From Columbia College's Fiction Writing Website: The Graduate Program Director is happy to meet with prospective students....

Anyway, I don't smell any entitlement or presumption here: just an eager student who's curious about the program.

Sorry for the obsessive details, but hey, that's what I do. This is my area of specialty. Be well, Seth

Your tuition waiver pays the tuition on 9 credit hours worth of tuition during fall/spring and 3 credit hours during summer. Students pay fees on the order of $42.00 per credit hour. Starting in 2009 these fees will be deducted from the student’s paycheck.

So, finally, after 3+ years of watching people apply, I'm giving it a go. I've decided on sending out 18 fiction applications (yes, I know I might be erring on the side of excess. But the fees aren't going to break me, so what the hell? I might as well :) ). The list is mostly finalized, except for the 18th spot, for which 3 programs: University of South Florida; University of Central Florida; and University of South Carolina are competing.

Almost all of my other schools are fully-funded and on the smaller side of the admission rate scale. While I'm aware there is no such thing as a "safety school", I am trying to give my list a few universities with better acceptance rates. I currently live in Florida, and enjoy Tampa and Orlando, the respective cities of USF and UCF. They are both very new programs, however... which might mean a fresh outlook and might mean a still-developing system. USC worries me because of their habit of accepting/rejecting late (past April 15th) and their lack of clear funding information (in terms of $ amounts).

Any opinions for the fiction applicant on that last spot? USF, UCF, or USC?

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Hi chapelhell--2009 Florida graduate here.

What happened was, in the transition to a three-year program, Florida went from guaranteeing summer funding for MFAs (so that they could finish up 48 credit hours in two years), to no longer guaranteeing it. A good number of MFAs did end up getting summer teaching appointments, late in the spring, but some did not. Keep in mind that two students per year get an alumni fellowship that guarantees summer paychecks without teaching.

That being said, the funding here overall is now much better than it was during my two years in the program. The back-handed tuition you refer to (which are evil and icky, I think) used to total something around, IIRC, $3000 in two years as we only had 36 out of 48 credit hours covered, and many students were forced to take out loans because of this. I was just talking to some new students and the fees now are, in total, only a couple hundred dollars--apologies that I don't know the exact amount.

Something else that might be relevant to those looking at Florida's financial package: in your second and third year, you're given a 2:1 or 1:2 load, but the paychecks are not prorated, so students need to budget for that. I was able to (easily) get additional teaching through the University Writing Program teaching comp, which brought my teaching load up to 2:2 during my thesis year, but again, this isn't guaranteed, and you have to ask for it.

State budget cuts have really only affected MFAs so far in that we were told not to copy our syllabi on English department computers.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any other questions regarding UF. I'd be happy to help.

Yours,
Phoebe
www.phoebeeating.com