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There are a number of vehicles by which to investigate Creative Writing graduate programs at other schools. Your best resource in your search is UW Creative Writing Program faculty with whom you're studying as an undergraduate; they are generally familiar with programs at other schools. You should be actively reading the published work of faculty at your targeted schools. This will give you an idea of how your fiction or poetry may fit in with the kinds of writing that a particular program is known for or prominent in. It will also familiarize you with the names of faculty who may become potential graduate mentors for you.
You should also investigate each program and its requirements: do these things support the learning goals that you have set for yourself? (Some programs are highly structured and have requirements in critical theory, literature, foreign language or translation, and the like, while other programs are much "looser" and focus primarily on creative writing workshops.)
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Creative Writing
Graduate
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As you begin your search, ask yourself some questions:
With whom do you want to study? What program has writers whose work interests
you?
It's important to choose graduate programs that have the faculty and other resources (library,
technical, etc.) to support your studies in creative writing. It's also very important to choose a
program where the faculty have interests that are similar to your own: if your interest is in
experimental fiction, for example, then investigate schools where at least some of the writing
faculty are experimentalists. Read the work of the creative writing faculty, and aim to study with
writers whom you admire. MFA admission committees, when reviewing your application, will be
evaluating how you will fit into their particular communities of writers and trying to match your
background and interests with the interests of their faculty and current MFA students.
Where are you willing to live?
Think about where you'd like to spend the next two years of your life. What's important to you in
a geographic area? Climate? Urban/rural setting? Community diversity? Proximity to
organizations/institutions? Social life/activities? Cost of living? Available health care?
Proximity to family and friends? Availability of part time employment? Academic resources or
writing groups/activities?
What kind of financial aid or support do you need?
Investigate the kinds of financial support available to graduate students in
your targeted programs in the form of teaching assistantships, fellowships,
grants, and other graduate student
appointments. Many schools have general information listed on their web sites.
For more specific information, query the individual programs. Some federal
financial aid in the form of loans is
available. Visit the UW Graduate School's page on finances for links to federal
programs: http://www.grad.washington.edu/fellow/fellasst.htm
.
Here are some other places to begin investigating graduate programs:
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)
Poets and Writers information on MFA programs
The Modern Language
Association (MLA) Guide to Graduate Programs in English Studies.
2000 National Doctoral
Program Survey includes
information on student satisfaction with English Programs rated in a number
of categories by current
and recent PhD students
The Peterson's Guide to Graduate and Professional
Schools
Directory of U.S. Graduate Programs
You can also check the directories and resources located in UW's Suzzalo Library and
at the UW Career Center.
