New York
ADELPHI UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Poetry, Fiction, Playwriting
Faculty: Judith Baumel, Martha Cooley, Imraan Coovadia, Anton Dudley, Kermit Frazier, Igor Webb
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by credit. Tuition is $690 per credit and the degree is 37 credits. In all, it should cost about $25.5 K.
Application materials: Submit to Office of Graduate Admissions: Graduate Application, $50 application fee, 3 recommendations, transcript, personal statement, and manuscript; no GRE required
Deadline: “Modified” rolling admissions process. Applications are read beginning mid-January, and the majority of students are admitted in February. After that, admission is based on available space.
Financial Aid: All applicants are eligible and automatically considered for one of six half-tuition remissions. 2nd-year students and students entering with a previous MA degree are eligible for Graduate Teaching Fellowships in the Department of English. There are limited slots for other work-study positions (e.g. Writing Center, Learning Center). The stipends/salaries for these positions are not specified.
Enrollment: Approx. 12 students per genre
Web address: http://academics.adelphi.edu/artsci/creativewriting
BROOKLYN COLLEGE
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry, Playwriting
Faculty: Julie Agoos, L.S. Asekoff, Maribeth Batcha, Jonathan Baumbach, Amy Bloom, Susan Choi, Erin Courtney, Michael Cunningham, Stacey D’Erasmo, Carey Harrison, Jonathan Henkin, Lisa Jarnot, Sheila Kohler, Ernesto Mestre, Mary Morris, Meera Nair, Jenny Offill, Richard Pearse, Sapphire, Alison Solomon, Martha Southgate, Mac Wellman, Colson Whitehead
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by credit. Tuition is $270 per credit (residents) or $500 per credit (non-residents). Degree is 36 credits; cost of entire program is about $9 720 (residents) or $18 000 (non-residents).
Application materials: Submit Graduate Application, $125 application fee, 2 recommendations, transcript and personal statement (not required, but recommended for Fiction applicants) to Office of Admissions; submit manuscript to Department of English; GRE not required; interview may be required
Deadline: 1 Feb. (fall); 1 Nov. (spring)
Financial Aid: A very limited number of one-course adjunct and graduate teaching assistantships may be available for applicants with classroom teaching qualifications. Otherwise, you’re left with the FAFSA, institutional scholarships, federal grants/loans, etc.
Web address: http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/graduate/mfa/geninfo.htm
CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry
Faculty: Salar Abdoh, Linsey Abrams, Mark Jay Mirsky, Emily Raboteau, Marilyn Hacker, Wayne Koestenbaum, David Unger
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by semester. Tuition is $3 200 per semester for residents, or $12 800 in all. For non-residents, tuition is by credit at $500 per credit; the degree is 42 credits and should cost $21 000 in all.
Application materials: Submit all materials to Office of Graduate Admissions: Graduate Admissions Application, $125 application fee, 2 recommendations, transcript (sent directly from institution), personal statement, writing sample, resume; GRE not mentioned
Deadline: 1 May (fall); 1 Dec. (spring)—applications received before deadline may be reviewed for early admissions; applications received after the deadline will be reviewed for consideration for any available places
Financial Aid: The English Department offers teaching assistantships to qualified 2nd-year MFA students, but the conditions of these positions (stipend value, tuition remission) are not specified. The Poetry Outreach Center of the City College of New York affords paid opportunities for graduate students to conduct poetry workshops within the city’s public school system. The department also “grants dozens of generously funded writing awards and prizes to graduate students in creative writing and literature,” but the exact values of these awards are not specified.
