Colleges for Writing

TTG
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 20:41:54 +0000

Middlebury College’s program is highly regarded.

http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/enam/creative_writing

Kenyon College–in Ohio, so a little outside the northeast–has an incredibly impressive list of writer alums: John Green, Laura Hillenbrand, E.L. Doctorow, Wendy MacLeod, Ransom Riggs, and Bill Watterson.

Both are expensive private schools, where merit and/or need based aid is possible, depending on your circumstances. It’s important to determine very realistically your budget and how much you might expect in aid from a particular school. Make sure to read what the school says about aid. Does it guarantee to meet all financial need? Does it distribute merit aid widely? What would be your chances of receiving merit aid? For example, does it give substantial awards to half the incoming class, and you would appear to be in the top quarter of admitted students, so could anticipate, but not be guaranteed, substantial aid? Another helpful tip is to google the common data set for a school and go to the section on financial aid. That will give you an idea how much aid it typically gives to students.

It would also help to provide some sense of your academic record. Both of the above schools are very competitive (Middlebury especially so). So they would not be viable options for many students.

Cost and competitiveness aside, small liberal arts colleges would probably provide an environment where you could work closely with professors in honing your writing. You might look through info on Creative Writing at the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) schools. These include many of the top LACs in the Northeast (Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Bates, Wesleyan, Tufts, etc.). I would maybe just add Dickinson to that list. You might also look at some of the women’s colleges–Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley, and maybe Vassar (once female, now coed). I’m not sure about creative writing at these schools specifically. I’ll note that Smith and Mount Holyoke–along with Hampshire, Amherst, and U Mass-Amherst–form a consortium that allows students to share resources/classes among them.

Good luck!