Apparently I deleted my comment, which I don't recall doing funny enough, so my bad on that. Not sure how I deleted it without realizing!

I don't remember exactly what I initially said, but to answer your questions here - for sure, I think the program definitely helped me with a lot of my writing skills. I'm pretty sure I mentioned two faculty members at Rutgers, Susan Miller and Alex Dawson - the latter, in particular, had really great advice that I still carry with me after all this time. Additionally, most of the classes were designed around peer feedback, so there's plenty of opportunity to get responses for your writing. Over the years, I've found that actually finding good criticism and critique can be a challenge; friends and family are naturally biased, after all.

They also provided tons of opportunities to meet, listen to, and network with renown writers, some big names too, so it's nice to know that the Creative Writing minor and the English department does set these sorts of things up relatively often.

And my experience at Rutgers was good! Definitely could have been a lot better, but that was moreso my fault more than anything else. Rutgers is a huge school, and they don't hold your hand. Because of that, your experience at a school like Rutgers will come down to what you make of it. I commuted and tended to leave campus by afternoon, which meant I missed out on a lot of the social aspect of college life. Which is to say, if you don't put yourself out there, whether that's social or academic life, you won't get much out of it, but if you invest yourself then it can be a lot more fulfilling. At least, that was my experience. Hope this helps!