MFA Programs?

University of Iowa. Undisputed top dog for prestige. Plus, they produced Tracy Kidder.

Stanford not far behind, although I don't know what's happened to that program since the passing of Wallace Stegner.

In the eastern part of the U.S., Cornell.

caw

I would advise you to get the current issue of "Poets & Writers". They made a special on MFA programs.

I agree with blacbird and wish to add that USC or UCLA would be excellent because of their proximity to Hollywood for screenwriting and alumni contacts.

dceptiveophelia said:

I'm thinking of getting an MA in English Lit if I don't get into a writing program, but it's not my number one choice. And, especially with the state of the economy, I feel that a Master's is necessary to give me an edge in the job market (as well as contribute to my life long learning).

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What job market would an MA in English Lit help you get a job in?

I have an MFA (Fiction) and I definitely think it's a great thing to do, IF you get into the kind of program you want (i.e., in your case, nonfiction) at a good school AND IF they give you funding. Otherwise, it's basically the world's most expensive writing workshop. It doesn't make sense to go thousands and thousands of dollars into debt to do a writing workshop. You can get good writing workshops, online or in person, for far, far, far less money. The only thing that an MFA qualifies you to do that you would not be able to do without it is teach college--but the market is saturated enough that the only way you can actually get a job is if you have both an MFA AND a good record of publications in your field (fiction/nonfiction/poetry--or produced screenplays, if your field is screenwriting).

So if you don't get into a funded program, do not go. I'm not saying NEVER go, necessarily--I'm just saying, stay in the real world, with a job, writing intensively on the side, doing writing workshops, trying to get published, until your writing skills and experience are good enough to get you into a funded program. Seriously. If you think it's hard writing on the side while also working a full-time job, try life post-nonfunded MFA: writing on the side, while working a full-time job, AND while making monstrous student loan payments every month.

And now back to my first question: unless you are madly, madly in love with English Literature and literary theory--which is what you'd be studying in a graduate program--there is literally no point whatsoever in getting an MA in English Lit. Unlike an MFA, an MA does not qualify you to teach anywhere, not even junior high school. Maybe a private junior high or high school would hire you--a public school couldn't, unless you also had teacher certification--but is that actually your career goal? If not, what IS your career goal, and how would an MA in English Lit help you get there?

The other potential problem with an MA in English Lit is that at many schools--possibly most, though I really couldn't say--you don't apply to an MA program, you apply to a PhD program, and they happen to give you an MA degree along the way. My sense, and I could be wrong on this so do check, is that to get funding, you will be limited to PhD programs that grant MA's en route. (And like I said earlier, IT IS INSANE to get a graduate degree in the humanities without funding. IT IS INSANE to pay for such a graduate degree yourself. You will literally spend the next 20 years paying through the nose for it.) So anyway, to get an MA with funding, you'll probably need to be applying to PhD programs. Your competitors will largely be people who are completely passionate about some aspect of English Lit and/or literary theory. What is your statement of purpose going to say--"I am applying for this MA because I didn't get into an MFA program"? How are you going to muster the kind of passion and engagement to put together a competitive application, given that you're actually NOT passionate about getting an MA?

And more to the point, WHY would you apply to an MA program, given that there are essentially no jobs that require it...

Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to discourage you from following your dream, at all. I just observed from your post that an MA in English Lit is not your dream (so why do it?!), and I also surmised that you might have some misconceptions about the job market--i.e., you think there are nice jobs you could get with an English MA that you could not get otherwise. There are a lot of people who apply to grad school for no other reason than that they don't know what to do after college and they liked their [insert subject here] classes. That's a really bad reason to get massively in debt. If your dream is to be a writer of creative nonfiction, then pursue it, absolutely--all I'm saying is that the plan you described (going for MFA, and if not that, then MA) is not the best path to that dream.

Oh and by the way, the U of Pittsburgh has a strong program in creative nonfiction.