Funding Wars

I would like to direct your attention to an article published last year in The Altlantic here, courtesy of Nillywilly on the Speakeasy Forums. It comes in at a hefty 10-11 pages, and touches on all the important (and interesting) MFA-related topics such as funding, prestige, alumni, faculty, etc.

Most interesting to me was the segment on "Funding" on pages 4-6 of the article, which goes into great detail about the "funding wars" occurring with the elite programs, the Virginia's, Iowa's, Michigan's, Texas', Irvine's, of the country. Specifically, what struck me was how much like college sports recruiting the whole process was. If you know anything about college recruiting (football and basketball being the most glamorous of the college sports), you'd understand that an "arms race" of funding and courting occurs between schools in the furious grab to sign the best of the best every year -- and has been going for years, decades. In fact, whole communities and websites have popped up around the concept of recruitment -- ever wanted to know who were the top defensive backs of 2009's high school class? Well, now you can find out here.

And what do these elite sport schools do to court the very best? They provide scholarships. Waive tuitions. Promise the best and the brightest coaches. Offer the most sophisticated and state-of-the-art training facilities and gyms. Is this so different from what's happening with the MFA? As Edward Delany intimates in his article, the most prestigious MFA programs "bid" over the finest talents with higher and higher stipends, better and bigger-named faculty, and varied and inventive classes and programs. It's wildly interesting to me, to suddenly realize that this is really just what college football and basketball have been doing for decades -- now in the very subjective arena of creative writing programs.

Useful Links and Resources, Part Two

A few more links to some spiffy articles, all published in 2007 by The Atlantic Monthly. The first is a ranking of the "Best of the Best" Creative Writing programs in the United States, found here. It's not as comprehensive as some of the rankings you'd find elsewhere, like on The Suburban Ecstasies, but it's a nice place to start, and is a list based on informal research and interviews conducted by one man, Edward Delaney. The following two links provide the real "meat" of the MFA-related content, found here and here. The first is a sister article that is meant to accompany the "Best of the Best" rankings; it's Mr. Delaney's appraisal of what makes a great Creative Writing program, taking a look at selectivity, funding, faculty, and alumni. The second link is an in-depth interview by The Atlantic of Mr. Delaney's experiences researching Creative Writing programs.

What I found most valuable was reading about Mr. Delaney's experiences as both an insider and an outsider to the process, working as a journalist, a professor, and a writer. He provides a lot of great insights. Enjoy!