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Undergraduate students planning graduate study in creative writing can do a number of things to prepare:
Seek faculty mentors: Creative Writing Program faculty are your best resource for graduate preparation. They can make suggestions about schools and programs, supervise independent studies in creative writing that you may pursue as an undergraduate, and write letters of recommendation to MFA/MA Creative Writing programs.
Take additional upper division workshops in creative writing in your genre (fiction or poetry). Some schools do offer an MFA/MA program in creative non fiction. In this case, taking expository writing courses ENGL 381 and 481 (special topics) will stand you in good stead.
Begin to develop your creative writing sample: Most graduate programs have a January deadline for students seeking admission for the following autumn, so you'll need to have your creative writing sample ready early. Tell the creative writing faculty members with whom you're studying that you're putting together your creative writing sample for graduate programs; they may have suggestions for you or be willing to work with you on an individual basis. Poets should prepare to send 6-20 poems (depending on the program); prose writers should prepare to send 10-50 pages in story or novel form (depending on the program). Check with each MFA/MA program you're considering to find out what's required.
Begin to develop your critical writing sample: Some Creative Writing graduate programs will ask you to submit a critical writing sample along with your creative writing sample. Check with each MFA/MA program you're considering to find out what's required. The critical writing sample is usually 12-20 pages of your best critical writing, often a revised paper from an undergraduate course or part of a senior project. If you've written a paper for an English course that you're thinking of developing into your writing sample, talk with your instructor. He or she may have suggestions for you on how to improve it, or may be willing to work with you on further revisions.
Begin to write your statement of purpose: English Undergraduate
Advising offers Statement of Purpose Workshops every autumn quarter. Watch
your englmajors
e-mail for workshop dates. Some relatively low-cost statement of purpose
writing courses are also offered through the UW
Women's Center
. Your statement of purpose is an extremely important part
of your application materials; you should plan to spend a lot of time on it
and rewrite it many times. For English Advising's online
information about statement of purpose writing, click here.
Investigate schools and programs. Ask creative writing faculty for their recommendations. Request admission packets and begin to look over the materials. Click here for links to the top-ranked Creative Writing graduate programs.
Start a "LEO" Credential File with the UW Career Center. Most
graduate programs will ask you to waive your right to see your letters of recommendation.
You can direct those writing recommendations for you to send them to the UW
Career Center for inclusion in a Letters
of Evaluation Online (LEO) file. The Career Center will send letters out
to graduate programs upon your request. There is a fee for this service.
Prepare to take the Graduate Records Exam (GRE). Some students
choose to take GRE preparation courses; others use books or software programs.
Most schools will require both the General Test and the Subject Test in Literature.
Check with each school for their admission requirements. Some relatively low-cost
preparation courses are offered through the UW
Women's Center. You can visit GRE online at www.gre.org.
