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University of Wyoming

Frequently Asked Questions

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What type of student funding is offered? - Top

        All of our current full-time MFA students are fully funded with two-year graduate assistantships.  Currently, assistantships include a stipend of $11,349 per academic year, a tuition and fees waiver, and student health insurance. In exchange, GAs teach one course per semester in our first-year composition program. Our students also receive summer stipends in the amount of $2000 for the summer between the first and second years of the program.  Beyond assistantships and summer stipends, each student in our program is also given a publication support budget, and has access to several hundred dollars of travel support from the program each year.  We are also aggressive in continuing to seek opportunities for our students once they're arrived in the program, and we actively collaborate with students on grant applications for research, travel, and writing support.  Our students win numerous departmental and university scholarships, including English department scholarships, ENR program grants, and coveted Arts and Sciences Independent Study Awards that support summer writing projects.  Through our program's travel grants, recent students have traveled to Mexico, China, Latvia, England, Canada, Germany and Uruguay and returned with exciting new material for their fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.
 
The MFA program is committed to full funding.  We will announce our funding packages for the class of 2010 on our website in Fall 2009.  While future university funding levels mean we may not be able to realize our goal each year, we are working actively to make full funding a permanent aspect of our program.
 
Further information about teaching assistantships is available via our application web page. Contact our director, Beth Loffreda, with any other funding-related questions.

 

 

 

How many applicants are accepted each year? - Top

We expect to accept 3-4 students in each area--poetry, fiction, and nonfiction--but this may vary in a given year, depending upon the applicant pool, acceptance rates in the year before, funding levels, etc.

 

 

On what do you base the admission? - Top

Several faculty members in your genre review all the parts of your application package. Because this is a writing program, the primary focus is on your writing sample. Be certain to include writing that you not only feel is your finest, but also representative of the type of writing that you would desire to continue pursuing here.

 

 

What is the curriculum? - Top

Four workshops, 4 credit hours each, 16 hours min. (one workshop must be outside student's main genre)
Two courses in Literary Studies, 4000 or 5000 level, 6-8 hours min.
Three elective courses, 9 hours min.
Thesis, at least 6 hours (may be taken incrementally)
Professional internship, 3 hours

Total Credits 40-42 hours
 
        As an outgrowth of its interdisciplinary emphasis, the UW MFA offers students the opportunity to elect specific concentrations. An affiliation with the American Indian Studies Program allows MFA students to minor in American Indian Studies. For more information on this minor, see the American Indian Studies website. An affiliation with the Helga Otto Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources enables MFA students to double major, in creative writing and ENR.
For more information on this major, see the ENR website.

 

 

How long will it take to complete the program? - Top

The program is typically completed in two years.  Students may elect to do the internship during a regular semester; alternately, it can be completed during the summer between the first and second year, or during the summer after the second year.

 

-also-
The program will accept a limited number of self-described part-time MFA students.

 

 

If I have a master's degree, do I need to submit GRE scores? - Top

No, your transcripts will be enough and will confirm the master's degree.

 

 

What is it like to live in Laramie? - Top

Home to the University of Wyoming, Laramie (population 27,000) is situated in southeastern Wyoming, two hours north of Denver, near the foot of the Snowy Range of the Rocky Mountains. UW was recently named by Outside magazine as one of the 40 best college towns in the United States, and for good reason: the rugged mountains and high plains of the Snowies and the Medicine Bow National Forest to the east and west of town offer boundless opportunities for hiking, camping, trout fishing, mountain biking, rock climbing, and skiing.

 

 

How much does tuition cost? - Top

Semester Tuition and Fee Schedule 2009-2010 Academic Year

 

 

Are there any student publications? - Top

 

The Office of Student Publications produces the Owen Wister Review, which MFA students may apply to work with.  This literary and arts magazine is published twice a year.  Independently managed and produced by university students, it features poetry, short stories, essays, photography and artwork.

 

 

Tell me about the MFA program's partnership with the Ucross Foundation. - Top

 The MFA program enjoys the good fortune of a partnership with the Ucross Foundation in northern Wyoming.  Each year, one new graduate of the MFA program is awarded a 4-week residency at Ucross. The Ucross Foundation Residency Program offers the gift of time and space to individuals working in all artistic disciplines.  The program provides living accommodations, individual work space, and uninterrupted time to approximately 85 individuals each year.  At any one time, there are up to nine individuals in residence, a mix of visual artists, writers and composers.  Beginning in 2009, the MFA program will also collaborate with the Ucross Foundation to bring Ucross residents to Laramie for readings and events with MFA students, and to offer Ucross residencies to our Eminent Writers in Residence.  For more information about Ucross, visit www.ucrossfoundation.org.

 

 

 

Tell me about the Eminent Writer-in-Residence. - Top

 Thanks to an endowment from the State of Wyoming, the UW MFA annually invites Eminent Writers-in-Residence to join its work during the school year. The first Eminent Writer-in-Residence, for the year 2007 - 08, was Terry Tempest Williams. The Eminent Writer-in-Residence for the 2008 - 09 school year was Joy Williams.  Our Eminent Writer in fiction in 2009-2010 is Edward P. Jones (February/March 2010); our Eminent Writer in nonfiction in 2009-2010 is Philip Gourevitch (January 2010).  Our Eminent Writer in poetry is Claudia Rankine (September 2009).   We are delighted to announce that our Eminent Writer in Fiction for the 2010-2011 academic year will be Rattawut Lapcharoensap, and our Eminent Writers in Poetry will be Jan Zwicky and Robert Bringhurst and our EWR in Nonfiction will be Rebecca Solnit. Holders of this position in the future will continue to include distinguished writers from all three genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) represented in the program.

 

 

For further information or to apply - Top

click here

 

 

Have a question? - Top

Here at the University of Wyoming, we believe that one of the best ways to get to know our program is to talk to our students and faculty. If you have a question, please e-mail cw@uwyo.edu .