Show Me the Money: A Roundup of the Top-Funded MFA Programs

The MFA degree is increasingly popular with aspiring writers, but it's not exactly the most lucrative credential. While the ancillary experience of many MFA graduates may qualify them to teach or work in publishing, it's unlikely that upon graduation they'll be recruited for a high-paying job that will offset the cost of having attended. It only makes sense, then, that prospective students should avoid having to pay for the degree when they can.

Financial aid packages at many programs are rendering this notion more than just wishful thinking. Today, the top candidates for the nation's most selective MFA programs can expect free tuition, free health insurance, and no student fees during the two to four years of their graduate study in addition to a generous stipend for living expenses—sometimes without having anything expected of them in return besides producing their best creative work.

Assessing MFA financial aid packages is complicated, because most programs choose not to publicize their financial aid offerings—only about 20 percent of programs advertise a dollar-specific financial aid package. Fortunately, it's easy to see which MFA programs are the most generous—those that offer the best funding packages tend to be the most forthcoming. Still, comparing individual funding packages at the best-funded programs can be a difficult task, even a matter of comparing apples to oranges, as often one package's strength is another's weakness. The typical funding package comes in two forms: fellowships, which include a stipend without requiring work, and assistantships, which provide a stipend in exchange for some kind of work, usually teaching undergraduate classes, working as a researcher, or editing a publication.

MFA applicants should consider the following when weighing their funding options: the percentage of the entering class offered a funding package that includes a stipend and tuition remission; the degree to which funding is tied to employment; the availability and cost of health insurance; the renewability of the aid package from year to year and the requirements for renewal; and the extent to which the program offers discretionary funding for summer internships, submission fees, and postgraduate relocation and study costs.

These factors are the most important among an even longer list of considerations. For instance, applicants may be concerned about the impact of funding on a program's atmosphere—students considered the strongest writers often receive the best funding packages, thereby establishing a potential pecking order—and may prefer to apply only to programs where funding is uniform for all students.

For some students, program size will be relevant, because smaller programs are generally better able to find alternative sources of funding for students when an aid package falls short of a student's cost of attendance. A program with only eight new students per year may be able to find additional part-time employment for one or two students in a separate university department, but this might be more difficult in a larger program with thirty to forty new students a year. On the other hand, larger programs frequently offer a greater number of full-funding packages than smaller programs—even if the smaller programs tend to fully fund a higher percentage of their incoming classes—so some applicants will favor large programs.

The cost of living in the program's location must also be considered, as schools in low-cost locales may be giving their students a good value even with more modest stipends. Moreover, some states allow students at public universities to qualify for lower in-state tuition after their first year. Students should also consider the work requirement of their funding package. Stipends that come without any teaching or editing responsibilities are a perfect fit for students looking only for more time to write, but are not ideal for those with an interest in becoming teachers or editors upon graduation.

“Smaller programs are generally better able to find alternative sources of funding for students when an aid package falls short of a student's cost of attendance.”