There are some majors that you can pretty well count on at nearly any college: Biology, Math, English, History, and a smattering of foreign languages, to name a few. But there are other subjects that you can’t necessarily expect to have as options, and we aren’t talking about Underwater Basket Weaving. Creative Writing is one of those majors that students expect to see as an option in college, but that is actually a rare one. Film, too, is one of those subjects that you need to make sure is an option at your prospective colleges if you are even considering pursuing it. Not having access to your preferred major is one of the top reasons for transferring, and that could generally have been avoided with proper research and planning during the application process.
Creative Writing and Film go hand-in-hand. Many film programs have creative writing angles, and many creative writing programs have screenwriting opportunities. But schools with both aren’t all the same, and they approach the two subjects in many different ways. Here, we’ve compiled seven top colleges and universities that offer majors or concentrations in both film and creative writing — not just an undergraduate minor in Creative Writing, like New York University, or a Creative Writing Center with courses spread across departments like Amherst.
If you’re interested in studying the arts, but aren’t quite sure what’s right for you, send us an email. We help students find their perfect fit.
Northwestern University — Evanston, IL
Northwestern offered one of the first creative writing majors in the country, and their deep history in the field has resulted in a close-knit community of writers. Professors are successful writers outside of the classroom, inspiring and encouraging students to put their skills to work before walking across the graduation stage. This focus on writing as a profession is shown in the Radio/Television/Film Major, which puts a heavy focus on writing while being rooted in cultural theory and critical studies.
Brown University — Providence, RI
Brown offers a Modern Culture and Media Program that gives students the opportunity to focus on concept, practice, or both. It’s an interdisciplinary concentration (Brown’s term for a major), and pulls from many different fields and focuses, making it a perfect complement to the Concentration of Literary Arts. True to the tradition of creative writing programs, the Concentration of Literary Arts requires a mix of writing and reading intensives that are designed to develop strong storytellers.
Columbia University — New York, NY
The Creative Writing major at Columbia is one of the most respective writing programs in the country. This program has a heavy focus on practice over theory, with many students starting to publish while in the program. If you’re looking for a creative writing major that won’t require you to study grammar, this is a great option — although you do need to have a firm grasp of grammar to get into Columbia in the first place. The Film and Media Studies major at Columbia is an interesting mirror to this, as they prominently emphasize it as a scholarly, writing-intensive program. Students can put their theory into practice through the Columbia Undergraduate Film Productions (CUFP) program.
University of Iowa — Iowa City, Iowa
The University of Iowa is internationally recognized for having the most prominent creative writing MFA program in the world, but how does their BA offering square up? Pretty well. The English and Creative Writing major at Iowa focuses on a deep study of literature parallel to practice, and is known for directing students into the MFA pipeline. For students interested in applying their writing skills to film, Iowa offers two BA options: one in Cinema, and another in Screenwriting Arts. Both involve a critical study of film and cinema, and the first goal of the Cinema program is to study film as an art form with practice secondary. Similar to the format of the Creative Writing major, Iowa puts conceptual knowledge first and foremost in the undergraduate programs.
Oberlin College — Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin pitches their Cinema Studies program as a liberal arts version of film school, where students work on “professional quality” films in a literal film studio. The Creative Writing program operates from a similar professionally-oriented perspective. The program is more inclusive of different subjects and styles than most Creative Writing programs, going outside of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry to include drama, translation, and screenwriting. All of this is housed in a “imaginative workshop culture,” that leads to long-form independent projects.
Hamilton College — Clinton, NY
Hamilton offers students two options in the creative writing sphere: a major in Creative Writing, or writing-heavy major in Literature. The requirements for each pull on the other, and there are many shared courses, such as American Ghosts. The film program “explores motion picture as an art form,” and students spend more time on theory than practice.
Sarah Lawrence — Bronxville, NY
Sarah Lawrence prides itself on being a “creative incubator to ignite the imagination of the next generation of media makers,” and the Filmmaking and Moving Image Arts (FMIA) program is the hub for this initiative. The creative writing program boasts an enormous undergraduate writing faculty with dynamic professional backgrounds and expertise. Focused on the traditional triad of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, they prioritize close mentoring from instructors.
If putting your college list together feels overwhelming, send us an email. We help students like you find their perfect fit.