<p>Though he died before the Ivy League was even formed.</p>
<p>@Billy</p>
<p>Oh…</p>
<p>I’m fairly certain that there are more successful people that * didn’t * go to “Ivy Leagues”</p>
<p>
I actually have no idea if that’s what TCBH meant; it was just as likely a ■■■■■/joke. But I’m sure he didn’t mean it. I mean really, it’s quite ridiculous to think that writers have to go to one of 8 colleges.</p>
<p>Well obviously Cornell should be excluded too.</p>
<p>You guys never read The Great Gatsby, did you?</p>
<p>Considering the greatest American novelist went to the University of Mississippi, I’d say no.</p>
<p>I’m actually quite curious to know why you’re considering a minor/double major in CS (I’m a CS kid who loves writing, so it’s always a nice surprise to see another one out there).</p>
<p>To address your initial post: nope, your college isn’t going to matter as a writer. Are you good? Are you dedicated? Can you force yourself to write? Can you force yourself to improve? It’s a highly meritocratic discipline, I feel. Besides, there are really wonderful (and I mean top-in-the-nation-beating-out-the-Ivies) creative writing programs elsewhere. The University of Iowa is always top in rankings (yes, I know these are 50% BS, but people put a lot of stock in them) and it’s a school most kids on CC (and maybe many kids at your college) would scoff at. Just write (well), and learn how to market yourself.</p>
<p>For CS…the coolest companies doing the most interesting things will by and large be recruiting from the top schools like Stanford/MIT/Berkeley/CMU (some of the Ivies have great CS programs, but they don’t have a monopoly on the undergraduate field). Someone mentioned above that CS isn’t the only way to make money, which makes me want to ask:</p>
<p>Why CS? Because if you’re doing it because it looks like a practical field to make money in while you launch your writing career, CS is tough. And you should really be interested in the field if you’re planning on doing it.</p>
<p>To address your later posts about prestige & insecurity…I get that quite a bit too. There’s a difference between telling you this and having you internalize it, but: once you separate the idea of an Ivy League acceptance as qualifying one’s intelligence, you’ll be a lot better off. Realize that colleges make their decisions on comparatively little data about an applicant. Grades don’t necessarily mean intelligence. (Warning: the following sentence is going to sound quite egotistical.) I consider myself a truly good writer. I get A’s. If you’re a average (technically solid but unexceptional and not truly enthusiastic) writer, you can still get A’s. On paper, if you take writing talent to be what grades we get in English class, we are precisely the same. That’s such a 2D view of looking at things. The truth is I have probably written, collectively, over 400,000 words of creative writing over the course of my high school years. On my free time. The other kid isn’t that enthusiastic about writing (maybe his or her passion is in doing Science Olympiad stuff instead). </p>
<p>Grades don’t necessarily mean intelligence, one’s college doesn’t necessarily signify intelligence. Just that in high school you were the kind of kid that, on paper, the adcoms thought fit into the intellectual and social fabric of the school and would contribute. That’s it.</p>
<p>There are great writers and mediocre writers in the Ivy League, just like anywhere else. And maybe you can argue the Ivy League will have a greater preponderance of intellectuals and great writers (I’d say this is quite possibly true), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t elsewhere, plugging away and outside the strictures and confines of “prestige”.</p>
<p>Re#25: ???</p>
<p>[Creative</a> Writing Program honored](<a href=“Home | Cornell Chronicle”>Home | Cornell Chronicle)
[Cornell</a> Writers | Entire List](<a href=“http://www.writers.cornell.edu/entirelist/]Cornell”>http://www.writers.cornell.edu/entirelist/)
<a href=“http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Admissions/index.htm[/url]”>Undergraduate Admissions | Department of Computer Science;
<p>In general: maybe this will help:
[AWP-</a> Director’s Handbook](<a href=“AWP: Page Not Found”>AWP: Page Not Found)</p>
<p>Don’t mind him, he was joking.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>character limit</p>