Waitlist Letter David Sauvage

Columbia is still my absolute, number one, pick-of-them-all college. I intend to hold my ground here on the wait-list. If a spot does indeed open up for me, I will immediately enroll.

Columbia matches me better than any other college. I alluded to three reasons for that on my application: the core curriculum, the creative writing program, and New York.

The core curriculum for me is about background. I'm set on being a writerif only an opinionated starving novelistand for that I need focus. I need to understand the history of Literature before I can claw my way in. I need to understand Literature in the context of Art, as a historical and philosophical concept, before I can build on that concept. And I need to be around peers who feel the same way.

Of course, all the while, I will continue writing. I'll be getting better and better, as the rule "Write what you know" encompasses more and more. It will be a painful but exciting process of sharpening and deleting, retreating and reforming, shaping and attacking. I badly want teachers who understand that process; in my experience, only the very best do.

Friends of mine and fans of Columbia often say that the academics alonethe core, the writing program, the language...