A useful list:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/majors/brief/major_23-05_brief.php
Also:
How can we forget the University of Houston (
www.uh.edu and info on their graduate writing program at
http://www.class.uh.edu/cwp/)?
In US News first ever ranking of Writing Programs (Graduate level), UH was tied with Johns Hopkins University for number 2 below the University of Iowa.
Also, this top notch writing program (my alma mater) is in an inexpensive University. Writers who couldn't get into Johns Hopkins, undergrad, also might have less difficulty acquiring admission at UH.
I am, on the whole, wary to recommend anyone to any writing program as a career choice.
I strongly urge anyone to carefully construct their degree program to apply to some kind of actual career, based on my experience having to turn nothing into something after my degree. UH and every other University, have some excellent programs that can tie directly into major career fields, but also have some real stinkers.
The key to finding the best Creative Writing program for any student, of course, is finding out who they like to read, then seeing where those authors teach - if they do.
Also, what degrees did those authors get? Would that degree be a better, more viable option. Imagine Sci-Fi without Philosophers like Scalzi, Scientists like Vernor Vinge and Greg Bear, and the techno-punks that studied english and cinema (William Gibson) and dabble in hi-tech urban planning (Corey Doctorow). Equally difficult is imagining fantasy without the many, many anthropologists, historians, and theatre majors.
I learned more about writing after my degree while working at Starbucks than I did during my degree. Yes, some small things carried over. Something always will. But, academic workshops are only useful to a point. That point can be reached with good writer groups and good reading friends.
Before signing up for any Creative Writing Program, be sure to teach kids the magic of a Cost Benefit Analysis. UH was a top notch program that cost less for a Texas Resident than my Catholic High School. I have my debts, but they aren't crippling. And, I know lots of people from the expensive schools that didn't make it. I may not make it much further than I have, but my normal advance for my book more than covered my remaining student loans.