<p>Just looking for some recommendations...</p>
<p>What schools, in the midwest, have a great creative writing program? I plan to write, and I want to make sure I pick a school with a good program...</p>
<p>I wanted to go to Santa Cruz first, cause I would definetely fit in with all the "hippie" popluation there heh, and then I set my sights on Vassar and I was incredibly pumped...</p>
<p>And then my stupid father outlawed the coastlines and said I Have to stay in the midwest. Preferably in a radius of Chicago that he so kindly diagramed for me.... <em>puke</em></p>
<p>I've got the REALISTIC ideas narrowed to Oberlin, Denison, and Kenyon, and yes haha if you didn't notice I like the idea of Ohio. Anyone know how good Oberlin's creative writing program is? As well as the scene of the town around Oberlin?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>The University of Iowa has one of the best creative writing programs in the country. I think that Oberlin and Kenyon also are known for good creative writing programs.</p>
<p>Yay then maybe I will go to Oberlin! thanks!</p>
<p>Other possiblities are Grinnell and Carleton, but I'm leaning to Oberlin..</p>
<p>Check out the writer's workshops at University of Iowa. There is a select summer writing program for teens. It may be too late to apply for this summer, but you could apply next summer.</p>
<p>I have a close friend who teaches English at a top liberal arts program. She has friends who teach at Iowa, and she has said wonderful things about their program as has another friend who is an award-winning poet.</p>
<p>EEEEEEEEEEK! Oh man a Summer writing program! I would so LOVE to do THAT!!! Maybe I can do it next Summer since probably unable this Summer with stuff going on, but I will definetely check that out! thank youuu</p>
<p>I think that Kenyon also has a summer writer's program. Try doing an Internet search because there really are lots of colleges that have summer creative writing programs. Some aren't that expensive either.</p>
<p>Kenyon has a very good writing program and it's a beautiful campus. Oberlin has a bit more prestige, but I think Kenyon is better where you are concerned.</p>
<p>If you love summer writer's programs, check out the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury.</p>
<p>My daughter did the Iowa Young Writer's Workshop between her junior and senior year. She recommends it highly to others - loved Iowa City and met really nice people. The only negative is that she wanted the fiction writing course, but was placed in the poetry course. She felt her strengh was in poetry already, and wanted more fiction experience. She came home with some wonderful stuff, however.</p>
<p>The program is very well run; kids stay in the U of Iowa dorms but do have a fair amount of free time and they're not overly supervised - just enough. She's had a soft spot in her heart for Iowa ever since.</p>
<p>Knox College in Illinois has an excellent creative writing program. Beloit in Wisconsin does as well (Beloit has a bit of the same feel as UCSC in terms of liberal student body). Oberlin and Kenyon have already been mentioned. The U of Iowa is good, but the real strength of its creative writing program is its graduate writing program, not its undergrad program. Honestly, though, it is not absolutely necessary to go to a school with a specific creative writing program to become a writer.</p>
<p>Wow thanks for all the replies, everyone!!!</p>
<p>Anyone know how long those Summer Writing programs go? Weeks..?</p>
<p>My daughter attended Iowa Young Writer's workshop last summer and has applied again this year. (Hasn't heard yet- applications were due March 1, I think). She was in the fiction workshop, learned a lot, got a great start on a new story, and enjoyed being in the company of other writers without the pressure of grades. The program is only 2 weeks long; they have 2 sessions. It is somewhat selective; they accepted less than 50% of the applicants last year.</p>
<p>Cant forget Grinnell, the best school in Iowa</p>
<p>thewildflower,</p>
<p>You've gotten a lot of good suggestions here. I don't know my midwest geography that well, but although these schools are all in the midwest, aren't they somewhat spread out? Some of these suggestions are in Ohio, some in Iowa...that's far apart.</p>
<p>I guess what I'm getting at is this: if these are acceptable schools for your father, aren't some of them like 6 hours or so by car away from where you live? If you live near a major airport, you could fly to and from any coastal city in probably less time than you could drive the expansive mid-west. I don't know if finances are part of your father's reasoning but if you plan ahead you can find inexpensive air fares to most places.</p>
<p>^YES thats what I have told him!!! He said:</p>
<p>A) "I don't want to have to fly you to school every year, we will be driving, therefore-
B), I am not gonna drive you to any freakin east coast school or anywhere as far in any direction."</p>
<p>I don't know what the hell is problem is!!!!</p>
<p>I still have Vassar creeping around the back of my brain..but I know he's probably "put his foot down" on that or something cheesy like that... :(</p>