Show Core Faculty Includes: Poetry: Andrea Cohen, Karl Kirchwey, Robert Pinsky, Nicole Sealey Funding/Employment Opportunities: The program offers full funding. Every student receives full tuition coverage and a teaching stipend. The program also offers Global Fellowships, which allow students the opportunity to live, write, and explore for up to three months, anywhere in the world. Affiliated Publications/Publishers: Other Features: This program features the Robert Lowell Memorial Lectures reading series and the Ha Jin Visting Lectures series. There is a foreign language requirement which may be satisfied in a number of ways. Applicants may apply for an application fee waiver. The Creative Writing Program was first established in 1954, shortly after WWII, as an MA program. Graduates: Elizabeth Alexander, Ellen Bass, Robin Becker, Duy Doan, William Giraldi, Arthur Golden, Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Thu Nguyen, Patricia Park, Weike Wang In late 2019 I applied to around 15 of the best Creative Writing MFA's in the United States. All of these programs have less than a 3% acceptance rate--the most competitive among them less than 1% (yes, they received over 1000 applicants and accepted less than 10). There are plenty of Creative Writing MFA's that have much higher acceptance rates, but most of them aren't fully funded. Why did I apply? Because I felt that I was reaching a point that I couldn't improve further on my own. Because I've submitted stories to hundreds of magazines (and been accepted at a few, but rejected from 98%). Because I write and read every day, religiously, and have done so for over a decade. Because the job market is rough and I believe that having further education will help me pursue jobs that I want, in the fields I'm looking in, based on extensive research. (Note: thousands of people have Creative Writing MFA's--this is something that can SUPPORT my resume, not hold it up on its own). (2nd Note: The school your MFA comes from does matter in certain communities, such as academia and publishing, so while there are thousands of people in the job pool with CW MFA's, there are NOT thousands with CW MFA's from Cornell). But most importantly, I applied because at 25, with a wife and a young kid, I’m realizing that my desire to write, read, and publish – that my desire to work with letters professionally – is never going to go away. And right now I’m at a spot where I can responsibly pursue my passion. All of that is important. The dust has basically settled now and I have a handful of acceptances, a few waitlists, and a slew of rejections (3a/2w/8r/2pending). The cost to apply to all these programs was around $1000 out of my pocket (a little more, actually, but I ALREADY feel confident this cost was more than worth it to me--more on that later). Now that it's "over" and I have my decisions to make, I thought I'd share some of what I learned and some other general thoughts for any writers that might have completed an undergrad and be in a spot, now, where they might be thinking about further education or how they might be able to pursue writing further. I think there’s a general list of writers that look at MFA’s and it looks something like this:
There's no doubt that you can write without a cohort of peers and mentors surrounding you. There's no doubt that if you don't have the motivation to write and read all on your own that you probably won't get much out of an MFA program. There's no doubt that many great authors never formally studied writing or even went to college. But what if you are writing and reading religiously on your own--what if you are working hard on your own, absorbing classes on YouTube, reading books like "Dreyer's English" and King's "On Writing" -- what if you are actively pursuing publications, submitting to magazines, writing short stories and working on your 2nd or 3rd novel in earnest.... and you just can't seem to progress as quickly as you want? Or what if you want to get into publishing / editing / staff at a lit mag or journal / into the highly competitive world of college teaching (or even high school teaching) and can't seem to compete with the market? Perhaps an MFA, where you study with other individuals who you can relate to, and underneath published and intelligent professors and doctors of writing / literature that understand what you're trying to do (because they've all done it successfully) could be a decent choice. I'll add now that part of the criticism I see regularly is that "it's not worth going into debt for a degree." I have two responses to that:
