creative writing schools california

Best Creative Writing colleges in California 2024

Best creative writing colleges in california for 2024.

University of Southern California offers 2 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a very large, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 37 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 37 Bachelor's degrees.

University of California-Davis offers 1 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a small suburb. In 2022, 12 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 12 Master's degrees.

University of California-Riverside offers 2 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 94 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 49 Bachelor's degrees, and 45 Master's degrees.

University of California-Irvine offers 1 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 16 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 16 Master's degrees.

California State University-Long Beach offers 1 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 10 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 10 Master's degrees.

Saint Mary's College of California offers 1 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a small, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a large suburb. In 2022, 23 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 23 Master's degrees.

San Diego State University offers 2 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 17 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 17 Master's degrees.

University of San Francisco offers 1 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a medium sized, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 26 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 26 Master's degrees.

San Francisco State University offers 2 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 26 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 25 Master's degrees, and 1 Certificate.

Chapman University offers 2 Creative Writing degree programs. It's a large, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a midsize city. In 2022, 46 Creative Writing students graduated with students earning 34 Bachelor's degrees, and 12 Master's degrees.

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2025 Best Creative Writing Schools in California

College Factual reviewed 12 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of creative writing. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 507 degrees in creative writing annually.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

• Best Overall Creative Writing Schools List

Choosing a Great Creative Writing School

You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.

Pick Your Creative Writing Degree Level

The creative writing school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings , including this list of the Best Creative Writing Schools in California. If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location .

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat . Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

If you want to learn more about how we derive our rankings, see College Factual's Methodology .

Best Schools for Creative Writing in California

Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the creative writing degree levels they offer.

10 Top California Schools in Creative Writing

Every student pursuing a degree in creative writing needs to check out University of California - Irvine. UC Irvine is a very large public university located in the city of Irvine. A Best Colleges rank of #73 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UC Irvine is a great university overall.

There were about 16 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at UC Irvine in the most recent data year.

Every student pursuing a degree in creative writing has to take a look at University of Southern California. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means USC is a great university overall.

There were roughly 37 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available.

Develop your creativity and gain practical skills with a creative writing degree program –featuring 100% online classes – through a bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.

Related Programs

• MFA in Creative Writing - Online
• MA in English & Creative Writing
• BA English in Professional Writing
• Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction

Every student pursuing a degree in creative writing needs to look into University of California - Davis. Located in the small suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #55 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UC Davis is a great university overall.

There were about 12 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent data year.

San Diego State University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in creative writing. SDSU is a fairly large public university located in the large city of San Diego. This university ranks 25th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.

There were roughly 17 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at SDSU in the most recent year we have data available.

SFSU is a fairly large public university located in the city of San Francisco. This university ranks 30th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.

There were roughly 26 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at SFSU in the most recent data year.

Located in the large city of Riverside, UCR is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 28th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.

There were approximately 94 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at UCR in the most recent data year.

USFCA is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of San Francisco. A Best Colleges rank of #152 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means USFCA is a great university overall.

There were approximately 26 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at USFCA in the most recent data year.

Embrace your passion for storytelling and learn the professional writing skills you'll need to succeed with our online MFA in Creative Writing. Write your novel or short story collection while earning a certificate in the Online Teaching of Writing or Professional Writing, with no residency requirement.

Fresno State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Fresno. This university ranks 81st out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.

There were about 15 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Fresno State in the most recent data year.

Chapman is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Orange. A Best Colleges rank of #172 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Chapman is a great university overall.

There were approximately 46 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at Chapman in the most recent data year.

SMC is a small private not-for-profit college located in the suburb of Moraga. A Best Colleges rank of #148 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means SMC is a great college overall.

There were approximately 23 creative writing students who graduated with this degree at SMC in the most recent year we have data available.

Best Creative Writing Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Creative Writing Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

Other Rankings

Bachelor's degrees in creative writing, master's degrees in creative writing.

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Creative Writing Related Rankings by Major

Creative Writing is one of 4 different types of Writing Studies programs to choose from.

