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What is an optional-residency MFA?

As the name suggests, low-residency MFAs allow writers to complete an MFA degree without having to spend the academic year in residence at the university campus. Most low-residency MFAs require attendance at two 10-day residencies each year and require full-time study.

What is different about UBC's optional-residency MFA?

We are much more flexible than other low-residency programs: we have one 10-day residency each year, which is optional. In addition to our cross-genre focus, we allow part-time study; students can take up to 5 years to complete the degree.

When can I apply? How do I apply?

The application deadline is the second Friday of September of each year, for classes beginning with the July residency the following year and continuing in September. You MUST download the information and application form in order to apply.

Can I apply to both the residential and optional-residency MFA at the same time?

Yes. Both programs have separate application forms, dates and procedures so please check both areas of this site for details. Faculty readers and reading processes for each program are separate.

How much does the optional-residency MFA Cost?

All fees are listed in Canadian funds for the 2011/12 academic year.

Tuition:
Canadian Students: $525.52 per credit.
US & International Students: $866.90 per credit.

The MFA degree is awarded on the completion of 36 credits. Most courses are 6 credits each. Courses may be taken individually or as many as three in an academic year.

Please note: this does not include any additional student fees; these are lower than standard residential student fees, however.

Why is the optional-residency MFA more expensive than the regular MFA?

This is due to two factors: the program must operate on a cost-recovery basis, so its tuition fees have to cover all its expenses solely from tuition revenue; secondly, there are technical and organizational costs which are higher than in a residential program in order to provide effective, high-quality online course delivery.

This expense is, however, offest by the student's ability to take classes on a part-time basis, spreading the cost over a longer timeframe, as well as the absence of many of the hidden costs of taking a residential program, such as relocating to Vancouver and having to attend classes full-time (UBC currently estimates the cost of attending a full-time program of studies at $16,700 per year for a domestic student, not including tuition fees). Most optional-residency students continue to work during the course of their degree.

In comparison, other low-residency programs in the USA and the UK have costs which often exceed $18,000 CDN per year.

Can students get loans or scholarships?

Students taking this program are eligible for two separate UBC scholarships. Students are eligible for Graduate Entrance Scholarships and for SSHRC funding, provided they are studying at a full-time level and meet the requirements of SSHRC. For scholarship purposes, this means 18 credits in a calendar year.

Students are fully eligible for Canadian federal and provincial loans and any applicable US educational loans (though please note that part-time students may not be eligible for all loans and please also note that as of July 1, 2006, Stafford Loans are no longer awarded to students studying in a non-US institution by telecommunications). Taking two six credit courses per year is considered full-time study by many loan-granting bodies. We consider 18 credits per year a full-time load. See UBC's Loans & Grants information for more.

We also offer some limited internal scholarships. External scholarships and grants (such as those offered by Provincial Arts Councils etc.) may also be applicable. Please see the individual institutions for their guidelines as funding options vary by province and state.

What are the academic requirements?

Please see the Faculty of Graduate Studies website for UBC's requirements for Graduate Study. Students must have a four year Bachelor's degree or equivalent, with a B+ average in the last two years. Students apply to Graduate Studies online and apply to Creative Writing with a portfolio of writing. If the faculty agree that the student is acceptable for the program, then a formal request for acceptance is sent to UBC Graduate Studies. Acceptance by us does not guarantee acceptance by Graduate Studies.

Do I need to have an undergraduate degree in English or Creative Writing to apply?

No, the undergraduate degree may be in any discipline. Many of our successful applicants have had degrees in areas unrelated to writing; many have not taken writing courses before.

What if I have not yet finished my undergraduate degree?

If you expect to finish in the spring or summer immediately following the application deadline, you are eligible to apply. Transcripts showing marks for courses completed or in progress are acceptable. If accepted to the program and to UBC, Graduate Studies will grant an acceptance conditional on the successful completion of your undergraduate degree.

Do you accept transfer credit from other optional-residency or residential MFA programs?

No. Due to the difficulty in assessing transferrable credit in writing programs, and to the particular multi-genre, workshop-based nature of the optional-residency MFA at UBC, we cannot accept credits earned at another institution.

What if I only have a 3 year undergraduate degree? What if I have a four year degree but my marks are not all in the B+ range

UBC Graduate studies requires a 4 year undergraduate degree (or equivalent for foreign students). Students with a 3 year degree will have to obtain sufficient credit in advanced level subjects before they qualify for application. Please see UBC Graduate Studies for the official requirements. For students with a 4 year degree but an average below the recommended B+, it is often possible to gain entrance if the student has a suitable publishing and / or professional portfolio, or a rationale for the academic shortfalls can be given. However we cannot guarantee Graduate Studies acceptance. Please inquire if you are unsure about your qualifications.

What is the significance of stating your main genre in the application process? Will this affect my chances of acceptance if I'm mainly working in a popular genre such as fiction?

Knowing an applicant's main genre helps us with the initial routing of the portfolio and also with planning for courses and faculty - we assume this is your strongest genre, though we do read all genres submitted. Knowing which genres potential students plan to specialize in helps us plan the number of courses and faculty we will need in future. It is non-binding, and your chances of acceptance are not affected by the genre in which you apply.

My computer is old / I have a dial-up Internet connection. Will I be able to take part in the online courses?

Yes. If you can read this page on your computer, you can participate in the workshops online. Our technical requirements are modest at the moment. The majority of courses will only require a word processor (MS Word is our standard) and access to the Internet. A number of our students are currently using dial-up connections and older computers. Students with newer computers and high-speed connections do report that these make participating more convenient, and we would recommend these, but they are not a requirement. There is no requirement for a particular operating system.

