Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
Three-year program (42 credits)
Funding: Teaching assistantships in any of the composition programs, including creative writing, provide a base stipend of approximately $17,000 for ten months, remission of tuition and most fees, plus merit raises.
Faculty: Roxane Gay, Brian Leung, Sharon Solwitz, Marianne Boruch, Bob Hicok, Donald Platt
Application (Deadline Dec. 30):
- Manuscript: 2-3 stories or a novel excerpt for fiction; a group of 8-10 poems for poetry; include a brief written statement responding to whose work you admire, what collection of poetry and/or works of fiction read in the last year have been important to you, and why.
- Statement of purpose: 300-500 words describing your intellectual interests and professional goals and explain why you think Purdue’s English Department is a good place to pursue them. You also may explain any special circumstances regarding your background and elaborate on your scholarly publications, awards, achievements, abilities, and/or professional history.
- Critical writing sample: 10-15 pages essay written for an English course
- Three letters of recommendation
- Official copy of transcripts
- General GRE scores
- $60/75 application fee
Admission rate: “We admitted 4 students in poetry (55 applied) and 4 students in fiction (139 applied) last year.” -Jill Quirk, Graduate Secretary [Dec. 18, 2012]
Affording the MFA 