Most Popular Majors Related to Creative Writing

View All Creative Writing Related Majors >

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System ( IPEDS ) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s ( College Scorecard ).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to KOKUYO .

More about our data sources and methodologies .

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41 Best colleges for Creative Writing in California, US

Updated: February 29, 2024

• Art & Design
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Environmental Science
• Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
• Mathematics

Below is a list of best universities in California ranked based on their research performance in Creative Writing. A graph of 196K citations received by 12.4K academic papers made by 41 universities in California was used to calculate publications' ratings, which then were adjusted for release dates and added to final scores.

We don't distinguish between undergraduate and graduate programs nor do we adjust for current majors offered. You can find information about granted degrees on a university page but always double-check with the university website.

Please note that our approach to subject rankings is based on scientific outputs and heavily biased on art-related topics towards institutions with computer science research profiles.

1. Stanford University

For Creative Writing

2. University of California - Berkeley

3. University of Southern California

4. University of California - Los Angeles

5. University of California - Santa Barbara

6. University of California - Irvine

7. University of California - Santa Cruz

8. University of California-San Diego

9. University of California - Davis

10. University of California - San Francisco

11. San Jose State University

12. San Diego State University

13. California State University - Fullerton

14. University of California - Riverside

15. California State University - Long Beach

16. San Francisco State University

17. Loyola Marymount University

18. Santa Clara University

19. University of San Francisco

20. Fielding Graduate University

21. California State University - Northridge

22. California State University - Los Angeles

23. California State University - Sacramento

24. Chapman University

25. California State University - San Bernardino

26. Claremont Graduate University

27. California Institute of Technology

28. Sonoma State University

29. Fuller Theological Seminary

30. university of san diego.

31. Mills College

32. California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

33. California State University - Fresno

34. Pepperdine University

35. Pomona College

36. Occidental College

37. Dominican University of California

38. California State University - Chico

39. California State University - San Marcos

40. California State Polytechnic University - Pomona

41. Azusa Pacific University

Closest to California states to learn Creative Writing

Art & design subfields in california.

Creative Writing Graduate Programs in California

1-20 of 20 results

Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

• Los Angeles, CA ·
• University of Southern California ·
• Graduate School
• · Rating 3 out of 5   2 reviews

University of Southern California, Graduate School, LOS ANGELES, CA. 2 Niche users give it an average review of 3 stars. Read 2 reviews.

UC Irvine School of Humanities

• Irvine, CA ·
• University of California - Irvine ·

University of California - Irvine, Graduate School, IRVINE, CA.

Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts

• Loyola Marymount University ·

Blue checkmark. Loyola Marymount University, Graduate School, LOS ANGELES, CA.

San Francisco State University

• Graduate School ·
• SAN FRANCISCO, CA
• · Rating 4.27 out of 5   60

Graduate College of Education - San Francisco State University

• San Francisco State University ·

Drew University

• MADISON, NJ
• · Rating 4.27 out of 5   26

Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

• Orange, CA ·
• Chapman University ·

Blue checkmark. Chapman University, Graduate School, ORANGE, CA.

University of San Francisco College of Arts and Sciences

• San Francisco, CA ·
• University of San Francisco ·

Blue checkmark. University of San Francisco, Graduate School, SAN FRANCISCO, CA.

College of Liberal Arts - California State University - Long Beach

• Long Beach, CA ·
• California State University - Long Beach ·

California State University - Long Beach, Graduate School, LONG BEACH, CA.

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College of Arts and Letters - San Diego State University

• San Diego, CA ·
• San Diego State University ·
• · Rating 5 out of 5   2 reviews

San Diego State University, Graduate School, SAN DIEGO, CA. 2 Niche users give it an average review of 5 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says The SDSU program for Social Work is amazing!! You get to practice real scenarios and are prepared for when you have to apply tools when emplyed. Professors are amazing and help you throughout your... Read 2 reviews.

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

• Riverside, CA ·
• University of California - Riverside ·
• · Rating 4.25 out of 5   4 reviews

Blue checkmark. University of California - Riverside, Graduate School, RIVERSIDE, CA. 4 Niche users give it an average review of 4.3 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says I hope to learn a lot from the Teacher Education Program at UCR! I love the opportunities that are offered to me and my peers. Read 4 reviews.

