Which LACs are best for an an aspiring writer?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I want to focus on writing and literature, but broad academic rigor is important to me. Further, a good financial aid package for middle class families is an important draw; I have discounted Carleton and Oberlin College because their values didn't stack up to other schools' after grants.</p>

<p>Obviously, LACs like Amherst and Williams offer stellar academics in all areas, writing and English included. Then there are gems like Kenyon that don't make it onto top 20 lists. Most rigorous LACs with good financial aid do make it into the top 20 or 30, however, so that has been my starting point. Among these, which are especially strong in the humanities? Which are more known for their strengths as science schools?</p>

<p>I have a slight preference for suburban settings, and I enjoy rural environments as well. I'll still consider urban schools, but if I'm in an urban setting I think I'd rather be at a university. I'm cautious about one writing-intensive LAC--Hamilton--because of its comparatively urban environment.</p>

<p>So, hit me with information and suggestions! Or ask questions or make me ask questions. My ACT is a 35 and my ECs are good (though not jaw-dropping) and tend to reflect strengths in writing and working with children.</p>

<p>P.S., thanks to all who helped me on my first thread. Your guidance helped me reach this more targeted (if still broad) position. :)</p>

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<p>With a 35 ACT, you might consider Ivy League schools. They’re a reach for anyone but worth a shot and they’ll meet full need. Look into Kelly Writers House at Penn. </p>

<p>[Highlights</a> for prospective students](<a href=“http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/highlights/prospective.php]Highlights”>Highlights for prospective students)</p>

<p><a href=“http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/news/nytimes-article-dec07.pdf[/url]”>http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/news/nytimes-article-dec07.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks for the lead on Penn! The Ivy league is definitely on my radar (and so are Vanderbilt and Emory), but I want to throw some very good-fit liberal art colleges in the mix. :)</p>

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<p>I don’t think that your becoming a great writer will result from getting into a prestigious college or taking certain classes. Think of your favorite writers, artists,and musicians and look up if they learned their crafts from a teacher or just developed their own talent and vision. I’d bet that few got what they did from college classes. Any good LAC will put you around creative and interesting classmates and friends; the more experiences you have (such as foreign study, working weird summer jobs) will give you ideas and material as much as any course will. Best wishes for your future.</p>

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<p>Isn’t Hamilton rural - upstate NY?</p>

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<p>Hamilton is “rural” for New York, but its proximity to urban centers makes it less closed-off than most LACs. I concede that it’s not objectively urban, but it seems more urban than your average LAC.</p>

<p>If it matters, I’m from a small TN town, so I probably have a different definition of “rural” than people in more populous areas. My county has less than half the population density of Oneida (where Hamilton is located), but I consider my setting “suburban.” Rural is when you drive past miles of cornfields! :)</p>

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<p>Also, thank you snarlatron. My favorite contemporary American author, John Green, went to Kenyon and talks highly of it–hence why it’s on my radar. But I agree with you completely that a prestigious college won’t make me a good writer; I just need places to apply to. :)</p>

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<p>I’m a Hamilton fan, but it’s definitely not remotely urban or remotely city-accessible. The closest town (a long walk) is Clinton, NY. Oneida is some distance.</p>

<p>My son preferred rural, and among his list Hamilton and Kenyon were the most isolated, even more so than Williams. They’re beautifully situated and their insularity can be a positive, but visit before you decide.</p>

<p>Another school that has a good writing reputation/program is Skidmore. It would probably be a low match or safety for you.</p>

<p>Saratoga Springs is a lively small town. As is the town of Amherst. Wesleyan’s town is less lively but New York is near enough. Same for Vassar. Swarthmore/Haverford to Philly.</p>

<p>All of the most selective LACs have excellent English departments and excellent humanities. Some have good to great sciences as well. Some are more focused on the arts (fine art, music, dance, theater) than others. You should focus more on the environment and personality of the individual schools.</p>

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<p>I’d look at Pomona. Our English department has vastly improved over the years, we have some superstar faculty like Jonathan Lethem, we’re located in a suburban area about 40 minutes east of Los Angeles in the tranquil town of Claremont, and because of the Claremont Consortium the students here have access to more than 230 English and literature courses each year [source: File</a> Not Found - Pomona College](<a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/academics/curriculum/consortium.aspx]]File”>http://www.pomona.edu/academics/curriculum/consortium.aspx)</p>

