Would you recommend getting a Bachelor's Degree in Screenwriting?

Different countries value education on different level. For instance titles of your degree matter a lot in Europe - every bio you read starts with: name, studied this and this at such and such university, has accomplished this and this. Your education is an instantly recognizing factor of your "value." Education has very little value in the US, what or where you studied (unless it's some quirky subject or some very recognizable school) doesn't matter much. In the US what counts most is people's accomplishments (and what follows logically, how well those accomplishments are known: shi*y projects i shot with millions of views produced more awe in potential clients then high art projects that actually push the boundaries of the medium. Thus you see significant push pack at the idea of getting degree in screenwriting - because here value is not in the education but what you can do with it. As you know screenplay is only the first step in getting a film made so it's hard to even imagine the proverbial result - as such you are not in charge of said result and that's why the degree is being looked down upon. Moreover in the US majority perceives the art of screenwriting as something that can be learned at home (after all it's not a rocket science! i've seen thousands of movies so i can do it too!). Of course you can learn the basics at home but to go into depth of anything you need to be exposed to vast amount of knowledge through rigorous study otherwise you will produce work of banality.

So to summarize, the realpolitik guys will tell you the degree doesn't matter, the guys who see the other side of the coin will tell you that in this complex system of influences and politics - it does.
 
A lot of negativity here. Is the degree useful in and of itself? Probably not in terms of getting jobs just because you have a degree. But what a degree represents is four years studying your craft without any other external pressures, hopefully getting better at it with repeated practice and, most importantly, getting professional guidance that will improve the quality of your work faster than you would by just learning on your own. And going to the right school can also help with networking in the future via relationships with fellow classmates. If all you want to do is be a screenwriter, can get into a good school and can afford it, why wouldn't you? A degree is no guarantee of a job, but that's true of just about any position in the film/tv business. Another point is, any place that offers a screenwriting degree will also teach classes in other aspects of film/tv production. You may discover you have a talent and interest in something else. I discovered in college that I had an aptitude for editing, and it's primarily how I make a living now.
 
You could put together a much more effective education in screenwriting outside of traditional colleges. An example would be to spend a year or more in Chicago studying improve and comedy writing at places like io, second city or annoyance . Chicago dramatists has many classes geared more to playwrights but writing plays in my opinion is something all screenwriters should consider if for no other reason than to develop their ear for dialogue. The effectiveness depends on how much time one puts in writing, reading and listening. A screenwriting degree with the right connections might get you in a writers room as an intern or writers assistant, maybe. For some writers being isolated works but for others especially early in their careers collaboration with a talented writer/actor might be more useful. Down side of screenwriting degree is idiotic professor s.
 
I'm with Battuta. It's easy to write off screenwriting courses as something you do instead of writing screenplays, but after you finish the course you will have written a screenplay, or several, which you may not have done if left to your own devices or enrolled in something else.
 
No one is "writing off" a screenwriting course -- a screenwriting course, and more than one, is valuable.

But the question of whether or not someone should get a specific degree in it is something else entirely.
 
There is no black and white answer to this, regardless of what some people on here will say. If I went back in time and could do it again, I would get a generalized degree in English. Being a better storyteller comes not just from writing whatever pops into your head, but from the human condition. You would be an idiot to not possess any sort of BA degree in 2016. You will be immediately stigmatized, again, regardless of whatever people here will tell you. If you want to be an educated person with something to say, you go to school, take in some of the classics, and then you work from there. Will everyone succeed? Of course not, but you might as well not stack the deck against yourself from the start by ignoring formalized education. Screenwriters are highly literate people who will immediately recognize the structure and networking opportunities built into school from the onset. It is also a pleasant life experience.
 
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