The Department of English offers a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, a 36-hour, two-year studio/academic degree program. Students take twelve hours of workshop classes, twelve hours of literature, six hours of free electives, and six hours of thesis. The electives may be selected both from within or without the English Department so as to support an area of interest such as linguistics and translation, historical fiction, etc.

The program provides an opportunity for students of superior ability in imaginative writing to develop their skills and critical judgment through the practice of writing and the study of literature. Our aim is to prepare talented students for careers in writing and teaching writing.

Graduates of the program may pursue careers as professional writers, and will be qualified to teach in two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities.

We anticipate some students will seek the degree as a means of life enrichment as well as for a professional credential. Our location in Raleigh allows us to reach the highly educated and densely populated areas in and around Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

NC State has a long tradition of academic and literary excellence, including its heritage of writers from Guy Owen to Lee Smith, its publishing of the Southern Poetry Review, Free Verse, Jouvert and Obsidian, its current excellent faculty. Our long established M.A. program has drawn steady interest from increasingly well qualified students, and we have developed a reputation for nurturing writers who then go on to publish and do advanced study in writing. MA graduates from our creative writing program have gone on to MFA and Ph.D. creative writing programs at Alabama, Iowa, George Mason, Virginia, Florida. Emerson College, the New School, and many other places. They have published novels, memoirs, stories, and poetry and have produced film scripts. The MFA program builds on this foundation

The MFA accepts only about a dozen students year, six in fiction and six in poetry. Consequently students will receive considerable individual attention from faculty and be able to pursue interests in history, linguistics, science, design, or other disciplines that may inform and enrich their creative writing.

The required Master's Thesis for the MFA is a book-length manuscript of approximately 200 pages for fiction and 60 pages for poetry. Degree candidates are expected to produce a work of literary value and publishable quality, worthy of submission to an agent or publisher. The point of it is to prepare you for your life as a working writer.

The strength of NCSU in the sciences and technology offers students the opportunity to do creative work that engages with issues of technology and its effect on individuals and institutions that are not typically addressed in fine arts programs.

For more information specifically about creative writing at NC State, please contact:

Dr. Wilton Barnhardt
Director of Creative Writing
Department of English
Box 8105, Tompkins Hall
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105
(919 515-4129)
wwbarnha@unity.ncsu.edu

Creative Writing at NC State Home Page
http://www.ncsu.edu/creativewriting/

For further information about applying and about graduate programs:

Admissions Calendar Deadlines: Spring 2006

United States Applicants: April 1, 2006 for enrollment in August 2006

International Applicants: March 1, 2006 for enrollment in August 2006

How to Apply to the MFA

Start with the official application form
This 2-page form can be found online by clicking on "Apply Now" at the N.C. State Graduate School site.
The cost to apply is $55. Once you submit this form you are considered an official applicant, but it is only part of the complete application.

If for some reason you do not have access to an online computer, request a paper application by calling the NC State Graduate School at (919) 515-2872, or write to:

The Dean of the Graduate School
Peele Hall, Box 7102
NC State University
Raleigh NC 27695-7102

On the first page put MFA Creative Writing in the box that asks for the degree or program.
Indicate whether you are applying for admission only, or admission with financial aid.
If you are applying for aid, under your first preference check "Teaching Assistantship." The English Department offers no Research Assistantships, and any Fellowships are added to the stipends Teaching Assistants receive.
On the second page of the online form, the personal statement, explain your interest in our MFA program, what you offer us, and whether you have specific interest in teaching.
All of the pages of the online application will go straight to the Graduate School, and they in turn will send the forms to the English department.
In addition to this online personal statement, if you wish you may send a longer statement of goals along with the writing sample. Send those directly to the Graduate Director’s address given below. If you have been working and wish to send a résumé or curriculum vitae please do so.
GRE Scores
You will need to take the Graduate Record Exam general test unless you’ve taken it within the past 5 years. For more information about the 3 parts (Verbal, Quantitative, Analytic Writing) see the ETS web site.

There are no absolute minimum cutoff scores, but our recent average for the GRE Verbal is 590 for accepted MA applicants.
The test is now managed online and can be taken once in any calendar month . It can be retaken as well on the same schedule. We will keep your highest scores. Designate that your scores are sent to NC State University by indicating institution code 5496, department code 14. We do not require the Subject test in English. In some select cases, as when candidates already hold a graduate-level degree, we can waive the GRE, but you must specifically request this waiver and submit a letter of explanation to the Graduate Director supporting your case for exemption.

Scores for the Verbal and Quantitative sections are machine scored and typically reach NC State within 2 weeks of your taking the test; however, the Analytical Writing portion of the test, instituted in October 2002, takes longer because it is read by people. Consequently, do not assume that your complete GRE scores can reach us in less than a month.

These next 3 parts of the application should be sent directly to:

Graduate Director, English Department
Box 8105
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105
1) Three Letters of Recommendation
Via the same application web site, download and print out the cover sheets for the letters of recommendation. If you request the print application, these sheets will be included in it. Send these to three qualified recommenders, preferably people able to speak to your creative writing, reading, interpreting, and critical writing skills, as well as your general academic aptitude. Ask that they also submit a letter along with the cover sheets, since those sheets have scoring grids but very little room for the more helpful extended comments about candidates. Ideally the letters should represent serious reviews of your work by those familiar with your writing and your ability to succeed in graduate-level literature classes. They will typically be from teachers of writing and teachers of literature. Ask your recommenders to mail them directly to the English Graduate Director rather than returning them to you to mail.