Web address: http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/english (click on “Programs,” then “Graduate,” then “Creative Writing”)
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry
Faculty: Lucie Brock-Broido, Nicholas Christopher, Rebecca Curtis, Timothy Donnelly, Lis Harris, Richard Howard, Michael Janeway, Margo Jefferson, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Sam Lipsyte, Richard Locke, Jaime Manrique, Ben Marcus, Patty O’Toole, David Plante, Michael Scammell, Leslie Sharpe, Leslie Woodward, Alan Ziegler
Length: 2 years minimum; may take additional 1-6 semesters to complete thesis
Tuition per year: $35 K
Application materials: Submit all materials to Admissions Office: Statistical Information and Application Form, $100 application fee (online applicants) or $120 application fee (paper applicants), 3 recommendations, transcript, personal statement, literary response essay to work of literature written and published in the last 10 years, manuscript; GRE not required
Deadline: 2 Jan. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Entering students are considered for Divisional fellowships based on merit; these are awarded for both years and are applied towards tuition. During the second year, students are eligible for research assistantships and teaching assistantships. Teaching assistantships are awarded to a small number of students at the end of their first year; they entail a tuition exemption that goes up to 11.5 credits per term and a small cash stipend. They begin in the student’s second year and continue into a 3rd year. (Yes, the program can be finished in 2 years, but if you do a teaching assistantship, you probably have to cut back on coursework, resulting in a 3rd year.)
# of applicants per year: 650
# of students admitted: 70
Web address: http://wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/art/app/arts/writing/index.jsp
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Poetry, Fiction
Faculty: Lamar Herrin, Alice Fulton, Molly Hite, Phyllis Janowitz, Alison Lurie, Dan McCall, Kenneth McClane, Maureen McCoy, Robert Morgan, Edgar Rosenberg, Stephanie Vaughn, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Helena Maria Viramontes
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: $33 K
Application materials: Submit to Graduate School: Graduate School Application, $70 application fee (online applicants) or $80 application fee (paper applicants); submit to Department of English: 3 recommendations, GRE scores, transcript, statement of purpose, writing sample
Deadline: Fall admissions: 15 Dec. for materials submitted to Graduate School; 15 Dec. for materials submitted to Department of English (although the department site states that submitting materials by 1 Dec. will “help to ensure full and unhurried consideration”). No spring admissions.
Financial Aid: MFA candidates are offered a 2-year support package combining a 1st-year graduate assistantship with full tuition fellowship working with Epoch literary magazine, a 2nd-year teaching assistantship with full tuition fellowship, and support for 1-2 summers.
# of students admitted per year: 8 (4 Poetry, 4 Fiction)
Web address: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/english/mfa.html
HUNTER COLLEGE at the CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Subject areas: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction (Memoir or Biography), Poetry
Faculty: Peter Carey, Louise DeSalvo, Eva Hoffman, Tom Sleigh, Donna Masini, Jan Heller Levi, Meena Alexander, Jenefer Shute, Colum McCann, Colson Whitehead, Andrew Sean Greer, Elena Georgiou
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by semester. Tuition is $3 200 per semester for residents, so the degree would be $12 800 in all. For non-residents, the tuition is by credit at $520 per credit; the degree is 36 credits and should cost $18 720 in all.
Application materials: Submit all materials to Office of Graduate Admissions: Graduate Application, $125 application fee, 2 recommendations, GRE scores, transcript, personal statement (about yourself, why you write, and why you wish to come to Hunter; replaces statement of purpose in Graduate Application), writing sample; for creative nonfiction students, proposal for biography/memoir to write during program; interviews will be offered to waitlisted students
Deadline: 1 Feb. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Every semester, 5 Hertog Fellows (Fiction and Memoir students) are paired with a celebrated writer to work 10 hours a week as a research assistant; stipend is $5 K. Every semester, 5 Norma Lubetsky Friedman Scholars (Poetry students) work 10 hours a week with an established poet; stipend is also $5 K. 2nd-semester students can apply to teach Introduction to Creative Writing in the 3rd semester. Also, each year 2 MFA students are selected as Holtzbrinck Fellows, and are paid $10 K to work a 20-hour week for the academic year with the publishing imprints of Holtzbrink (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Henry Holt, St. Martins Press, and Picador).
Web address: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/creativewriting
THE NEW SCHOOL
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Writing for Children
Faculty: Robert Polito, Jeffrey Renard Allen, Jonathan Ames, Susan Bell, Mark Bibbins, Susan Cheever, Jonathan Dee, Elaine Equi, David Gates, Vivian Gornick, Shelley Jackson, Zia Jaffrey, Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, James Lasdun, David Lehman, Suzannah Lessard, Philip Lopate, Honor Moore, Maggie Nelson, Sigrid Nunez, Dale Peck, Liam Rector, Francine Prose, Helen Schulman, Tor Seidler, Dani Shapiro, Prageeta Sharma, Laurie Sheck, Darcey Steinke, Benjamin Taylor, Abigail Thomas, Paul Violi, Sarah Weeks, Susan Wheeler, Stephen Wright
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by semester. Tuition per semester is $9.5 K.
