Sippy Cup writes the following...
I saw that someone mentioned the undergraduate creative writing program at Beloit College, and I just wanted to second that. I am a graduating senior at Beloit, and I came out here to Wisconsin all the way from Massachusetts for the writing program. You sound like me- I won four national writing awards in high school, and I have known all along that I wanted to attend an MFA. I am actually applying for MFA programs right now!
Creative writing is the largest major at Beloit, and the faculty is amazing. Since I have been a student, both Billy Collins and Bei Dao have taught writing workshops as visiting writers. There have been a number of well-known writers who have visited campus to do readings, and some students are chosen by professors to meet them, go out to dinner with them, etc.
The workshop setting at Beloit is wonderful. Almost all of the students in the program are very talented. Their work is polished, they give great feedback, and they are very serious about what they are doing.
I also have to point out that although it is a private liberal arts college, the financial aid is phenominal. I come from a fairly poor family, and I was able to attend Beloit without many student loans at all.
Good luck! I definitely dont see anything wrong with seeking a college with a good writing program, if you are sure that is what you want to do. It worked wonderfully for me.
4 comments:
I've never been a student at Beloit College, but I live near by and have heard many good things coming from the students there. I know when/if I decide to go for my Master's degree I will undoubtably go to Beloit College...though it will be an interesting path if I do.
Another wonderful undergraduate writing program is at the University of Maine at Farmington. The program has about sixty BFA majors, a great diversity of offered workshops, and I cannot praise the faculty enough. Alice James Books is located on campus, and internships are available to all BFA majors. Plus, it's cheap (especially for Maine residents, like me).
I am currently a Beloit undergrad in the Creative Writing program, and it seems to me that the program is only going to get better as more and more people come here for it. A new poetry professor was just given tenure, and her work and classes are unique and appropriately rigorous. I know students who create their own workshops as well, outside classes.
I went to the University of California, San Diego. They have a very small, tight-knit undergraduate program with faculty such as Rae Armantrout for poetry and Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum for fiction (who mentored me). Eileen Myles resigned this year for poetry but I think they may have some new candidates coming onboard.
It's my dream to teach there as well when I'm done with the MFA program.
UCSD is also opening an MFA program in 2009/2010 once all the paperwork and funding are processed.
They've also had visiting speakers like Alice Notley.
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