Writing Division

Filled with GS students and hipster undergrads galore, the Creative Writing Department is housed on the sixth floor of Kent. As of 2013, the department head is the illustrious Stacey D'Erasmo.

The major is small, with only nine classes in the department (five workshops and four seminars) and three unrelated ones meant to stimulate your writing. Students have to apply for the major, specializing in either poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. You can apply for more than one, but will generally only be accepted to one track.

Students also have to apply for entrance into workshops above the Beginning level, turning in a certain amount of pages of writing and a form listing previous courses taken and grades received. These are generally due about three weeks before the start of the semester. Courses are posted notoriously late and subject to change. Students are often subject to "late registration" fees, having to wait to hear if they made it into a class before registering for it. Classes in the department are tiny, with caps at 20 for seminars and 15 for workshops. While this is helpful for students in the class, it's not helpful for your chances of getting into one.

The teaching staff is fantastic, with notables including Cris Beam, Margo Jefferson, and Amy Benson.

The office up in Kent is run by Dorla McIntosh, who sends amusing emails. For example, during Hurricane Sandy, she detailed her travels:

I've known rivers:

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

(I simply don't appreciate my river flowing into my subway station is all.)

10 minute walk to the post office: $0 Commuter van to Port Authority: $3 Cab to Columbia University: $20

Not having to wait for the elevator in Kent: $ priceless!

The office is sometimes frequented by a dog, George Eliot, a brown shepherd-mutt.