Application materials: Submit all materials to the New School Creative Writing Program: MFA in Creative Writing Application, $50 application fee, 2 recommendations, 2 transcripts, statement of purpose, portfolio, résumé/vitae; GRE not required
Deadline: 15 Jan. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: The Writing program offers a limited number of scholarships to students who demonstrate financial need (amounts not specified). No teaching or graduate assistantships are mentioned on the program website—just government financial assistance programs, institutional scholarships/awards, and FAFSA.
Web address: http://www.generalstudies.newschool.edu/writing
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry
Faculty: E.L. Doctorow, Yusef Komunyakaa, Paule Marshall, Sharon Olds, Philip Levine, Breyten Breytenbach
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Tuition is $1 024 per credit. The program is 32 credits, so it should cost about $33 K in its entirety.
Application materials: Submit all materials to the Graduate School of Arts and Science: Graduate Application, $80 application fee (online applicants) or $90 application fee (paper applicants), 3 recommendations, GRE scores, 2 transcripts, statement of purpose, writing sample, resumé. Note for non-online applicants: those in Fiction should send 1 photocopy of all materials except for recommendations and transcripts; those in Poetry should send 2 photocopies of all materials except for recommendations and transcripts.
Deadline: 15 Dec. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Teaching Assistantships: Approximately 40 teaching assistantships are offered to English graduate students in their second year in the program, with a stipend of $4 K per course. But entering candidates already holding an MA in any field may be eligible for teaching positions in the Expository writing program that offer a $20 K stipend plus full tuition for 2 years. Departmental Fellowships: 65%-85% of incoming students are offered full or partial departmental fellowships, consisting of tuition remission and/or stipend support. Annual huge-ass fellowships from affiliated organizations: Several students are named New York Times fellows and spend 2 days a week in NYC high schools doing creative writing workshops (stipend of $20 K from NY Times plus full tuition from NYU). Students may also apply for seven semester-long Goldwater fellowships ($1.5 K awarded for teaching at Goldwater Hospital), or Starworks Fellowships (ranging from “$3 K” to “$19 K per academic year plus full tuition” for working with hospitalized and environmentally at-risk children). Other: The Luna Rosa Prison Writing Project (working with women inmates) is probably voluntary and unpaid, but since it’s so unique I thought I’d mention it.
Web address: http://cwp.fas.nyu.edu/page/grad_programs
SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE
Subject areas: Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Fiction
Faculty: Kate Knapp Johnson, Mary La Chapelle, Vijay Seshadri, Gerry Albarelli, Jo Ann Beard, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Kurt Brown, Melvin Jules Bukiet, Tina Chang, Rachel Cohen, Nicholas Dawidoff, Stephen Dobyns, Carolyn Ferrell, Suzanne Gardinier, Myra Goldberg, Matthea Harvey, Amy Hempel, Joshua Henkin, Kathleen Hill, David Hollander, Cathy Park Hong, Marie Howe, Elizabeth Kendall, Joan Larkin, Paul Lisicky, Thomas Lux, Jeffrey McDaniel, Ernesto Mestre, Mary Morris, Brian Morton, Dennis Nurkse, Stephen O’Connor, Kevin Pilkington, Victoria Redel, Nelly Reifler, Martha Rhodes, Lucy Rosenthal, John Burnham Schwartz, Joan Silber, Barbara Probst Solomon, Alice Truax, Jennifer Wallace, Lawrence Weschler, Penny Wolfson
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: $23 520 (24 credits in Year 1); $11 760 (12 credits in Year 2)
Application materials: Submit all materials to Graduate Studies Office: MFA Writing Application, $60 application fee, 2 recommendations, transcript, answers to 3 essay questions (“Please write an autobiography of 500-100 words,” “Please state in specific and general terms why you want to pursue graduate work,” “Why do you want to pursue your studies at SLC?”), and manuscript; GRE not mentioned
Deadline: 1 Feb. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Through the Community Writers Program, Sarah Lawrence graduate writing students teach workshops, tutor or assist a writer-in-residence in the classroom. They also have access to placements at the Baccalaureate School for Global Education, the Bronx Academy of Letters, Concourse House, the State University of New York at Purchase, the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, the Westchester County Correctional Facility, and the Westchester County Department of the Aging. The logistics of these positions (e.g. tuition remission, stipend, salary) are not mentioned.
