While looking into a college's program, also look into the teachers who you may be working with to see if they are professionals in their field of writing, with publishing credit to speak to their experience. You may also consider researching extracurricular writing activities to get involved in within the college, such as campus publications, or even seeing what writing opportunities are available off-campus, such as critique groups and literary journals.
Not all writing is created equal -- there's a big difference between creative writing and journalism and a bigger leap to technical writing. While almost all colleges will have classes that pertain to several different writing styles, you will want to ensure that the school you're considering has a program that will meet your educational needs for the kind of writing that you want to do. If you're unsure of what sort of writing you intend to do in the future, taking several different writing courses will allow you to test the waters before specializing.
Both the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, are recognized by the Princeton Review as top-ranked colleges, both with award-winning professors in their fields. Other highly regarded colleges to consider for their undergraduate writing programs include the University of Texas in Austin, Texas; New York University in New York City, New York; and the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.
According to the US News and World Report, top ranked colleges with master's programs in writing include the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa; Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; University of Houston in Houston, Texas; Columbia University in New York City, New York; and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Other universities noted for having good graduate writing programs include Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona; University of Washington in Seattle, Washington; and University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois.
While not specified for their writing programs, liberal arts colleges are likely to have solid writing programs and will allow you to diversify your curriculum if you so choose. According to US News and World Report, the top five liberal arts colleges are: Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts; Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts; Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont; and Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. These colleges all ranked high in freshman retention rates and six-year college graduation rates.