M.A. and M.F.A.: The Final Word

John Poch

Undergraduate creative writers thinking about grad school and wondering what on earth the M.A. and M.F.A. is, and about the difference between them, should find poet John Poch's article "M.A. and M.F.A.: The Final Word," published recently by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Journal, extremely useful:

So what’s the difference? In general, I believe many see the M.F.A. as a degree that is more writer-ly.  In other words, the M.F.A. student aims to write literature more than writing about literature during his/her term. Obviously, any discrepancies will vary program by program. The difference between an M.A. and an M.F.A. is probably as vast as the difference between any two given M.A. programs. Or the difference between any two M.F.A. programs. Auburn, UC Davis, the University of Chicago, Western Washington, and many other programs still offer the M.A. as their signature writing degree. You can peruse the AWP Guide to Programs or the NewPages website to see the myriad possibilities. 

The only actual difference might be that the M.A. does not usually claim to represent itself as the terminal degree, where the M.F.A. definitely does. Even so, with the proliferation of creative writing Ph.D. programs (and M.F.A. programs—there are hundreds), there is a general perception that the M.F.A. has lost some of its luster. This has to do with a variety of issues and problems including but not limited to a decline in the quality of general education (especially of reading/writing) at our nation’s high schools and universities. When I finished my M.F.A. at the University of Florida, William Logan mentioned to a few of us we need not pursue a Ph.D. We now were in possession of the terminal degree, he said. But I knew I needed more. Not that the MFA@UFL wasn’t a good program; it certainly was (I can name around ten poets within a three-year span who ended up publishing books with good presses). Rather, my earlier education was primarily physics/engineering-oriented, and I had a lot of holes to fill in my reading after the M.F.A. I felt I needed more literary training, more teaching experience, and some time to get that first book published. The Ph.D. at the University of North Texas ended up bolstering my writing and my preparation for teaching in academia. It is evident that Ph.D. graduates are often more prepared to teach and have much more solid publishing credentials than do M.F.A. graduates due to more time spent in the classroom on both sides of the podium. No doubt there are exceptions to the rule. Now many M.F.A. programs are fortifying their degrees by offering three or four year programs. MFA@UFL is one of those programs. Yet the writing degree at Boston University remains a one-year program with their enviable Global Fellowships recently added to strengthen their offerings. That kind of intensity seems impossibly wonderful to me, though if I could choose any program I wanted perhaps it would be for a longer stay at a program like Cornell or Arkansas. But writing students don’t get to choose very often. Due to the numbers of applicants, many good writers are turned away from the best programs. It is hardly a mistake to consider the M.A. program either as a backup or even as a first choice for the student who realizes she isn’t coming in with a book nearly completed. 

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