Web address: http://www.slc.edu/grad_writing.php
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Poetry, Fiction
Faculty: Christopher Kennedy, Arthur Flowers, George Saunders, Mary Gaitskill, Farnoosh Moshiri, Michael Burkard, Brooks Haxton, Mary Karr, Bruce Smith
Length: 3 years
Tuition per year: Tuition is $940 per credit. The program is 48 credits, so in all it should cost $45 120.
Application materials: Submit to Graduate Enrollment Management Center (GEMC): Graduate Application, $65 application fee, 3 recommendations, GRE scores, 2 transcripts (if you haven’t yet been awarded your degree, you must later submit a record showing that it has been awarded), statement of purpose, and required teaching statement (states your potential as a teacher, even if you don’t have formal teaching experience yet). Submit to Director of Creative Writing in English Graduate Office: writing sample with basic information sheet.
Deadline: Fall admissions: 1 Jan. (writing sample); 9 Jan. (all other materials). No spring admissions.
Financial Aid: 5 creative writing fellowships for entering students entail full tuition remission and a living stipend of $11 000 to $15 450 for the first year (amount depends on the fellowship). Also, for both new and continuing students, there are teaching assistantships that entail full tuition remission for one year and a stipend of $12 469; these are renewable each year.
# of students admitted per year: 12 (6 Poetry, 6 Fiction)
Web address: http://english.syr.edu/graduate/mfa.htm
Subject areas: Poetry, Fiction, Playwriting
Faculty: Judith Baumel, Martha Cooley, Imraan Coovadia, Anton Dudley, Kermit Frazier, Igor Webb
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by credit. Tuition is $690 per credit and the degree is 37 credits. In all, it should cost about $25.5 K.
Application materials: Submit to Office of Graduate Admissions: Graduate Application, $50 application fee, 3 recommendations, transcript, personal statement, and manuscript; no GRE required
Deadline: “Modified” rolling admissions process. Applications are read beginning mid-January, and the majority of students are admitted in February. After that, admission is based on available space.
Financial Aid: All applicants are eligible and automatically considered for one of six half-tuition remissions. 2nd-year students and students entering with a previous MA degree are eligible for Graduate Teaching Fellowships in the Department of English. There are limited slots for other work-study positions (e.g. Writing Center, Learning Center). The stipends/salaries for these positions are not specified.
Enrollment: Approx. 12 students per genre
Web address: http://academics.adelphi.edu/artsci/creativewriting
BROOKLYN COLLEGE
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry, Playwriting
Faculty: Julie Agoos, L.S. Asekoff, Maribeth Batcha, Jonathan Baumbach, Amy Bloom, Susan Choi, Erin Courtney, Michael Cunningham, Stacey D’Erasmo, Carey Harrison, Jonathan Henkin, Lisa Jarnot, Sheila Kohler, Ernesto Mestre, Mary Morris, Meera Nair, Jenny Offill, Richard Pearse, Sapphire, Alison Solomon, Martha Southgate, Mac Wellman, Colson Whitehead
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by credit. Tuition is $270 per credit (residents) or $500 per credit (non-residents). Degree is 36 credits; cost of entire program is about $9 720 (residents) or $18 000 (non-residents).
Application materials: Submit Graduate Application, $125 application fee, 2 recommendations, transcript and personal statement (not required, but recommended for Fiction applicants) to Office of Admissions; submit manuscript to Department of English; GRE not required; interview may be required
Deadline: 1 Feb. (fall); 1 Nov. (spring)
Financial Aid: A very limited number of one-course adjunct and graduate teaching assistantships may be available for applicants with classroom teaching qualifications. Otherwise, you’re left with the FAFSA, institutional scholarships, federal grants/loans, etc.
