I wasn’t planning on having my first post revolve around my current MFA applications crisis, but here we are. I think I’ve spent about my entire summer looking through the different programs, taking notes on the specifics and specialities of each program, and the funding they offer. As an international student from Canada, it can be quite pricy to attend unfunded MFA programs in both the U.S. and in the U.K.
So, what I’ve discovered is that most of the U.K. schools do NOT guarantee funding, and it’s a likely case that you may have to pursue a Ph.D. in Creative after your MA because most of them don’t offer the terminal MFA degree. Well, this all depends on what your goals are after! Anyhow, I originally came up with a list of maybe 30-35 schools, but realized that was too many–the low acceptance rates of MFA programs really get into your head. I’ve finally managed to whittle it down to 16 schools, still quite a lot, but at least it’s not 30 anymore…
Now, I’m trying to finish my personal statement and decide on the pieces that I want to include in my writing sample. I’ve also been going back and forth with these two things for quite a while now. It seems like my notes for my personal statement just keeps getting longer but I still have yet to put it together… I promised myself that I’d be finished by mid-October so I can contact my past professors for references in time. We’ll see how this goes!
I’ve included a list of schools I’m planning on applying to below if anyone is also interested in applying for MFAs (the ones with an asterisk are my top choices so far), and if you happen to have any questions feel free to drop me a comment or email and I’ll try my best to answer it with what little knowledge I have!
*On a side note: This will be my second year applying to Creative Writing MFA programs. In my first year, I didn’t apply to any U.K. schools. I applied to 7 different programs and was accepted into 1 but ultimately declined because of the lack of funding offered.
U.S. Programs:
New York University*, Columbia University, Iowa Writers Workshop*, John Hopkins University, Brown University, Boston University, Cornell University, Purdue University, and University of California (Irvine/San Diego).
U.K. Programs:
Lancaster University, University of Glasgow, University of East Anglia*, University of Edinburgh, and University of Manchester.
Canadian Programs:
University of Guelph.
A.J.
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