English Lit and Creative Writing - Lancaster or UEA

[FrogPrincess]

Hi, I haven't been on Mumsnet for years but now dd is in Year 13 and trying to pick her first choice for uni! She wants to do English Lit and Creative Writing, with as much Creative Writing as possible. We visited UEA and loved it, concrete campus and all, and it has been her favourite uni for a while.
We went to Lancaster recently and she loved the tutors there, the friendly students we spoke to, the course, and the fact she could do 50% english lit and 50% creative writing from year 1, which UEA and most courses don't offer (usually 75% english lit and 25% creative writing). She found the tutors more approachable and also more realistic and down to earth as to what she needs to do if she ever wants to be published. I was a bit concerned about the fact we live in Bristol and she is used to city life, but she has been clear from the start she wants to go somewhere smaller to have a different experience.
Anyone with experience of this type of degree, and/or these Unis able to shed more light on their strengths and weaknesses? Everyone always talks about UEA's great reputation for creative writing (and yes the MA has loads of published authors, but she would be doing a BA for now, and we are wondering whether UEA is far more focused on its MA students to the detriment of its BA students??), but how is Lancaster viewed?
Thanks in advance, this has been a fascinating process so far but it's also confusing!

Lancaster is my home town, and I've also taught at the university (in humanities, but not in English). It is a gorgeous little city, and set in a beautiful part of the world. The Arts Faculty is excellent, and the place has a very creative feel overall -- the Lancaster arts at the university are excellent - really cutting edge theatre & dance performance and training.

But I'm one of those who'd counsel getting a specialism in a standard academic subject - a body of knowledge which can feed the writing for the rest of her life: reading Eng Lit or History would be my strong suggestions.

I agree with those advising a large serving of subject knowledge. My main stream of income comes from writing fiction. I read English literature. Most of my published friends did English, law or history. If I had my time again I'd have gone for history, too.

I honed my writing with corporate writing jobs for years. Then joined online critique groups and also read stacks of books on writing novels to learn the nuts and bolts. And have always been a voracious reader of all kinds of fiction.

Good luck!

Thought this blog might be of interest to your DD - I know it is from a History student but it is really about what being a student at UEA is like, iyswim

https://lifeofahistorystudentblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/my-first-term-at-uea

that's lovely RTKangaMummy, thank you. And thank you to everyone else, she still wants to do creative writing with english lit, but at least she is more prepared to consider the 75%/25% courses now rather than just 50/50, so I guess that's something! We will have to see what offers she gets :)
I will probably come back again once that happens!

DrinkMilkAndKickAss , we did go and look at kent and DD sent her UCAS form on Monday afternoon and got an unconditional offer from Kent telling her to apply for an academic excellence scholarship :) So thank you for your reply earlier on the thread, it really made a difference!
She has also been called for interview at Falmouth and is now waiting to hear from UEA, Lancaster and Bath. Stressful times...

Wouldn't bother with Falmouth - terrible things happening there in the Creative Arts:

Letter from creative arts Fellow to Falmouth management

And from what I hear, he's not the only one. The redundancies & going back on promises to other staff in the creative arts at Falmouth have been going on for about 5 or 6 years. Deeply unhappy place, to hear from staff & students there.

Thanks AddictedToLove, we will keep an eye on this, seemed like a really nice place when we visited in the spring :/