<p>Pomona is one of the most affordable LACs in the country, ranking at or near the top for best value colleges by Kiplinger, US News, and Princeton Review. While no merit aid is granted, the need-based aid is very good- all need met, no packaged loans. The average aid package for a person coming from an household of 100,000$ was around 40,000$, of which 95% is grant money and 5% is work study and summer contribution. </p>

<p>Pomona is also one of the occasional liberal arts colleges which is strong across the board, be it humanities or sciences, and we also have one of the most flexible curriculums, so if you ever feel like switching majors that’s an easy task, and you’re pretty much guaranteed whatever you switch into will be fantastic.</p>

<p>It is however a massive reach for every applicant…so it’s up to you to decide whether or not you’d be interested in applying. If you are interested, I’d highly recommend ED1, which has a 26% acceptance rate compared to the regular rate of 11%. If you’re a female, Pomona is even tougher to get into.</p>

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<p>Momrath - thank you for righting my misconception about Hamilton. That puts it back on the table :)</p>

<p>What are some the personalities of some of the schools? Being from the southeast, I can’t go visit them all (or any of them, really) before applying. (Though I will be sure to visit the ones I get in to!)</p>

<p>Nostalgicwisdom - I’ll be sure to do some targeted research into Pomona. I probably can’t visit before applying, so ED wouldn’t be a good option for me, and I want to reach for some Ivies anyway. Fortunately, I’m male, so Pomona is still doable! :)</p>

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<p>LACs tend to be particularly good for writing because the small class sizes make it easier for professors to assign and grade research papers and longer writing projects. Many LACs have writing across the curriculum programs.</p>

<p>Emerson College is a college dedicated to communication and the performing arts, and they have several writing majors - Writing for Film and Television as well as Writing, Literature, and Publishing. They also have a Journalism major.</p>

<p>You also may want to consider a Great Books college, like St. John’s College in MD. Great Books colleges are four-year courses of study that explore the world through the lens of great works of fiction and nonfiction, and require a lot of reading and writing. St. Olaf College in Minnesota also has a “The Great Conversation” program that focuses on Great Books, and Notre Dame has the “Program of Liberal Studies” that is somewhat like a Great Books program.</p>

<p>I had a student who went to Hamilton in my summer program last summer and she was an excellent writer. Clinton is not urban; its population is less than 2,000 people. It is a suburb of Utica, but Utica’s population is 62,000 and Rome, NY is 33,000. So we’re talking about less than 100,000 people. It’s much more suburban.</p>

<p>If you like rural environments, you may want to consider The University of the South-Sewanee. It’s a small selective liberal arts college in a beautiful rural setting. In addition to the traditional English major, you can also earn a certificate in creative writing.</p>

<p>Also, what about Grinnell? It’s in a relatively isolated area and apparently has a thriving writing scene. Dickinson College has a writing program, and Colorado College has majors in English, comparative literature and classics (although Colorado Springs isn’t rural or suburban).</p>

<p>Actually, snarlatron, a lot of great writers honed their craft in writing programs or workships. Good and great and excellent writing improves partially on the feedback of others and learning the craft. Kurt Vonnegut went to Cornell (he was a chemistry major, but wrote for the paper); Sylvia Plath attended Smith College and Cambridge; Virginia Woolf attend King’s College London; Edna St. Vincent Millay went to Vassar, Edwidge Danticat went to Barnard and Brown for an MFA, Toni Morrison got a BA in English from Howard and an MA in English from Cornell, Nikki Giovanni went to Fisk and then Penn and Columbia, etc.</p>

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<p>@Juillet, of course most contemporary creative people have gone to college. But I doubt that Jack Kerouac owed his vision or style to Columbia any more than Bob Dylan owed the U of Minnesota or that Bill Watterson credits Kenyon for Calvin & Hobbes. I don’t think that the OP will become a better writer based on which good college he/she attends. That workshops can sometimes blandify creative idiosyncratic writing is another topic!</p>

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<p>If the OP thinks Rome, NY and Utica are big cities, then Wesleyan’s Middletown, CT will seem positively metropolitan with a population of 45,000!</p>

