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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25107
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25107
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Strictly speaking, you don't _need_ an English degree to get writing jobs, nor are you guaranteed any kind of job in writing/editing/publishing if you have said degree. You get hired when you convince someone that you have the skills and/or experience to do the job. Whether you get that experience in our out of school is often irrelevant.

I can say, as someone who looks at résumés, that I rarely register how "highly-ranked" the university is. I'll notice an Ivy League, obviously, or something out of the country, but beyond that, I'm looking for "completed college/didn't complete college." And if you have a list of publications which takes up the whole page, I might not even care if you have the degree at all.

Particularly with writing, I'm going to want to see samples of your work. Wow me with your turns of phrase and I'm not going to care if you taught yourself with coal on the back of a shovel.

Go where you can afford right now. You can always go back for a master's (or another bachelor's if it comes to that) later on. Don't start out your professional life in crippling debt when you really don't need to. If you were going for law or medicine it might make a difference, but writing is a lot more fungible.

Original score: 4