p>PS: While I’m giving advice, a good minor to pair with a writing major is the new Creative Copywriting minor (writing for advertising). There’s a real niche here that lets you branch into advertising or PR because a lot of AD majors don’t necessarily have the same control over language. Even if you don’t go into advertising, it can provide some good portfolio pieces that showcase voice and the ability to compact a big idea into a small, powerful statement.</p>