Are M.F.A.s Worth It?

 

As I neared the end of my undergraduate career, I had a choice to make. Would I pursue my love of reading and writing or would I venture off into the professional world? 

After a gap year, in which I worked as a secretary at a law firm, I decided to follow my interests and enroll in a creative writing program. 

What was the total cost?

I opted for a low-residency program. What this means is that I was on campus for two weeks every six months. When I was on campus, I went to lectures and workshops hosted by my peers and our professors. Then, at home we would work through online workshop groups to complete our reading lists and receive monthly feedback from our mentors. Each semester costed $8,000 dollars, for a total of $32,000.

What did the overall curriculum look like?

This particular program was set up so that the students and their mentors worked together to have a semester syllabus in place before our on campus time was over. For some of my mentors, they had a bigger say in what I was reading or working on, but most of the time it was a pretty equal say.

I'm an overachiever at heart, so I read my way through between twelve and fifteen books a semester. These ranged from classics to modern pieces with a hefty sprinkling of craft books and articles.

As for the writing, I spent the majority of my time writing poetry with a semester entirely focused on fiction (Though these days, I primarily write fiction rather than poetry). 

Did you have to write a thesis?

Yes. But given that this was a creative writing master's program, it was half my actual thesis and half the work that I had created during my time as a student writer. 

Do you have to get an M.F.A to be a good writer?

Nope. But you do have to learn about craft. I chose to do that via a degree, but you could just as easily read your way through craft books using your local library, and get your workshop knowledge for participating in a local writer's group. 

Would you do it again?

Yes. I learned a lot about myself as a writer and also the craft. I had to get comfortable letting people misunderstand my writing, which sounds bad but it isn't always. Sometimes that think it is much cooler than it really is. I also what place I wanted to have in the literary world. Even though I wrote literary fiction in graduate school, I learned that I love genre fiction much more for both reading and writing.

What other questions do you have about M.F.A.s? Comment below!