A lot of the people who go to these classes want to write but don't know how to and so they go to learn. There's all these exercises about how to make banal things interesting, or working with phrases to see what comes out, and there's discussion about different elements of writing which are horribly amputated from each other as if they are all separate components: setting, character, dialogue, word choice, beginnings, plotting, editing, etc. Regarding word choice, for example, creative writing classes encourage you not to repeat words so, if your paragraph is about photos, you find that come to the end of it you've used photos, pictures, images, snaps, positives, slides, etc. There's a nice line at the start of James Salter's Light Years that uses the same adjective in a single sentence (The Hudson was vast, vast and unmoving.) which someone else may have written 'The Hudson was vast, huge and unmoving.' in order to not repeat themselves, at the cost of the prose, rhythm, and effect.
I prefer to learn from those that I enjoy. So, as I read my Yates or Ishiguro or Doyle or whoever I'll note the parts that I thought were well done and try to understand why I thought they worked for me and be conscious of these things when I'm writing. Similarly, I know what doesn't work for me and try to spot this in my own writing. I find learning from your own tastes and understanding a much better notion than a class environment.
As for the timelines thing, the class set deadlines to hand in pieces which I found extremely helpful as I had something to work for (the same when I entered the Scotsman & Orange Short Story Award) and found myself busying away at the keyboard. With nothing to work toward, my writing has become a slow burning affair that often goes out and has to be rekindled. So, to that effect, I found it extremely helpful.
