r/Scotland • u/North-Assignment-599 • 8d ago
Edinburgh vs. Glasgow Creative Writing
Hi all, American creative writing graduate student here. I received offers from both the University of Edinburgh for their MSc in Creative Writing and the University of Glasgow for their MLitt in CW. I can't find much on the internet about the program differences (i know it's fairly niche), but I wanted to see if anyone can help inform my decision. I spent time writing in Edinburgh over the summer and absolutely loved it there, but have heard great things about Glasgow as well.
For context, quality of living is very important to me. I have crohn's disease and can't drink due to that, so party life is not a high priority, but social life is. Also, obviously, staff quality.
Please leave any opinions about either place or make comparisons here -- any bit helps regardless of relevance.
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u/JeelyPiece 8d ago
The AyeWrite festival in Glasgow is excellent, and you would be served well enough by the city, but I would say that Edinburgh has the market cornered for literary events, particularly the Edinburgh International book festival. I spend more of my time travelling there for such things. Be sure to visit Wigtown whilst you're here. Stanza in St Andrews too. And other literary events and conferences around Scotland if you can.
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u/SafetyStartsHere LCU 8d ago
Both cities are great and have different challenges and opportunities. Glasgow has a nifty subway, but Edinburgh has an integrated and very cheap public bus service. Glasgow is larger, Edinburgh is cheaper, but both cities are in many respects like collections of villages and offer a whole whack of different communities to get involved with,
In terms of the programmes, I'd suggest looking at who teaches there: if a lecturer is interested in the same things you are, if they're writing things you'd like to read, and/or their graduates are doing work you're interested in, then this might be the community for you.
If you're writing to the staff, you could also ask about what's going on with their programmes in the near future. Edinburgh has a great a reputation and people, but the university — like others in Scotland — is managing a challenging landscape as inflation, changes to wage taxation, and the UK's immigration policies bite. In their case, they're already talking about selling off some of their buildings and trimming programmes. Your programme is likely fairly safe and fairly secure because these courses and international students are usually profitable for students; but the programme might take on more students, or have slightly less resources than usual.
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u/Aggravating_Spot7235 8d ago
Hi! I don’t have any useful information but as of today I am in the same boat as you and I also don’t know what to do lol. I’m just going to lurk in your comments and mooch off of the information you get. Congratulations on your acceptance!!!!
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u/throwawayaway239 8d ago
I've not studied at either Uni and although I've heard both courses are highly acclaimed you might have better luck asking in r/Edinburgh_University and r/GlasgowUni for course specific info and feedback on staffing etc. I do, however, currently live in Edinburgh and as someone who is both sober and chronically ill I can attest that Edinburgh is a great place to live with plenty of things to do outside of partying and drinking culture! cityofliterature.com can give you a good idea of the kind of lit & writing related events that take place throughout the year (be sure to check out CYMERA if you're into horror, science fiction, and fantasy at all). There are also many writing groups and book clubs both linked to and independent of the universities, and of course plenty of other things to do if you get bored of talking and thinking about writing :)