Massachusetts

EMERSON COLLEGE
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction
Faculty: Daniel Tobin, Lisa Diercks, Douglas Whynott, Jonathan Aaron, Bill Beuttler, Bernard Brooks, Christine Casson, Yujin Chang, William Donoghue, David Emblidge, Robin Riley Fast, Maria Flook, Flora Gonzalez, DeWitt Henry, Richard Hoffman, Roy Kamada, William Knott, Maria Koundoura, Margot Livesey, Gian Lombardo, Megan Marshall, Carl Martin, Gail Mazur, Kimberly McLarin, William Orem, Pamela Painter, Jon Papernick, Elizabeth Parfitt, Frederick Reiken, Murray Schwartz, Jeffrey Seglin, John Skoyles, Tracy Strauss, Jessica Treadway, John Trimbur, Wendy Walters, Daniel Weaver, Mako Yoshikawa
Length: 2-3 years at 8-12 credits per semester
# of credits: 52
Tuition per year: Easier to go by credit. Cost per credit is $840, in which case the entire degree would cost $43 680.
Application materials: Submit all materials to Office of Graduate Admission: Application for Graduate Admission, $60 application fee, 3 recommendations, GRE scores, transcript, statement of “short-term and long-term professional goals”, writing sample, resume
Deadline: 5 Jan. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: There are 10 scholarships and awards listed if you hold your cursor over “Financing Your Education” and click on “Scholarships and Awards,” but their values are not specified. Also, merit-based financial aid is awarded to a certain number of incoming graduate students in the form of Presidential Fellowships and Graduate Assistantships; these last 4 semesters. Presidential Fellowships are offered to a small number of incoming full-time graduate students who have demonstrated the highest degree of academic excellence; they are “distributed in $7 000 increment by semester” (whatever that means). Graduate Assistants receive $5 K per semester and are assigned to work 10 hours per week for 13 weeks per semester.
Web address: http://admission.emerson.edu/admission/graduate/academics/cw.cfm

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry
Faculty: Chris Bachelder, Peter Gizzi, Noy Holland, Sabina Murray, Lisa Olstein, James Tate, Dara Wier
Length: 3 years
# of credits: 60
Tuition per year: Easier to go by credit. Tuition per credit is $110 (residents), $192.50 (New England regional), or $414 (non-residents). Thus, the entire degree should cost about $6.6 K (residents), $11.6 K (New England regional), or $25 K (non-residents).
Application materials: Submit to Graduate Admissions Office: Graduate School Application, $40 application fee, 2 recommendations, GRE scores (not required for admission but recommended should you want to be competitive for Graduate School Fellowships), 2 transcripts, residency statement, personal statement. Submit to the MFA Program for Poets and Writers: writing sample, application for Teaching Associateship (should include 2 recommendations [you can probably submit the same ones as mentioned above, but these should mention your ability to teach], vitae, critical writing sample).
Deadline: 15 Jan. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: A Writing Program Teaching Assistantship application will be sent to all accepted MFA applicants. A TA position provides a stipend (another page on the site states that this is $6 688/sem.) and a full tuition waiver. Additionally, there are other teaching positions available throughout the University.
Web address: http://www.umass.edu/english/eng/mfa/mfaIndex.html

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON
Subject areas: Poetry, Fiction
Faculty: John Fulton, Suji Kwock Kim, Askold Melnyzcuk, Joyce Peseroff, Lloyd Schwartz, Elizabeth Searle
Length: 3 years
# of credits: 48
Tuition per year: Easier to go by semester. Tuition is $5 081 (residents) or $10 334.50 (non-residents).
Application materials: Submit to Office of Graduate Admissions: Graduate Admissions Application form, $40 application fee (residents) or $60 application fee (non-residents), 3 recommendations, GRE scores recommended but not required, transcript, “statement of interests and intent,” writing sample. Submit to English Department: duplicate copy of writing sample and personal statement.
Deadline: Jan. 15 (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: A limited number of teaching and administrative assistantships are available to first year students. After successfully completing course work and a teaching assistantship, students may teach their own class by qualifying for a limited number of teaching internships. (The values of these assistantships/internships, in terms of stipend value and tuition remission, are not specified.)
Web address: http://www.umb.edu/academics/cla/dept/english/graduate/mfa.html