Before the Residency
When I decided the time had come to pursue an MFA I had no idea how many programs there were out there. There are hundreds, and it seems that more are starting up every day. To call it daunting would be an understatement.
I quickly cut the field in half, maybe more, with a single stroke: my wife was in nursing school. This meant that I either had to go someplace local or try my luck with a low residency program. The local programs in the San Francisco Bay Area looked good, but commuting twenty miles to work, then twenty more to night school, all while trying to do my homework, continue with my martial art, and still sleep and spend time with my wife?
Wouldn’t leave much of an opportunity to get to know my classmates, would it? Low residency it is then.
This brings up what I think is the most important consideration when looking into an MFA program: figure out what your needs are first. There are no real ratings systems for this. Each program is going to have its good points and bad points, so decide up front what’s important to you.
For me, what I wanted came down to these points (not in any special order):
It had to be low residency so I could keep my job and continue training and teaching Capoeira.
It had to be affordable (prices are all over the place).
It had to allow for cross-genre study. I want to explore creative nonfiction at least.
A teaching option beyond giving a single lecture would be a plus.
Once I had these squared away it got easier. I’ll spare you the tedium of my research process. I brought it down to five programs I thought might fit me, one of which was the favorite. I applied to all five, got into two (and waitlisted on a third) and . . . went with the favorite: Whidbey.
Why was Whidbey the favorite? I liked the structure and feel of the program. I liked the rate at which alumni were publishing. I liked that “The Profession of Writing” is part of the curriculum and a required course. I liked what I could find out about the faculty. Plus I had a great conversation with the program director when I called for more information.
Thus, as confident as I could be about a major life choice, I signed my letter of acceptance.
