Hello,
I am in my fifth (of six) year undergrad student in MI. I am majoring in creative writing, with a double minor in music and writing & rhetoric. I’ve always been a pretty decent student–I am in my school’s honors college, I belong to the Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society, and I received invitations for other national/international honors societies (side note: are these worth accepting if I do not plan to be active within the society?). My GPA is currently at a 3.83, I’ve done internships, I’ve had a poem published and placed 3rd in my school’s poetry contest last year (surprisingly, I’m actually a fiction track major but have just been less attached to my poetry so I’ve been more willing to send it out–I need to work on that!). So basically those are my standings, as best I can list them.
Ideally, I’d like to study creative writing further in graduate school. Eventually, I’d like to teach college English/writing. An MFA in creative writing sounds amazing, although most programs near me offer only MA in creative writing, not an MFA. Is there a major difference?
Can you provide me with some feedback on these schools?
My current list (in a rough order of preference) is:
University of Michigan (definitely a long-shot, but it’s the #2 creative writing MFA in the country, and since it’s SO close to me, I have to at least apply)
Eastern Michigan University (okay, so the question here is their reputation–I’ve heard a lot of shabby comments about EMU; however, I really like the interdisciplinary aspect of their CW MA)
Bowling Green State University (I don’t know too much about their program yet, but it seems pretty decent, and it is an MFA)
University of Toledo (MA in CW)
Michigan State University (so this one’s tricky…they offer no focus in CW at all, but they do have other opportunities–English MA or PhD, MA in writing & rhetoric, etc…thoughts on good programs here for my goal??)
Wayne State University (MA in English with a concentration on creative writing…although I might just apply for literature here instead, as I’m unimpressed with what I know of their CW program)
Oakland University, merely as a back-up (they have one graduate program in English, and it’s strictly literature-based)
I’m also considering Western Mich, as they seem to have a pretty good MFA in CW; however, that’s a little farther from home than I wanted to go. However, distance isn’t necessarily a disqualification for me. I do plan to move close to campus regardless of where I go (with the possible exceptions of WSU and OU).
Does anyone have any thoughts on these schools? EMU is really appealing to me, simply because I love both fiction and poetry, as well as other art forms, and I love trying to find new ways to integrate it all…I’m just mainly concerned about the quality of education and their reputation. Also, I am halfway to a studio arts minor (I’ve taken 3 classes out of 6 required); would this be worth finishing up, especially for a school like EMU? Any suggestions on other schools to consider (in MI and OH, possibly NE IN)?