I see a lot of hate for advanced degrees on Reddit, especially in the writing community. I think some of that might be because the average reddit user doesn't understand that in many cases these degrees are not only free, but actually pay you (as much as $30,000 / year on top of the free tuition which is normally around another $30,000+ / year in fees waived). Is the money free? Almost definitely not - they expect you to work around 20 hours a week teaching classes on campus. But that's a good thing. A GREAT thing in fact. Because you're going to learn a shit load if you teach a writing class (yes, even a comp class to freshmen is going to teach you a ton about writing). And because it gives you extremely relevant work experience to list on a resume no matter what your career path is in the future. So what if you are interested in pursuing a Creative Writing MFA? The first thing you'll want to do is consider what your very strongest pieces of writing are and how you'd put them together in a portfolio. I list this at the top because if you don't have highly polished and competitive pieces of writing RIGHT NOW, you aren't going to magically acquire them in a few short months. This is the most important thing, bar none. Most programs ask for between 20 and 30 pages of content. That's between 1 and 2 short stories (or novel excerpts--although novel excerpts are not recommended). If you don't have strong writing that you're absolutely certain is high quality, you need to get it first. How do you get it if you don't have it? By writing and reading every day and investing a ton of time and effort. Also, peer groups and workshops. The second thing you'll want to do is research programs. I recommend fully funded (or at LEAST partially funded) programs exclusively. But you might have reasons to look at smaller colleges, and those colleges might be more valuable to you depending on the staff / location / other details. For example, Emerson College is only partially funded but has one of the few programs in the world that is openly accepting of science fiction, fantasy, and horror while also EMPLOYING professors that actively write and publish in the genre fiction field. If you are exclusively interested in science fiction, I imagine you'd get more out of a workshop with Katie Williams (who wrote Tell the Machine Goodnight) than a workshop with professors that strictly write literary fiction. The third thing you'll want to do is make sure you can feasibly accept offers if you do get into the program. Do you have a few thousand dollars (or could you, 6, 9, or 12 months from now) to move across the Country? Will you have any support or help if not? This is important. You don't want to waste money applying to something you can't actually do if you manage to get accepted. The fourth thing you'll want to do is prepare yourself for rejection. The first 6 schools that showed movement during the application season all rejected me, and it hurt. I was arrogantly not expecting it, and it was sobering to realize many, many programs did not think I was among the most talented writers to apply. It was GOOD that this happened, in hindsight. Perhaps (definitely) my head was too big. I'm glad I got rejected from many of these schools. I deserved it. My portfolio could have been stronger. It should have been. The fact that I can look back now, just 5 months later, and SEE how it could have been stronger, means the process was worth the time and $1000 to me already. At the bottom of this is my realization that we have a lot of people on r/writing that aren’t sure how to get better but earnestly want to. This is ONE way to get better (and there’s some real advice along the path that will transform the way you look at writing and consider what it means to be a writer, because if you’re in the group of people that can feasibly be accepted into these programs, it means you’ve done a lot of work to get there). I have a lot more to say. I’m happy to engage with anyone who has questions or concerns about any of the information I shared here. Like I said in the title, this is my experience. It’s not universal. YMMV. How hard is it to get into a creative writing MFA?It's hard to get into an MFA program. MFA programs prefer to take people who have been out of school for a while, have proved they will continue to write outside of school on their own, and perhaps even have a publication or two or have done some work in the writing/literary community."
Is Boston University good for creative writing?The Atlantic magazine has ranked our program among the top five percent of all creative writing programs for the distinction of its faculty and alumni, and has ranked ours among the top ten programs overall.
How competitive is MFA creative writing?UTEP's Director for the Online MFA, Professor Aguilar-Zéleny, offers these top suggestions for MFA in Creative Writing candidates:. Start your application early.. Ask questions.. Read the curriculum.. Read the faculty bios and look for a mentor.. If your application is not accepted, reach out and ask for feedback.. What are my chances of getting into an MFA program?One to five percent is not a lot of percents. It's lower than the odds of getting into a top-tier law or medical school, to give you some idea.
What GPA do you need to get into Boston University grad school?Is there a minimum GPA for admission? While we do not have a minimum GPA requirement, we recommend that applicants have an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher (based on a 4.0 scale).
Is Boston University MFA fully funded?MFA Program
The program offers full funding. Every student receives full tuition coverage and a teaching stipend.
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Boston university mfa creative writing acceptance rate
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