2) Two Copies of Official Transcripts
Notify all undergraduate and graduate institutions you have attended to have TWO official copies of your transcripts sent to the Graduate Director’s address above. If you are an NC State undergraduate or other student, you do not have to order official transcripts since we can retrieve them from Registration and Records.

3) Writing Sample
Your sample is the most critical part of the application. Take time and care with it to be sure that it represents your very best work. MFA applicants need to submit both a creative and a critical writing sample as follows

Creative Sample--two stories or novel chapters totaling 25-40 pages are required; for poetry, 10-12 poems.

Critical Sample--No more than 15 pages of writing demonstrating your ability to succeed in graduate-level literature classes, a required part of the MFA curriculum.

.
Where Do I Send It?
Online application form: by submitting the form, it is automatically sent to the Graduate School

Writing Samples, letters of recommendation, additional statement of goals--
mail to English Graduate Director; note that recommendations may now be uploaded electronically via the online application forms

2 official transcripts of any undergraduate or graduate records-- mail to the Graduate School

GRE general test scores sent by ETS to the Graduate School

Once the Graduate School receives all of the materials sent directly to them, they compile them and send them to the English Department. If you send the sample, goals, and letters to the Graduate School they will eventually get to the department, but not as quickly as when those materials are sent to the English Graduate Director directly.

Admissions Protocol

As soon as an application is complete, it is scheduled to be read by the Graduate Director. If you are pushing a deadline, your application may be competing with as many as 20 others for when it will be read. After that first reading, the application is sent to at least one other faculty reader. The Director and readers consult to determine whether to recommend admission. Only after the Department's recommendation is reviewed and approved by the Graduate School is a candidate officially notified of the decision.

Decision Types
Your first official notification of the decision comes on a one-page letter from the Dean of the Graduate School. After receiving this you will be sent information from the English Graduate Director about Assistantships, and then registration for your first classes in the English Department.

Full Admission with Aid: student enters as a Teaching Assistant

Full Admission without Aid: student enters without an assistantship, but is eligible for one should one become available after the student has enrolled

Provisional Admission: student enters ineligible for aid until earning, in the first 9 letter-graded hours of graduate coursework, a 3.0 GPA or better

Deny: student may not enroll, but may be counseled to consider taking PBS classes

Deferred Enrollment

Should you be accepted, but unable to enroll in the term to which you were officially admitted, you may defer your enrollment by up to one year. To do so you must email or write the Graduate Director explaining why you need to defer. The Graduate Director then sends the request to the Graduate School. Such requests typically are granted.

Although it is technically possible for your enrollment to begin in the Spring semester, typically we admit a full complement of graduate students each fall and therefore do not have open space available in the MFA program until the following fall.

MORE QUESTIONS? CONTACT:
Dr. Antony Harrison
Director of Graduate Programs
Department of English
Box 8105, Tompkins Hall
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105
(919) 515-4107
(919) 515-4106 [secretary]
engahh@unity.ncsu.edu

For more on the graduate community in the English Department, see the MA program site and the Graduate Student Handbook:

The Department of English has proposed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and it hopes to admit its first students in the fall of 2003. The degree will be a 36-hour, two-year studio/academic program. Students will take twelve hours of workshop classes, twelve hours of literature, six hours of free electives, and six hours of thesis. The electives may be selected both from within or without the English Department so as to support an area of interest such as linguistics and translation, historical fiction, etc.

The objective of the MFA is to produce polished writers of fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, screenwriting, and drama. Graduates of the program may pursue careers as professional writers, and will be qualified to teach in two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities. We anticipate some students will seek the degree as a means of life enrichment as well as for a professional credential. Our location in Raleigh will allow us to reach the highly educated and densely populated areas in and around Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

Central North Carolina, with its three major universities and several colleges producing many graduates in literary and other studies, has no graduate program offering a terminal degree in creative writing. NC State -- with its long traditions in academic and literary excellence, its heritage of writers from Guy Owen to Lee Smith, its publishing of the Southern Poetry Review, Free Verse, Jouvert and Obsidian, its current excellent faculty, and its Division I status -- has the potential to offer a first-rate fine arts degree in creative writing. NC State's location in the Research Triangle offers the opportunity to draw highly educated students who are not typical graduate students, people who have been out in the world and pursued careers in other areas. Our current M.A. program has drawn steady interest from increasingly well qualified students, and we have developed a reputation for nurturing writers who then go on to publish and do advanced study in writing. MA graduates from our creative writing program have gone on to MFA and Ph.D. creative writing programs at Alabama, Iowa, George Mason, Virginia, Florida. Emerson College, the New School, and many other places. They have published novels, memoirs, stories, and poetry and have produced film scripts. But many prospective students, who might otherwise come to or remain at NCSU, seek the more focused instruction and enhanced career prospects more available from an MFA degree than an MA.

We intend to make this a small program, with considerable individual attention from faculty, that yet offers students the opportunity to pursue interests in history, linguistics, science, design, or other disciplines that may inform and enrich their creative writing. The strength of NCSU in the sciences and technology offers students the opportunity to do creative work that engages with issues of technology and its effect on individuals and institutions that are not typically addressed in fine arts programs. Beyond campus, the vitality of such a program inevitably reaches far into the cultural life of the community.

For more information, please contact:

Dr. John Kessel
Director of Creative Writing
Department of English
Box 8105, Tompkins Hall
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8105
(919 515-4170)
tenshi@unity.ncsu.edu