Hunter College MFA Creative Writing

Reviewer's Name:

Fiction MFA Grad

Review Date

December 01, 2009

Year of Graduation:

2007

Review Title:

Across the board, an outstanding MFA program

Full Review of the Program:

Had a great experience here, doing the fiction program. Location is right in New York City. I got to work very closely with Peter Carey on my thesis and with both Peter (two Booker Prizes) and Colum McCann (who just won the National Book Award) in workshop and craft classes. Classes are all small (there are only 12 students in each genre), so you get to build good relationships with the faculty, who are generous with their time and invested in their students' work. Tuition is cheap -- was about $5k/year when I went, though it's gone up now. I got financial aid in both my first and second year that covered all the tuition fees. All the classes start at 5.30pm or later, so you can have a full-time job if you want. Some people did this while I was a student there, although it's hard to juggle both a job and the MFA program, as I found when I tried this. The Hertog Fellowship program is really good. I got paid $5K to work for one semester as a researcher for a very famous novelist. I also taught the undergrad class Intro to Creative Writing, which was a great experience and taught me a lot about the craft of writing. If you get one of these positions, they make you an adjunct lecturer (rather than a TA), which looks good on a resume. Hunter is a small program, so you will be taught by the same faculty several times. This was a plus for me, as I liked getting to know the faculty and them getting to know me and my work. But this might not be for everyone, so be aware of that. In terms of things I wish I'd done differently, I wish I'd started focusing my novel sooner, rather than waiting until the final year. Also, I now realize I shouldn't have had a full-time job during my first semester -- I got very little writing done during that time, because of this.

Advice to Prospective Students:

On your application, put all your effort into your writing sample. That's the only thing they really care about, I think. Go to the Open House if you can -- all the faculty and current students are there. But they only have one per year.