Not every student majoring in creative writing is destined to become a best-selling novelist, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have other career opportunities.

The University offers the only Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in creative writing in the state of Ohio, which attracts students from around the state who want to be writers and who want in-state tuition, said Lawrence Coates, director of creative writing at the University.

The program has maintained a steady number of between 80 and 100 majors throughout the years and has around 40 minors this year, Coates said.

But while many other degrees are tailored to specific careers, the creative writing major doesn’t guarantee a job as a writer, he said.

“I’m not going to lie, if you take an accounting degree, you know what you’re going to be doing,” Coates said. “If you take a creative writing degree, some people become writers and other people use those skills in other ways.”

Coates said the program teaches “transferable skills” that all employers look for like writing clearly and creatively and thinking critically, which can land graduates jobs in fields such as publicity, publishing, journalism or anything that needs language and creative thought.

“Something about that creative part of the degree I think catches people’s eye,” he said.

One graduate currently works for a Kentucky bourbon distillery as an all-purpose writer for reports, publicity and she is also editing the autobiography of the company’s CEO, Coates said.

“Her skills are coming in handy in a way she probably didn’t anticipate,” he said

Olivia Buzzacco, a junior majoring in creative writing, said she hopes to go into publishing, advertising or teaching but doesn’t rule out being an author.

“I’m always hoping to be an author, but seeing how hard that can be, it’s not going to be my top choice,” she said.

Buzzacco said she worries about finding a job after graduation, but knows she will be fine in the end.

“It’s what I love,” Buzzacco said. “I’d rather be doing something I love than something I hate that makes good money.”

While alternatives are available for creative writing majors, some graduates have gone on to have success as authors.

Monica McFawn, a 2001 BFA graduate in creative writing, recently won the 2013 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction for her book, “Bright Shards of Someplace Else.”

“That’s a very prestigious award,” Coates said. “That’s one of the best short fiction awards you can get.”

McFawn, also a professor at Grand Valley State University, said it hasn’t been easy job-wise for her but it hasn’t been terrible either.

A creative writing degree doesn’t “automatically funnel you into a career” like some others and it means you have to make your own path after college, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, she said.

“It just meant that I had to be more creative about my path in life,” McFawn said. “So if you’re truly a creative person, you’ll be creative about finding yourself a job and creative about making a place for yourself in the world, as well as being creative in your work,” she said.

McFawn said creative writing has opened up her world and she wouldn’t trade it.

“I’ve done all kinds of interesting work and my life has been really interesting because I had a creative writing degree and I wouldn’t trade it,” McFawn said. “I wouldn’t go back and say, ‘Oh, I should have gotten it in technical writing or something,’ which is what my mom wanted me to do.”