financial aid & application
Financial Aid and Fees
A small number of teaching assistantships are available
to MFA students for the first two years. In addition to receiving a stipend (approximately
$9,000 in 2004-2005), teaching assistants receive full tuition,
though they must pay some fees. TAs teach two courses per
semester (only one course in their very first semester of
teaching), usually freshman composition. First-year TAs
take the graduate course Teaching College Writing, which
treats both practical and theoretical aspects of the teaching
of writing in the college classroom. Applicants for a teaching
assistantship, in addition to submitting a sample of creative
work, must submit (1) an application for a teaching assistantship—this
is separate from the grad school application—(2) a
writing sample of scholarly or critical prose, such as a
paper written for a literature class, and (3) GRE general
test scores. (The UM St. Louis institution code for score
reporting is 6889.) The deadline for assistantship applications
is February 15th. (note: the MFA application deadline
is also Feb. 15).
Natural Bridge Graduate Research Assistant:
Second or third year MFA students are eligible to apply
for the new GRA position connected to Natural Bridge.
This is also a $9000.00 stipend with tuition (though not
fees) paid. The person receiving this prestigious award
is named assistant editor on the Natural Bridge masthead,
and works 20 hours a week in the Natural Bridge office
keeping track of subscriptions, submissions, office supplies
and equipment, mailings, editing, proof-reading, and much
more. The best way to prepare to apply for this is to volunteer
for a year or at least a semester in the Natural Bridge office your first year. This GRA position is for one or two
years, and is supervised by the faculty editor.
Loans:
A number of comparatively low interest loans and work
study opportunities can be found through the financial aid
office, www.umsl.edu/services/finaid/ ,or at 314-516-5526.
Costs:
For graduate educational fees at UM St. Louis for spring 2007
see the following links: Missouri residents
Nonresidents
Other teaching and work:
Advanced MFA students, usually but not exclusively fiction
writers, are eligible to team-teach creative writing workshops
for UMSL’s continuing education program. And many
of our students work as tutors in the writing lab, and in
the library. And though not paid work, many of our students
participate in the Writers In The Schools (WITS) project
by visiting high school and community college classrooms
and giving lessons in creativity, discussing writing and
publishing.
Application to the Program
Applicants to the MFA program must have an undergraduate
degree, preferably with at least 18 hours of English courses
above the freshman level, nine of them in literature. The
writing sample is the most important part of the application:15-20
poems or 20-40 pages of fiction (usually two or three short
stories). Letters of recommendation from former teachers
(one or two) are optional but strongly encouraged, and scores
from the GRE aptitude test are not required. However, letters
of recommendation and GRE scores are required of applicants
seeking a teaching assistantship or financial aid (see above).
The Graduate Admissions Office (217 Millennium Student
Center; 314/516-5458; (gradadm@umsl.edu) can provide admission applications and applications for
teaching assistantships. To apply online for admission,
go to https://tomsawyer.umsl.edu/webapps/Graduate_Admission/application_form.cfm
The form for applying for TA ships can be found on the Graduate Web site, under "forms"
G-2. http://www.umsl.edu/divisions/graduate/formsregs/general.html
Financial aid applications may be obtained from the Financial
Aid Office (327 Millennium Student Center; 314/516-5526; financialaid@umsl.edu).
For GRE registration information, call 1-800-GRE-CALL or
go to http://www.gre.org
* Applications (if not submitted online), transcripts,
and optional letters of recommendation should be sent to Graduate Admissions, 217 Millennium Student Center,
UM-St. Louis, One University Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63121.
If applying for a TA-ship, the GRE scores should also be
sent to Graduate Admissions. All materials must be
in by February 15th.
* The writing samples--creative work for admission to
the program and, for applicants for teaching assistantships,
a scholarly or critical essay--should be sent directly to
the MFA Director at the address below. The deadline
for receipt of all materials to the MFA Program is Feb. 15
of each year.
We make our final admission decisions between
April 1 and April 15.
More detailed information, including descriptions of MFA
classes and samples of work by current and past students,
can be found here.
Questions? E-mail Susan
Grant or phone 314/516-5590. Or write:
Susan Grant, Assistant Director, MFA Program
Department of English
University of Missouri-St. Louis
8001 Natural Bridge Road
St. Louis, MO 63121
Campus
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Revised February 07