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<p>Wesleyan has a good section on the web specifically about its writing program- it’s a good academic atmosphere with some mix of creative kids, but Middletown won’t be inspirational to many. You need to dig deeper than academic rep and see what sort of critique is offered, who’s doing that and whether there is a chance to do anything with your writing. And, what the social atmosphere at various schools really is. You mention “values.” Could you deal with a party school?</p>

<p>Writing is about hard work to produce something of quality and interest. Not just where writers got their UG (though a good school will hone your thinking, across the board.) For many, summer workshops are more focused and productive than a college class where anyone could sign up. </p>

<p>And, watch the phrase, “writing intensive.” In UG, it’s commonly used to mean there is an emphasis on the general quality of student academic writing, not creative writing.</p>

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<p>I have to agree with those who miss the connection of college with creative writing success. That seems to be portrayed more in movies than in real life.</p>

<p>That being said …</p>

<p>Middlebury has a creative writing curriculum:</p>

<p>[Creative</a> Writing | Middlebury](<a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/enam/creative_writing]Creative”>http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/enam/creative_writing)</p>

<p>And their Bread Loaf summer program for writers is very famous:</p>

<p>[Bread</a> Loaf Writers’ Conference | Middlebury](<a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu/blwc]Bread”>Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences)</p>

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<p>Oberlin–famous writer alums include Tracy Chevalier, Gary Shteyngart, James McBride and Ismeah Beal.</p>

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<p>Ever since the British television show, Inspector Morse went off the air, I’'ve felt Middletown would make a great venue for the American version of it; the local politics are Borgia-like, enough to provide plenty of corpses (fictional, of course) and Wesleyan provides plenty of class conflict. It’s absolutely inspirational in its own way. :)</p>

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<p>Oberlin’s program looks fantastic, but be aware that upper level courses require an application, including a work sample, to get in, so if the school is of interest, I"d look into how hard it is to get accepted to those courses.</p>

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<p>Lots of replies–thank you all! I started my senior year today which is why I’m just now coming online.</p>

<p>On the subject of how colleges can hone a writer’s talent, I tend to agree with snarlatron and GodFather in that one cannot become a successful writer merely by attending a certain college. However, I think the point that Juillet advocates is this: College helps writers grow, so it stands to reason that a specific college experience can shape a writer’s development. While differences within a tier may be small, some colleges are probably better at this than others. At any rate, an LAC with a reputation for graduating strong writers will attract those wanting to write and thus form a strong writer community.</p>

<p>@Juillet, I’ll look into all the leads you gave me. Your feedback is very helpful, and I will take note of your point about LACs being better for writers because of the small class size.</p>

<p>I had considered Sewanee–this has been recommended to me frequently as I live Tennessee–but I think it would be a poor fit for me. Its reputation for being a drinking school and its student body’s extensive engagement in Greek life are off-putting.</p>

<p>@Lookingforward, when I mentioned “values” earlier, I was referring to the literal value of the education a college provided versus its cost (e.g., “best value”). I don’t have a problem with people who want to party hard, but it personally isn’t my thing. A small party scene is A-OK with me, but I would feel excluded at colleges where this were the norm (hence I discounted Sewanee).</p>

<p>And I’ll take special note of Wesleyan.</p>

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<p>To those suggesting Oberlin, I am aware that its reputation in the humanities is outstanding. However, its financial aid is not as good as other LACs I have good shots of getting into. That has unfortunately been a deal breaker for me. :(</p>

<p>Thanks again to all who posted. I have narrowed down my list to under 20 LACs, which is actually a huge accomplishment! I will whittle the list down to 7 or 8 and apply to those. (I’ll also apply to some universities, for about 15 applications in total. I have considered the cost in this versus the value it will bring me, and I have decided that this is the best thing for me to do. I see the extra $1000 this will cost me as an important investment in my future because it might help me secure the perfect college for me. Thoughts?)</p>

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<p>You might be eligible for application fee waivers. Ask the individual colleges.</p>

<p>You should also look into expense paid pre-application visits to colleges. Windows on Williams is one I’m familiar with, and I assume other colleges offer the same sort of programs. Generally these are geared to getting low income, first generation students to the colleges for a weekend in the Fall, but the invitation criteria are fairly open-ended.</p>