Web address: http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/graduate/mfa/geninfo.htm
CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry
Faculty: Salar Abdoh, Linsey Abrams, Mark Jay Mirsky, Emily Raboteau, Marilyn Hacker, Wayne Koestenbaum, David Unger
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by semester. Tuition is $3 200 per semester for residents, or $12 800 in all. For non-residents, tuition is by credit at $500 per credit; the degree is 42 credits and should cost $21 000 in all.
Application materials: Submit all materials to Office of Graduate Admissions: Graduate Admissions Application, $125 application fee, 2 recommendations, transcript (sent directly from institution), personal statement, writing sample, resume; GRE not mentioned
Deadline: 1 May (fall); 1 Dec. (spring)—applications received before deadline may be reviewed for early admissions; applications received after the deadline will be reviewed for consideration for any available places
Financial Aid: The English Department offers teaching assistantships to qualified 2nd-year MFA students, but the conditions of these positions (stipend value, tuition remission) are not specified. The Poetry Outreach Center of the City College of New York affords paid opportunities for graduate students to conduct poetry workshops within the city’s public school system. The department also “grants dozens of generously funded writing awards and prizes to graduate students in creative writing and literature,” but the exact values of these awards are not specified.
Web address: http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/english (click on “Programs,” then “Graduate,” then “Creative Writing”)
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry
Faculty: Lucie Brock-Broido, Nicholas Christopher, Rebecca Curtis, Timothy Donnelly, Lis Harris, Richard Howard, Michael Janeway, Margo Jefferson, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Sam Lipsyte, Richard Locke, Jaime Manrique, Ben Marcus, Patty O’Toole, David Plante, Michael Scammell, Leslie Sharpe, Leslie Woodward, Alan Ziegler
Length: 2 years minimum; may take additional 1-6 semesters to complete thesis
Tuition per year: $35 K
Application materials: Submit all materials to Admissions Office: Statistical Information and Application Form, $100 application fee (online applicants) or $120 application fee (paper applicants), 3 recommendations, transcript, personal statement, literary response essay to work of literature written and published in the last 10 years, manuscript; GRE not required
Deadline: 2 Jan. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Entering students are considered for Divisional fellowships based on merit; these are awarded for both years and are applied towards tuition. During the second year, students are eligible for research assistantships and teaching assistantships. Teaching assistantships are awarded to a small number of students at the end of their first year; they entail a tuition exemption that goes up to 11.5 credits per term and a small cash stipend. They begin in the student’s second year and continue into a 3rd year. (Yes, the program can be finished in 2 years, but if you do a teaching assistantship, you probably have to cut back on coursework, resulting in a 3rd year.)
# of applicants per year: 650
# of students admitted: 70
Web address: http://wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/art/app/arts/writing/index.jsp
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Poetry, Fiction
Faculty: Lamar Herrin, Alice Fulton, Molly Hite, Phyllis Janowitz, Alison Lurie, Dan McCall, Kenneth McClane, Maureen McCoy, Robert Morgan, Edgar Rosenberg, Stephanie Vaughn, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Helena Maria Viramontes
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: $33 K
Application materials: Submit to Graduate School: Graduate School Application, $70 application fee (online applicants) or $80 application fee (paper applicants); submit to Department of English: 3 recommendations, GRE scores, transcript, statement of purpose, writing sample
Deadline: Fall admissions: 15 Dec. for materials submitted to Graduate School; 15 Dec. for materials submitted to Department of English (although the department site states that submitting materials by 1 Dec. will “help to ensure full and unhurried consideration”). No spring admissions.
Financial Aid: MFA candidates are offered a 2-year support package combining a 1st-year graduate assistantship with full tuition fellowship working with Epoch literary magazine, a 2nd-year teaching assistantship with full tuition fellowship, and support for 1-2 summers.
