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53 Choosing the Right Graduate Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Some people go to a top-​ ranked writing program and love it; others go and hate it. Some people enter a program they think they’ll hate and end up loving it. Some people think they can live anywhere for two or three years, only to discover that, no, they can’t live anywhere , and those two or three years become a prison sentence. Some people go to a specific program to study with their favorite writer, realizing a week into the program that their favorite writer is a jerk, or their favorite writer, though still listed as faculty, never teaches, or both. Others go and find lifelong mentors. These scenarios are endless, and I’ve seen them all play out at creative writing programs, good and bad, large and small, across the country. At the end of the day, picking a program, no matter how much preparation you do, is a crapshoot. Having said that, you should still make a list of what’s important to you, if only to disqualify certain programs. What should your list look like? That’s really up toyou, but I would take a good, hard look at your list of what’s important to you to make sure that a degree in creative writing is what you really want. At Iowa, students were allowed to take electives in any other discipline that they wanted, as long as they took the required workshop and, in their second year, thesis hours. A few of my classmates decided that they would get a second degreewith those electives. A second degree meant (most likely) even more course requirements, more course work, a second thesis, and so on. I don’t know what’s become of those classmates who got second degrees, but I hope they were able to get jobs in their secondary field, because none of them, to my knowledge , are working writers today. Either they didn’t want to become writers badly enough, or they honestly thought they could handle getting two degrees at once. Personally, I fear they squandered valuable time. When I was applying to programs, I didn’t make a list. I was too naive to know what I wanted. I didn’t even know the difference between an MA and an MFA, let alone what I wanted out of a program. But if I were applying today, I would most definitely make a list, and here are a few things that would be important to me. 54 Education and the Writer 1. Time to write: I would need a program that emphasizes creative writing, not academic requirements. 2. Variety of professors: I would want a program with a lot of writers on the faculty or with a rotation of visiting writers. That way, if I don’t like one professor, I’m not stuck with him or her for two years. 3. Location: I have always thought it important to get away from one’s comfort zone for a while. Shake it up a little. Distance can give perspective to the place where you grew up, thereby making it easier to write about. 4. Financial aid: Here is where I royally screwed up the first time. When I was told I didn’t get funding, I didn’t argue. I accepted it as a done deal. What I realize now is that everything is negotiable. For more on this subject, see my chapter “The Graduate School Application Process.” These are my personal top four issues. Yours may be different. You may want an urban campus. You may prefer a small program. You may not care about funding. I urge my students, once they’ve put together their list of schools, to start thinking beyond it. I fear they sometimes get caught up in criteria that make no sense. For instance, my students at Wake Forest University and George Washington University have favored applying to graduate creative writing programs at private universities. I’m sure their line of thinking is that it would be a step down to go to a public school after spending so much money at a private school. What I hope to impart to them is that while, yes, there are some mighty fine creative writing programs at private universities, some of the best creative writing programs happen to be housed in public institutions. (Curiously, most of these students don’t believe me or, believing me, still don’t want to risk...

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