Oxford vs UEA

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writergirl

is UEA your insurance??

Yeah the UEA offer is AAB. So if i mess up my A-levels i will end up there quite happily. If i get AAA though then I dont know what i will do. Probably go to Oxford to be honest. All my family and friends were so pleased when i got an offer and it was so much hassle to get it that I think (even though the UEA course is immense) it would be really hard to reject.

Reply 21

blue_shift86

soffeee

ok it probably sounds obvious from the title but its the UEA creative writing course vs english at oxford.

I reallly want to be a writer and the UEA course is immense and prestigious and apparently very hard to get onto... (im not blowing my own trumpet just showing that it is a really good offer). I feel like if i go to UEA my chances of getting published will be waay higher and the course is just amazing. But then again... who has the right to turn down oxford??

:confused:

well depends if you fancy wasting a year of your life! I went to oxford and dropped out after a year....I regret going there now since it meant losing 2 years of being at a place where i could have been happier. Oxford also led to mental issues....and THAT isn't worth it...

if you like oxford course and area, go for it, but remember this....your hapinness is more important than university prestige :smile:

best of luck with it all! blue_shift

Reply 22

Rite

my sister wants to pursue a career in film (directing), however she's doing a degree in aeronautical engineering. Why? It's because very few people manage to live off the arts, and often a university degree is anyway unnecessary for people wishing to pursue those types of careers (a strong portfolio being the key). The idea is that getting a degree that is conducive to finding employment, is needed as a back-up plan, in case you find that you CAN'T live off the arts (in your case, creative writing), so that you have something to pay for you while you try to develop your skills to the point where you CAN live off them. That's the only reason I'd suggest the Oxford degree.

Reply 23

Toiletpaper8

I thought it might have been creative writing at UEA before I looked at the thread. Apparently it's a very good course and my friend is deciding between there and English at Cambridge at the moment.

Reply 24

Kitsch

Don't pick Oxford if you're not totally devoted to your subject - it'll be hell. I didn't particularly enjoy my subject for the first couple of years, and still don't like part of it (but have more options that I like now) and it is so hard to find the motivation.

It sounds like you'd rather do the creative writing course, so go for it :smile:

Reply 25

tigrrmilk

i made a similar choice. i want to be a writer and i got an offer from oxford, was going to get one at warwick for english & creative writing, and already had one from goldsmiths. i went for oxford, and withdrew from warwick.

why? i figured that there's enough creative writing stuff at oxford, especially my college - what college is your offer from? also, i thought that before university i hadn't read much of the canon, and didn't have enough of a grasp of what had already been done. oxford forces you to go through every period and do most canonical writers. you also get to discover more obscure writers to write about though, it's not just the canon, but it's useful, although not massively fun all of the time. i don't find much time to write in term, or not as much as i'd like, but i've written some poems here and more in the vacation, and i workshop them and show them to friends and it's fairly good for creative writing anyway.

i've heard mixed things about creative writing degrees - personally i think reading is probably more useful than workshopping in improving writing at this stage, anyway. the courses are very good for building up contacts in the publishing industry, but perhaps not as good for actually writing as you might hope. most of the people that you hear of as having famously graduated form creative writing programs actually did an MA. currently i'm considering applying for one after doing my first degree at oxford.

but at the end of it, go for what you want to go for. sometimes i really regret not going for english & creative writing at warwick, because the course was just awesome. i don't know much about uea, since i didn't apply to anywhere in east anglia (needed to escape), but if the course is good and it's what you really want then just go for it.

Reply 26

soffeee

For all the people who have said things like:

Kitsch

Don't pick Oxford if you're not totally devoted to your subject

I should say that i absolutely love English and would be really happy doing a straight English degree. I applied for English Lit at all my other unis and the UEA course is still 2/3 English Literature 1/3 Creative Writing so that isn't really the issue. I know i would enjoy Oxford its just that UEA presents amazing opportunities to develop my writing.. Its like this conflict of my two major ambitions... to go into Oxford (hooray!) and to become a writer (more likely with UEA's help?) Who knows??? :s-smilie: