<p>Midatlmom, I agree with you that the “prestige factor” of the college you attend has little to do with success in writing as a profession (I’m referring to fiction, not sure about journalism). </p>
<p>A good book is a good book regardless of where (or even whether) the author attended college. Judging books based on the alma matter of the author would be absurd. </p>
<p>But I think college may, unfortunately, play a small role in breaking into the world of publishing. It is hard to get a book published, and even harder to have anyone care enough to buy it if it is published. </p>
<p>For a list supposed to cover the last 25 years of American Fiction, all five of the authors in the NYTIMES rankings were born in the 1930’s. The world of fiction is very entrenched – there can only be so many respected authors at once. Apparently not one Baby Boomer author has yet been able to crack the top 5 of living American authors in terms of reputation. </p>
<p>For a beginning author, unfortunately it seems graduates from the top schools receive some advantages. For example, Benjamin Kunkel received a cover review on the NYTimes Book Review for his debut novel something that raised some eye-brows. Foer, I believe, had excerpts of his novel published in the New Yorker while he was still in college. This created the buzz that preceded the remarkable success of his first novel.</p>
<p>While obviously the skill of the authors in question had something to do with these occurrences, it seems likely that such opportunities would not be as readily available to a burgeoning writer working out of a less respected institution. </p>
<p>So my point is not that authors from top schools were better, but that they may have an easier time breaking into the world of fiction than equatible writers from other backrounds.</p>
<p>Dave Barry Haverford
Peg Bracken Antioch
Julia Child Smith
Tom Clancy Loyaola MD
Annie Dillard Hollins
John Gardner Washington U
Dr Seuss Dartmouth
Nikki Giovanni Fiske
John Grisham Mississippi St
Nathaniel Hawthorne Bowdoin
SE Hinton U Tulsa
John Irving U New Hampshire
Garrison Keillor U Minnesota TC
Stephen King U Maine Orono
Henry Wadsworth Langfellow Bowdoin
James Michener Swarthmore
Liz Phair Oberlin
Lawrence Sanders Wabash
Matt Stone U Colorado
Alice Walker Sarah Lawrence
Robert Penn Warren vanderbilt
George Will Trinity CT
Tennessee Williams Washington U St Louis
Tom Wolfe Washington and Lee</p>
<p>F. Scott Fitzgerald Princeton (did not finish)
John Steinbeck Stanford
Robert Penn Warren Vanderbilt
Joseph Heller Columbia
Tom Wolfe Yale
Ralph Waldo Emerson Harvard
Nathaniel Hawthorne Bowdoin
David Henry Thoreau Harvard
J.D. Salinger New York University (did not finish)
George Orwell Wellington College
Dan Brown Amherst College
Bret Easton Ellis Bennington College
Margaret Mitchell Smith (did not finish)
William Golding Oxford
Norman Maclean Dartmouth
Jack Kerouac Columbia</p>
<p>Hamilton College requires its students to take a number of writing intensive courses (these are in most of the disciplines, not just English). They also have a first-rate Writing Center where students can receive help with everything from short papers and lab reports to their senior thesis. My daughter worked as a writing tutor for 3 years and not only did she help students improve their writing abilities but she also became an excellent writing coach and editor.</p>
<p>Dan Brown - Amherst College
Albert Camus - University of Algiers
Daniel Quinn - Saint Louis University
William Burroughs - Harvard
JM Coetzee - University of Cape Town
Henry Miller - CCNY (dropped out)
Arthur Miller - University of Michigan
Joseph Heller - Columbia</p>
<p>I dont think we should consider drew00’s opinion because marite told me he lost both his testicles in Vietnam which would definitely skew his opinion.</p>
<p>Kurt Vonnegut, E.B. White, Toni Morrison all attended Cornell. I think Vonnegut dropped out, White finished, and Morrison got her master’s there.</p>
<p>Salinger took writing workships at Columbia with a particular writer, Whit Burnett, what he’s called his most important college experience (with regard to his writing). He did attend a military academy, and wikipedia says he attended NYU and Ursinus (both for less than a semester before dropping out), wlthough i’ve never read of him attending Ursinus in any biographical information I’ve read until today, and his attending NYU is also rarely emphasized in any way. The military academy and Columbia writing course (sort of like an extension course as far as I can tell) were far more significant to his life.</p>
<p>Duke: William Styron, Anne Tyler, Reynolds Price</p>
<p>I think Ben Kunkel got a lot of press because of his literary journal, n+1, not Harvard. n+1 is highly opinionated so there was a lot of interest in what type of novel one of its own editors would write. That being said, Harvard can definitely help you. I know of another writer, recently graduated from H, whose novel got published because his thesis advisor was Jamaica Kincaid. (Can’t think of his name.) And JS Foer had Joyce Carol Oates at Princeton to help him get an agent, attention, etc.</p>
<p>Joan Didion went to Cal. (By the way - I don’t believe Kerouac finished at Columbia. Several of the Beats went there, including Alan Ginsberg, who was expelled.)</p>
<p>Kurt Vonnegut did go to Cornell - he was night editor of the Cornell Sun on December 7, 1941. He had written a series of editorials arguing against going to war, then left to join to the army. His experiences there were much more important to his development as a writer, I imagine, than his senior year of college would have been.</p>
<p>Iowa has a famous creative writing program; I believe it’s a master’s level program. Stanford has one as well; Larry McMurty, Scott Turrow, and Ken Kesey are all alumni.</p>
<p>You could also compile a good list of writers who spent little or no time in college. Going to college may increase the odds that you’ll learn some of the skills necessary to write well. But a person with the talent and dedication to become a writer can learn those skills just about anywhere.</p>
<p>I thought Vonnegut also spent some time studying in UChicago. hmm…</p>
<p>Moral of the story, it’s your own ability that puts you to the top as a writer, and going to a school that has a comprehensive program is helpful.</p>