December Looms

I can look out my window, over the garden between us, and right into the eyes of a man on his balcony.

Hello.

Instead of staring at strangers, I thought I'd make a list of grad schools I plan to apply to come December.

• Objective: Be accepted by an MFA creative fiction-writing program at a reputable graduate school.

• Ideal: Financial assistance, teaching/fellowship opportunities, strong alumni base, opportunity to take courses in poetry writing and literary criticism.

With all that in mind - and with the help of P&W's amazing article, Show Me the Money:

1. Indiana University - Bloomington (#7; Bloomington, IN) - Why? Bloomington is a wonderful university town and when I visited it back in 2004, I fell a little bit in love with it. Plus the program has amazing funding, and the school pays for the 3 years of tuition and offers (but doesn't guarantee) teaching opportunities and stipends to all creative writing candidates. One of the peak pros here, too, is that the teaching jobs are all in undergrad creative writing - and not in making resentful freshmen read and reread Moby Dick.
2. Ohio State University (#11; Columbus, OH) - Why? It's another fully-funded 3-year program with teaching opportunities. Also, I know and love Columbus, Ohio and have many friends in the area. Never a bad thing.
3. University of Minnesota (#14; Minneapolis, MN) - Why? It's got great funding, good teaching options, a commitment to the local community, respected faculty and the option to take one course completely outside of the English Department. And it's a 3-year program.
4. University of Mississippi (#?; Oxford, MS) - Why? I'm a Faulkner fan so Oxford has always piqued my interest. This relatively new, 3-year, well-funded program has incredibly high expectations for its incoming students, but returns the investment with a whole series of community-based programs that would certainly enrich my learning experience. Also, Beth Ann Fennelly, a poet I much admire, is currently a faculty member.
5. University of Florida - Gainesville (#8; Gainesville, FL) - Why? Incredible funding makes this school stand out. And, honestly, their MFA website was so beautiful, so well-crafted, and so inviting that I can't imagine they are not heavily invested in this program. Honestly, the page is leagues beyond the others out there, and as silly as that is, that, coupled with the funding, the commitment to teaching, the arts community and the 3-year length make this one of my top five choices.
6. Cornell University (#6; Ithaca, NY) - Why? Cornell has the second-best funding of any MFA program, with full tutition paid for students and $24,000 teaching stipends. Cornell only hires a few of its grads after the program. Still, Ithaca is a fairly affordable place to live - cheaper than NYC, of course, but also cheaper than Ann Arbor. This program is 2 years, not 3 like Bloomington's or Austin's - something also worth considering.
7. University of Oregon - Eugene (#10; Eugene, OR) - Why? Well, Eugene is beautiful. Also, the 2-year program offers full-funding. Also, you can secure teaching positions for stipend money -- and instead of teaching Freshman English, students teach creative writing.
8. University of Virginia (#3; Charlottesville, VA) - Why? This fully-funded program has one of the best reputations in the country. However, it's a 2-year program.
9. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (#4; Ann Arbor, MI) Why? They pay your way in full and throw in a generous stipend ($16,000 a year, $6,000 a summer) and healthcare to boot. In exchange, you can teach English courses at the university -- a skill and experience I very much want to have on my resume. However, this is another 2-year program.
10. Brown University (#7; Providence, RI) - Why? Brown has a killer reputation, decent funding, and a great alumni community. It's a 2-year program.
11. Iowa Writer's Workshop (#1; Iowa City, IA) - Why? It is widely considered the best school in the nation for its graduates' eventual impact on American fiction, the big names it draws in terms of professors, and its potential funding (not guaranteed, though, and reportedly fairly stressful and difficult to secure two years in a row). Also, it's a 2-year program.
12. University of Texas - Austin (#9; Austin, TX) - Why? It's the best-funded program in the nation; the entire 3-year program is free to attend if you're one of the luck 10-12 writers accepted and they give MFA students a $25,000 "no-teaching" stipend, health care, and an additional $2,000 each summer to finance one's writing. Also, the school is, obviously, in Austin, a city in which I've always wanted to live (though, ignorance be told, I've never even visited the place). The only downside is they do not allow students to teach while attending - a key reason I want to go to grad school.

Other schools that offer full (or almost full) tuition remission and teaching stipends include: University of Notre Dame (#?; Notre Dame, IN), University of Missouri - Columbia (#?; Columbia, MO), Vanderbilt University (#?; Nashville, TN), University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa (#11; Tuscaloosa, AL), Washington University at St. Louis (#?; St. Louis, MO), Arizona State University - Tempe (#?; Tempe, AZ), John Hopkins University (#2; Baltimore, MD), Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge (#?; Baton Rouge, LA), Penn State University - University Park (#11; University Park, PA), University of California - Irvine (#4; Irvine, CA), Syracuse University (#?; Syracuse, NY), University of Nevada - Las Vegas (#?; Nevada, LV), Texas State University (#?; San Marcos, TX), West Virginia University (#?; Morgantown, WV) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (#?; Blacksburg, VA).

If anyone has any thoughts on this, please do share. This is a little bit of wilderness in my world, and I'd much appreciate any semblance of a map.