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Re: [lovemardou] Choosing an MFA Program (2009):
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umass76
Jul 30, 2008, 6:05 PM
Views: 9624
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Re: [lovemardou] Choosing an MFA Program (2009)
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Houston:
* Top 20 overall (somewhere #16 to #19)
* Top 10 poetry (faculty Top 5)
* Top 30 fiction
* Top 25 funding (a 75%+ funded program [i.e. 75% receive full/near-full funding])
* "topping-off" fellowships available
* Tier 2 in comprehensive rankings
* very low cost of living (for a city) [Houston is a former pit now making a slow resurgence (think Cleveland 10 to 15 years ago)]
* Also hosts Top 5 Creative Writing PhD. program (Top 2 poetry)
* 10 poets/10 fiction-writers admitted per year (program is considered mid-size)
* Post-graduate publishing record is strong (Top 10 to Top 15)
* Post-graduate placement in academia is not as strong (approx. Top 50)
The one danger: your professors are most likely working off the 1996 USNWR rankings, which had Houston as a Top 5 program--in other words they're paying you a very high compliment indeed, but they also may not be as informed about which schools you can/should target as current conventional wisdom would have it (i.e., I do think many very well-intentioned advisers are still working off the mid-1990s MFA landscape). At this point it isn't a Top 10 program overall, but it's a very, very strong program, and seems likely to hold in the Top 25 for another decade at a minimum. In poetry it should definitely be on anyone's application list, assuming you don't mind living in Texas.
Be well,
Seth
(This post was edited by umass76 on Jul 30, 2008, 6:07 PM)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by umass76
(User) on Jul 30, 2008, 6:06 PM
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Post edited by umass76
(User) on Jul 30, 2008, 6:07 PM
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Post edited by umass76
(User) on Jul 30, 2008, 6:07 PM
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