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2025 Best Creative Writing Schools
College Factual reviewed 129 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of creative writing. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 7,164 degrees in creative writing annually.
What's on this page: * Degree-Level Rankings
- Best Overall Creative Writing Schools List
Choosing a Great Creative Writing School
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Creative Writing Rankings by Degree Level
The creative writing school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings , including this list of the Best Creative Writing Schools. More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state .
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Read more about College Factual's methodology .
Best Schools for Creative Writing in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of creative writing degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
25 Top Schools in Creative Writing
Every student who is interested in creative writing has to take a look at University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus. Pitt is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Pittsburgh. This university ranks 6th out of 103 colleges for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were about 119 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Pitt in the most recent data year.
Any student pursuing a degree in creative writing has to check out Johns Hopkins University. Located in the city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #6 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Johns Hopkins is a great university overall.
There were roughly 80 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Johns Hopkins in the most recent data year.
Develop your creativity and gain practical skills with a creative writing degree program –featuring 100% online classes – through a bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
Related Programs
- MFA in Creative Writing - Online
- MA in English & Creative Writing
- BA English in Professional Writing
- Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction
Northwestern University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in creative writing. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were about 11 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent data year.
Columbia University in the City of New York is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in creative writing. Columbia is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York. A Best Colleges rank of #15 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Columbia is a great university overall.
There were about 174 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent year we have data available.
UW Seattle is a very large public university located in the large city of Seattle. A Best Colleges rank of #44 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UW Seattle is a great university overall.
There were approximately 50 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at UW Seattle in the most recent year we have data available.
UT Austin is a fairly large public university located in the city of Austin. A Best Colleges rank of #46 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UT Austin is a great university overall.
There were approximately 100 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at UT Austin in the most recent data year.
Located in the large city of Boston, Boston U is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #23 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Boston U is a great university overall.
There were approximately 17 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Boston U in the most recent year we have data available.
Embrace your passion for storytelling and learn the professional writing skills you'll need to succeed with our online MFA in Creative Writing. Write your novel or short story collection while earning a certificate in the Online Teaching of Writing or Professional Writing, with no residency requirement.
Located in the suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 4th out of 57 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 47 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the town of Oxford, Miami University - Oxford is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 5th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were approximately 46 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Miami University - Oxford in the most recent data year.
Brown is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Providence. A Best Colleges rank of #26 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Brown is a great university overall.
There were about 48 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Brown in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the fringe town of Bowling Green, BGSU is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 18th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 26 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at BGSU in the most recent data year.
Refine your writing skills and take a step toward furthering your career with this online master's from Southern New Hampshire University.
University of Arizona is a very large public university located in the city of Tucson. This university ranks 3rd out of 26 colleges for overall quality in the state of Arizona.
There were about 73 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at University of Arizona in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #22 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were roughly 48 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the medium-sized city of Syracuse, Syracuse is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #62 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Syracuse is a great university overall.
There were approximately 12 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent year we have data available.
Emerson is a medium-sized private not-for-profit college located in the city of Boston. This college ranks 16th out of 63 schools for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were about 185 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Emerson in the most recent year we have data available.
Expand your professional skillset with this specialized online degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #65 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Purdue is a great university overall.
There were about 30 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 12th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 16 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at UC Irvine in the most recent data year.
Bucknell is a small private not-for-profit university located in the town of Lewisburg. This university ranks 11th out of 103 colleges for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were about 25 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Bucknell in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were about 37 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent data year.
Harness your passion for storytelling with SNHU's Mountainview Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction. In this small, two-year creative writing program, students work one-on-one with our distinguished faculty remotely for most of the semester but convene for weeklong intensive residencies in June and January. At residencies, students critique each other's work face-to-face, meet with major authors, agents and editors and learn how to teach at the college level.
SMU is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Dallas. This university ranks 5th out of 115 colleges for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were approximately 11 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at SMU in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Philadelphia, St. Joe's is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 9th out of 103 schools for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were roughly 10 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at St. Joe's in the most recent data year.
Texas State is a fairly large public university located in the small city of San Marcos. This university ranks 16th out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were approximately 20 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Texas State in the most recent data year.
Located in the small city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 1st out of 37 colleges for overall quality in the state of Iowa.
There were roughly 53 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Iowa in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #25 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means GWU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 11 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at GWU in the most recent data year.
University of Rochester is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Rochester. This university ranks 8th out of 136 colleges for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were about 13 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at University of Rochester in the most recent data year.
Rest of the Top Best Creative Writing Schools
Honorable mentions.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Creative Writing Schools award.
Creative Writing by Region
View the Best Creative Writing Schools for a specific region near you.
Other Rankings
Associate degrees in creative writing, master's degrees in creative writing, bachelor's degrees in creative writing, doctor's degrees in creative writing.
View All Rankings >
Rankings in Majors Related to Creative Writing
One of 4 majors within the Writing Studies area of study, Creative Writing has other similar majors worth exploring.
Majors Similar to Creative Writing
View All Creative Writing Related Majors >
Notes and References
- The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
- The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System ( IPEDS ) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
- Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s ( College Scorecard ).
- Credit for the banner image above goes to KOKUYO .
More about our data sources and methodologies .
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