Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Become an experienced fiction writer or poet with the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University. Develop your individual voice and techniques, define your aesthetics, and gain the critical skills needed to realize your creative vision. The 33-credit Creative Writing MFA provides you with essential resources to hone your craft, including small writing workshops, courses ranging from special topics to craft, one-on-one manuscript tutorials, and graduate seminars in the arts, humanities and literature. Students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing graduate with a fully formed manuscript of publishable quality, written under the guidance of the department's accomplished faculty members and visiting authors. Through this master's degree program, youll also learn how to prepare your work for submission to literary journals, publishers and agents. Graduates have been published by numerous trade and small presses, and their works have earned prestigious grants, prizes and residencies. In addition to launching your literary career, earning your MFA leads to work in several professional areas, including advertising, arts administration, book and magazine editing, grant writing, journalism, public relations and teaching.

Bachelor's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline: A baccalaureate degree is required, although it need not be in Creative Writing or English. An applicant must, however, display evidence of talent as a fiction writer or poet. A minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.0 is required for admission.

Statement of Goals: In two to four double-spaced pages, discuss literary influences and models that feed your creative work. We are interested in which writers and texts have been important to you in recent years, as well as what critical approaches, if any, you have found useful. Describe your work or teaching experience. Discuss your aims in attending an M.F.A. program. Mention what attracts you to Temple's program and whether you are familiar with Philadelphia. Give us a sense of who you area more detailed, personal picture than what can be gleaned from transcripts or resumes, especially if you have a non-traditional background or atypical undergraduate record.

Standardized Test Scores:
GRE: Optional. However, if you are taking or have taken the GRE and wish your scores for the general test to be considered, please have them forwarded electronically by ETS to Temple University.

Applicants who earned their baccalaureate degree from an institution where the language of instruction was other than English, with the exception of those who subsequently earned a master's degree at a U.S. institution, must report scores for a standardized test of English that meet these minimums:

TOEFL iBT: 79
IELTS Academic: 6.5
550 on the paper-based (PBT)
Resume: A personal resume or curriculum vitae is required. Work experience, whether academic or non-academic, is as important as any publishing credits, particularly since the latter is not required or expected at this stage of the applicant's career. The resume/CV should identify institutions, positions, duties, and dates for all teaching and/or tutoring experience listed.

Writing Sample: Your writing sample is the most crucial single element of your application. Send a packet of writing in one genre only: poetry or fiction. For poetry, submit ten pages. These pages may include shorter poems, longer poems, and/or an excerpt from a longer project.

The minimum admissions standard for all graduate students is ordinarily an undergraduate grade point average of B or 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, or the functional equivalent for students who have attended universities outside of the United States.