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MFA in Creative Writing

Program Outline

Overview

To graduate in three years, if you have an Assistantship, plan to take five nine-hour semesters and one six-hour semester in the spring of your final year to complete a total of fifty-one hours. You must take nine hours each semester during your first year, as you need eighteen graduate English hours to be considered for a TA position.

During the summer, unless you have Texas resident status or work for the English department as an IA, you must pay out-of-state tuition.

If you do not have an Assistantship, plan to take four nine-hour semesters and two six-hour semesters to complete forty-eight hours in three years.

If you apply for financial aid, please follow the current guidelines, which require you to take nine hours per semester in order to qualify for full financial aid for tuition and fees. If you do not register for nine hours, your financial aid for tuition and fees will be prorated.

For financial aid information, please go to this link: www.txstate.edu/financialaid/html/scholarships.html.

Required Courses

  • Twelve degree hours (four sections) of workshop (5315). Note: typically, students take a workshop each semester of their first year. The remaining workshops may be taken at the students discretion. Most students choose one workshop in their second year and one in their third. However, the choice is up to the student.

  • Three degree hours (one section) of Form & Theory 5320 (fiction) or 5322 (poetry).

  • Three degree hours (one section) of Literary Techniques (5395). Note: Students may take ENG 5395 for credit a total of three times: once for the three hours of Literary Techniques credit, and twice more for a total of six hours of Cognate credit.
  • Fifteen degree hours (five sections) in literature courses, which may include six hours of 5312, Front Porch Journal.
  • Six degree hours (two sections) of thesis work
  • Nine degree hours (three sections) in a Cognate. Six hours may be 5395 seminars.