# of students admitted per year: 8 (4 Poetry, 4 Fiction)
Web address: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/english/mfa.html
HUNTER COLLEGE at the CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Subject areas: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction (Memoir or Biography), Poetry
Faculty: Peter Carey, Louise DeSalvo, Eva Hoffman, Tom Sleigh, Donna Masini, Jan Heller Levi, Meena Alexander, Jenefer Shute, Colum McCann, Colson Whitehead, Andrew Sean Greer, Elena Georgiou
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by semester. Tuition is $3 200 per semester for residents, so the degree would be $12 800 in all. For non-residents, the tuition is by credit at $520 per credit; the degree is 36 credits and should cost $18 720 in all.
Application materials: Submit all materials to Office of Graduate Admissions: Graduate Application, $125 application fee, 2 recommendations, GRE scores, transcript, personal statement (about yourself, why you write, and why you wish to come to Hunter; replaces statement of purpose in Graduate Application), writing sample; for creative nonfiction students, proposal for biography/memoir to write during program; interviews will be offered to waitlisted students
Deadline: 1 Feb. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Every semester, 5 Hertog Fellows (Fiction and Memoir students) are paired with a celebrated writer to work 10 hours a week as a research assistant; stipend is $5 K. Every semester, 5 Norma Lubetsky Friedman Scholars (Poetry students) work 10 hours a week with an established poet; stipend is also $5 K. 2nd-semester students can apply to teach Introduction to Creative Writing in the 3rd semester. Also, each year 2 MFA students are selected as Holtzbrinck Fellows, and are paid $10 K to work a 20-hour week for the academic year with the publishing imprints of Holtzbrink (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Henry Holt, St. Martins Press, and Picador).
Web address: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/creativewriting
THE NEW SCHOOL
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Writing for Children
Faculty: Robert Polito, Jeffrey Renard Allen, Jonathan Ames, Susan Bell, Mark Bibbins, Susan Cheever, Jonathan Dee, Elaine Equi, David Gates, Vivian Gornick, Shelley Jackson, Zia Jaffrey, Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, James Lasdun, David Lehman, Suzannah Lessard, Philip Lopate, Honor Moore, Maggie Nelson, Sigrid Nunez, Dale Peck, Liam Rector, Francine Prose, Helen Schulman, Tor Seidler, Dani Shapiro, Prageeta Sharma, Laurie Sheck, Darcey Steinke, Benjamin Taylor, Abigail Thomas, Paul Violi, Sarah Weeks, Susan Wheeler, Stephen Wright
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Easier to go by semester. Tuition per semester is $9.5 K.
Application materials: Submit all materials to the New School Creative Writing Program: MFA in Creative Writing Application, $50 application fee, 2 recommendations, 2 transcripts, statement of purpose, portfolio, résumé/vitae; GRE not required
Deadline: 15 Jan. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: The Writing program offers a limited number of scholarships to students who demonstrate financial need (amounts not specified). No teaching or graduate assistantships are mentioned on the program website—just government financial assistance programs, institutional scholarships/awards, and FAFSA.
Web address: http://www.generalstudies.newschool.edu/writing
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Fiction, Poetry
Faculty: E.L. Doctorow, Yusef Komunyakaa, Paule Marshall, Sharon Olds, Philip Levine, Breyten Breytenbach
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: Tuition is $1 024 per credit. The program is 32 credits, so it should cost about $33 K in its entirety.
Application materials: Submit all materials to the Graduate School of Arts and Science: Graduate Application, $80 application fee (online applicants) or $90 application fee (paper applicants), 3 recommendations, GRE scores, 2 transcripts, statement of purpose, writing sample, resumé. Note for non-online applicants: those in Fiction should send 1 photocopy of all materials except for recommendations and transcripts; those in Poetry should send 2 photocopies of all materials except for recommendations and transcripts.
