What do you good folk think? I would gather that to pursue creative writing as a college major is much of an absurdity, unless you seek live your days an English educator. This was confirmed by a story I've read on the web about a creative writing major with debts employed at Pizza Hut. It seems that if you want to be a writer, just be a writer on your own time and attend university to attain a practical skill to acquire money before you hopefully get your work published or produced.
Hmmm, that's a tough question. In the end, it all comes down to what you want to do. For years, I was dead set on majoring in English or creative writing. However, recently, I realized that if I majored in English and writing didn't work out for me (or took some time to work out), I would have nothing to fall back on with just a degree in creative writing. And I definitely don't want to be an English teacher. My first quarter, I decided that I would major in psychology or neuroscience, and that I would just write on the side. Personally, that seems more practical, because I'll be working in a field that I'm interested in, and I'll always have that if writing doesn't pan out. I guess it's that old "don't put all of your eggs in one basket" saying. Cliche, but true. Once again, it all comes down to you. No one else can tell you how to lead your life, and only you know what you really want. Remember that most people don't know exactly what they want to major in when they first start college, and most people change their majors at some time during the course of their education. There's time to test out a variety of things in your education. Explore other fields that might interest you. After all, you can always write-- regardless of your major.
You seem to have answered your question. You might be better off with a degree useful for--but not directly related to--writing.
Can you even get a degree in Creative Writing? Even an English educator would primarily concentrate his or her studies in Education rather than Creative Writing. This is true of just about every writing-related career I can think of - the Creative Writing aspect may be important, but the other aspects of the career would be far more crucial. The only exception is becoming a novelist or freelance writer, and you don't need an expensive(!) degree to do either of these. N.B.: I live in the United States, and a college degree (University to those in England and elsewhere) is staggeringly expensive. Which is a big part of why I only completed mine this year at age 55. I only did so even now because of changes in the job market, and because I will need to move forward and get a Masters in Education to pursue my retirement goal of teaching college Math and Science.
I majored in physics and ended up selling insurance for 31 years. Accomplishment of a degree is more important than the actual major unless you are planning to go into a highly refined work situation like being an architect, scientist or other field requiring specialized knowledge. For most management jobs, the degree demonstrates your ability to stay on task, to manage both your time and multiple subjects simultaneously. That's why major companies reserve their starting management positions for college graduates. As far as your choices after graduating, you need only be creative. IBM needs writers who can take technical writing by "techno-geniuses" and turn it into manuals that an average office worker can understand. Microsoft doesn't seem to know it yet, but they desperately need talented writers to repair the outrageous crap-design of Vista and Microsoft Word's new format. Those new programs are NOT user friendly! Traditional publishers need good copy editors. Copywriters make great money. The list of possibilities is long as your degree will open doors for you. Now, if you are saying you want to use your degree in the creative sense of its college focus, then I hope you like teaching incoming freshmen! LOL
