Cornell
Ithaca, NY
Two-year program (10 courses)
Funding: All MFA students receive full funding and healthcare through: a first-year Graduate Assistantship working at Epoch, a periodical of contemporary literature published by the Creative Writing Program or a first-year summer teaching assistantship, linked to a teachers training program; a second-year Teaching Assistantship with a full tuition fellowship; and/or a second summer fellowship. Graduate Assistantships
require 15-20 hours a week and receive receive full tuition credit and a stipend of $25,780. Summer funding typically ranges from $5,432 to $8,593.
“It changes slightly from year to year, but it’s a living wage—between $24,000 and $25,000 annually, at the moment.” -J. Robert Lennon, Director of MFA Program [July 11, 2013]
Faculty: Alice Fulton, Ishion Hutchinson, Michael Koch, J. Robert Lennon, Joanie Mackowski, Robert Morgan, Ernesto Quinonez, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Stephanie Vaughn, Helena Maria Viramontes
Application (Deadline Dec. 15 by 5 p.m. EST):
- Manuscript: 6,000-12,000 words for fiction; 10 poems minimum for poetry
- Statement of purpose: 1-2 single-spaced statement about the reasons for undertaking graduate work, academic interests in relation to undergraduate studies and professional goals
- Three letters of recommendation
- Official transcripts
- $95 application fee
Admission rate: 8 students (4 per genre) admitted; 1.5% acceptance rate
Affording the MFA 
Cornell offers 25k for the 9 month academic period but also offers 5k in summer funding for the summers between years 1 and 2 and between year 2 and one’s lecturer appointment (or graduation if you don’t take the 3rd and 4th year appointment). So it’s kind of closer to 30k/yr when everything shakes out.