Seth Said:

What are the best colleges to go to for a Creative Writing degree?

We Answered:

It's surprisingly hard to find universities with Creative Writing as a major at all. University of Iowa I've heard is really good, but if you have strong credentials or are a really academically oriented or otherwise gifted person, you should really apply to Columbia University (or look into it). They have a great creative writing program and are one of the few schools to even offer it.

However, if you're not really the "nerdy" kind, a lot of the small liberal arts colleges have great writing programs that have amazing results because professors can focus all that much more attention on your work and helping you polish it off than professors at a larger university do. LACs aren't for everyone, but I think usually creative writers have a better time there. A lot of them don't have creative writing specifically as a major, but they'll either offer it as a minor, or just offer English, but you'll find that if you really love to write, and are good at it, an English major track will work just as well.

Good luck with your choice! But really, look into other stuff before making your decisions (I hope you're a junior in high school, because applications have ended for this year, for the most part), because major isn't everything! :)

Sally Said:

PUBLISHED WRITERS ONLY PLEASE - I want to write novels should i do a creative writing degree or is it a waste?

We Answered:

I have many, many, qualifications, including PhD's, M.A., M.S.c's, etc, etc,
have written many articles for various magazines, training establishments, and co-authored on books, and written my own !

Believe me, when i say, it` really doesn`t matter how many qualifications you have, if you are of an acedemic nature, just go for it !

Qualifications do not make you a better person.!

If you have the natural ability and flair, then use it.!

(did the likes of shakespeare and such have degrees .?)

Paula Said:

I really want to work for Ernst & Young but i am going to be graduating from a Creative Writing degree?

We Answered:

Consider investing in a career coach. As well, if your school has a Career Center use them for contacts and direction.

A couple of observations:
- Companies such as Ernst & Young like people who have done some research on what they do.

- Your grammar and writing skills that you are putting out to the public would hold you back in business. Spell check everything and double check punctuation and grammar. It is a reflection of your detail skills, and can be viewed by recruiters and managers as a guage to your overall intelligence.

Robert Said:

Which degree would be better to be a book critic? A journalism degree or a creative writing degree?

We Answered:

Neither journalism nor creative writing.

If you want to be a book critic, try English literature. I majored in English lit for my undergrad and I had to analyze soooo many texts that I practically became an amateur literary critic in college. You will learn to scrutinize texts like novels, biographies, plays, poems, or essays, and you are expected to write reports and essays on what you think of them. You will compare authors and their writing styles. Once you graduate, you will know how to criticize and edit books, and you can work as an editor. A career as a book critic is generally attainable if you work for a magazine/newspaper that has a book review section and you write for such column.

In creative writing, you will mostly learn HOW to write the genre of your choice (fiction, poetry, movie scripts, TV shows, creative nonfiction), but not too much emphasis on how to criticize those works. The likely result is a training to be an author.

When I took a journalism course with an internationally-recognized journalist, the main point is very much like a creative writing program, but only for writing newsworthy nonfiction articles. Again, the likely outcome is to produce a reporter/journalist.