Deadline: 15 Dec. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Teaching Assistantships: Approximately 40 teaching assistantships are offered to English graduate students in their second year in the program, with a stipend of $4 K per course. But entering candidates already holding an MA in any field may be eligible for teaching positions in the Expository writing program that offer a $20 K stipend plus full tuition for 2 years. Departmental Fellowships: 65%-85% of incoming students are offered full or partial departmental fellowships, consisting of tuition remission and/or stipend support. Annual huge-ass fellowships from affiliated organizations: Several students are named New York Times fellows and spend 2 days a week in NYC high schools doing creative writing workshops (stipend of $20 K from NY Times plus full tuition from NYU). Students may also apply for seven semester-long Goldwater fellowships ($1.5 K awarded for teaching at Goldwater Hospital), or Starworks Fellowships (ranging from “$3 K” to “$19 K per academic year plus full tuition” for working with hospitalized and environmentally at-risk children). Other: The Luna Rosa Prison Writing Project (working with women inmates) is probably voluntary and unpaid, but since it’s so unique I thought I’d mention it.
Web address: http://cwp.fas.nyu.edu/page/grad_programs
SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE
Subject areas: Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Fiction
Faculty: Kate Knapp Johnson, Mary La Chapelle, Vijay Seshadri, Gerry Albarelli, Jo Ann Beard, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Kurt Brown, Melvin Jules Bukiet, Tina Chang, Rachel Cohen, Nicholas Dawidoff, Stephen Dobyns, Carolyn Ferrell, Suzanne Gardinier, Myra Goldberg, Matthea Harvey, Amy Hempel, Joshua Henkin, Kathleen Hill, David Hollander, Cathy Park Hong, Marie Howe, Elizabeth Kendall, Joan Larkin, Paul Lisicky, Thomas Lux, Jeffrey McDaniel, Ernesto Mestre, Mary Morris, Brian Morton, Dennis Nurkse, Stephen O’Connor, Kevin Pilkington, Victoria Redel, Nelly Reifler, Martha Rhodes, Lucy Rosenthal, John Burnham Schwartz, Joan Silber, Barbara Probst Solomon, Alice Truax, Jennifer Wallace, Lawrence Weschler, Penny Wolfson
Length: 2 years
Tuition per year: $23 520 (24 credits in Year 1); $11 760 (12 credits in Year 2)
Application materials: Submit all materials to Graduate Studies Office: MFA Writing Application, $60 application fee, 2 recommendations, transcript, answers to 3 essay questions (“Please write an autobiography of 500-100 words,” “Please state in specific and general terms why you want to pursue graduate work,” “Why do you want to pursue your studies at SLC?”), and manuscript; GRE not mentioned
Deadline: 1 Feb. (fall); no spring admissions
Financial Aid: Through the Community Writers Program, Sarah Lawrence graduate writing students teach workshops, tutor or assist a writer-in-residence in the classroom. They also have access to placements at the Baccalaureate School for Global Education, the Bronx Academy of Letters, Concourse House, the State University of New York at Purchase, the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, the Westchester County Correctional Facility, and the Westchester County Department of the Aging. The logistics of these positions (e.g. tuition remission, stipend, salary) are not mentioned.
Web address: http://www.slc.edu/grad_writing.php
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
Subject areas: Poetry, Fiction
Faculty: Christopher Kennedy, Arthur Flowers, George Saunders, Mary Gaitskill, Farnoosh Moshiri, Michael Burkard, Brooks Haxton, Mary Karr, Bruce Smith
Length: 3 years
Tuition per year: Tuition is $940 per credit. The program is 48 credits, so in all it should cost $45 120.
Application materials: Submit to Graduate Enrollment Management Center (GEMC): Graduate Application, $65 application fee, 3 recommendations, GRE scores, 2 transcripts (if you haven’t yet been awarded your degree, you must later submit a record showing that it has been awarded), statement of purpose, and required teaching statement (states your potential as a teacher, even if you don’t have formal teaching experience yet). Submit to Director of Creative Writing in English Graduate Office: writing sample with basic information sheet.
Deadline: Fall admissions: 1 Jan. (writing sample); 9 Jan. (all other materials). No spring admissions.
Financial Aid: 5 creative writing fellowships for entering students entail full tuition remission and a living stipend of $11 000 to $15 450 for the first year (amount depends on the fellowship). Also, for both new and continuing students, there are teaching assistantships that entail full tuition remission for one year and a stipend of $12 469; these are renewable each year.
# of students admitted per year: 12 (6 Poetry, 6 Fiction)
Web address: http://english.syr.edu/graduate/mfa.htm
posted by Anna at 6:57 PM
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