Saint Mary's College of California

• Moraga, CA ·
• · Rating 4.13 out of 5   38 reviews

Blue checkmark. Graduate School, MORAGA, CA. 38 Niche users give it an average review of 4.1 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says The small class sizes make it so easy to learn! The professors are great and the school's administration is very responsive an helpful. Read 38 reviews.

Mills College at Northeastern University Graduate Programs

• Oakland, CA ·
• Mills College at Northeastern University ·

Mills College at Northeastern University, Graduate School, OAKLAND, CA. 2 Niche users give it an average review of 5 stars. Featured Review: Alum says I did a Post Baccalaureate in Pre-Medicine and the instructors and advisors were top-notch. I learned a lot and did very well. Highly recommend although they have been taken over by another school... Read 2 reviews.

School of Critical Studies - California Institute of the Arts

• Valencia, CA ·
• California Institute of the Arts ·

Blue checkmark. California Institute of the Arts, Graduate School, VALENCIA, CA.

Mount Saint Mary's University Los Angeles

• · Rating 4.51 out of 5   53 reviews

Graduate School, LOS ANGELES, CA. 53 Niche users give it an average review of 4.5 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says My academic experience in the Humanities program at Mount Saint Mary's University has been great overall. The best part is the interdisciplinary approach utilized in the program, which aims to... Read 53 reviews.

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College of Letters and Sciences - National University

• National University ·

National University, Graduate School, SAN DIEGO, CA.

College of Arts and Humanities - California State University - Fresno

• Fresno, CA ·
• California State University - Fresno ·

California State University - Fresno, Graduate School, FRESNO, CA. 2 Niche users give it an average review of 3 stars. Read 2 reviews.

College of Humanities and the Arts - San Jose State University

• San Jose, CA ·
• San Jose State University ·

San Jose State University, Graduate School, SAN JOSE, CA.

California State University - San Bernardino College of Arts and Letters

• San Bernardino, CA ·
• California State University, San Bernardino ·

California State University, San Bernardino, Graduate School, SAN BERNARDINO, CA. 2 Niche users give it an average review of 5 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says This tight knit community is surrounded by students, faculty, and staff who encourage and uplift each other in order to reach personal and acadmic goals. It is just as connected inside the classroom... Read 2 reviews.

Otis College of Art and Design

• · Rating 4.5 out of 5   6 reviews

Graduate School, LOS ANGELES, CA. 6 Niche users give it an average review of 4.5 stars. Featured Review: Other says I am starting at Otis this coming Fall and am excited. My first introduction to Otis was through a panel of previous students they had spoken about their experience, and it was amazing. Every student... Read 6 reviews.

California College of the Arts

• · Rating 4.5 out of 5   4 reviews

Graduate School, SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 4 Niche users give it an average review of 4.5 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says The application process was very smooth. The admissions team gave me good advice about how to put together my portfolio. Read 4 reviews.

Antioch University Los Angeles

• Culver City, CA ·
• · Rating 4.45 out of 5   20 reviews

Blue checkmark. Graduate School, CULVER CITY, CA. 20 Niche users give it an average review of 4.5 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says I was just admitted so I haven’t attended classes yet. I am very excited to start but I am applying for scholarships and financial aid because it is very expensive. Read 20 reviews.

Antioch University Santa Barbara

• Santa Barbara, CA ·
• · Rating 3.84 out of 5   19 reviews

Blue checkmark. Graduate School, SANTA BARBARA, CA. 19 Niche users give it an average review of 3.8 stars. Featured Review: Master's Student says Antioch University's emphasis on holistic education and social justice resonated deeply with my evolving worldview. The curriculum's integration of real-world scenarios and hands-on experiences... Read 19 reviews.

Point Loma Nazarene University

• SAN DIEGO, CA
• · Rating 4.52 out of 5   184

Jessup University

• ROCKLIN, CA
• · Rating 4.57 out of 5   7

College of Liberal and Creative Arts - San Francisco State University

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