Can I talk to one of your students about the program?

Yes. We have a list of current students who are open to receiving email from potential students. Contact us for more information and we can connect you with one or more of them.

Is UBC an Accredited University?

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Incorporated in 1908 by an act of the provincial legislature, it operates under the authority of the University Act of the Province of British Columbia. Membership in AUCC and operation under the authority of the University Act is equivalent to accreditation in the US system.

More information about UBC's accreditation is on their website.

UBC is ranked as one of the top 20 public universities in the world and regularly places in the top 5 universities in Canada as ranked by Macleans magazine. More rankings here: www.ubc.ca/about/global.html.

Students with degrees from UBC go on to further study and employment at universities across North America and around the world.

Is the MFA accepted as a qualification for teaching the US?

As stated above, a UBC degree should be acceptable as an academic qualification at any university. Although we cannot guarantee that any graduate will receive a teaching position as a result of gaining their MFA here, the reputation of UBC's Creative Writing program is widely known in Canada, the US and abroad. We believe that our reputation, our cross-genre philosophy and our workshop focus will serve prospective teachers of creative writing well.

Is it the same as the regular MFA?

The optional-residency MFA has separate fees and faculty; however, the degree granted is exactly the same as the residential MFA. Application standards and thesis requirements are the same.

Do you accept more students than the residential MFA?

Because we do not have the residential program's limitations of space and faculty size to contend with, we may be able to accept a larger number of students if demand and applicant quality allow. However, all the same standards and eligibility criteria for graduate study at UBC apply. We currently have a 25% acceptance rate.

What can you tell me about the current students?

Our current students primarily come from Canada and the US, though we have accepted students from Europe as well. They are a group which is diverse in age, experience and sensibility; some have published widely, others have not yet seen print. Some have recently earned undergraduate degrees while others had been out of school for decades before coming to the program. There is no particular 'type' of student we are looking for, though we expect that not only will successful students be working at a high level of creative achievement, but that they will participate fully in the critical process at the heart of the writing workshop.

Who are the faculty?

Please see the faculty section of this site for an up-to-date list. New faculty will be added on an ongoing basis as required.

Can I take courses in the regular program if I’m in the optional-residency program?

No. Students in the optional-residency program are unable to switch into the residential program or take a mixture of low-residence and residential workshops.

I'm primarily interested in poetry. Do I have to take courses in other areas?

Yes. As with the residential MFA, students are required to write in three separate genre areas: fiction, poetry, non-fiction, writing for children, translation, stage play, or screenwriting. This doesn't mean you can't focus on your primary genre - and indeed you only write a thesis in one genre - but our philosophy is that students will discover a fuller understanding of their capacities as writers in the "cross-training" component of the Program. This is one of the features of this degree which makes UBC's program unique - some of our best-known graduates have ended up excelling in genres they had not previously worked in before coming to the program.

Will you offer workshops in teaching writing / radio / song lyrics & libretto / magazine publishing?

We currently offer Teaching Writing. We hope to also introduce a radio drama / podcasting class in the near future. Lyric & Libretto and the magazine publishing class present challenges for effective online delivery and we don't currently plan on offering them.

How are classes run?

Most classes are offered as online workshops. Students will submit and discuss their work regularly as part of a small group, using a web-based discussion forum and written commentary. Classes do not meet in 'real time' but rather students have a period each week in which discussion is open, and may take part on their own schedule. A smaller number of classes, most specifically the thesis, may be taught taught using direct one-to-one correspondence between students and faculty members. We also hosting visiting virtual writers in residence and regularly present audio recordings of lectures and readings from the residential MFA program.

Are there assigned reading lists and critical essays?

As a studio program the concentration is on writing and critical discussion of this writing. This does not mean that instructors do not provide material to each class for reading and discussion, have one or more required or suggested texts, or suggest books to an individual student (in fact, we expect that all instructors will have some reading and discussion components to their workshops), but there is not a formal academic requirement for critical essays.

How much time does a workshop take up?

We estimate that each workshop takes a student roughly five to seven hours per week in reading and participating in online discussion (depending to some degree on individual reading and typing speed). This does not include personal writing time, which varies from student to student.

In a fiction workshop, for example, students might be expected to produce four to six original pieces of work (chapters of a novel, or short stories) during the course of the academic year, or roughly one every six weeks. Other genres have different expectations, but the amount of writing time is comparable. Courses (other than the residency) follow the academic year (September through April), which provides for 26 workshop meetings.

Students who have taken a full-time load (3 6-credit workshops) have found the workload to be quite heavy; we recommend that students with work or family commitments work on a part-time basis. As with the residential program, we assume that students studying full time will spend the majority of their time on school work.

What happens during the residency period(s)?

The residencies are held at the Vancouver campus of UBC each summer for approximately ten days in early July. They consist of writing workshops, seminars and lectures on aspects of writing craft and business. A student's first residency will also involve an introduction to the tools and techniques of workshops in general, and online workshops in particular. Residencies are designed to foster creative and social links between students as well as to educate. Residencies are generally considered 3 credit courses, and cost the standard 3 credit course rate. There will not be any additional costs, other than applicable UBC student fees, the cost of transportation, meals and accommodation, which each student is responsible for.

We also offer a non-credit alternative, which allows students to attend all events except the workshops for a lesser fee.

I'm an international student: do I need a student visa?

You will require a study permit in order to attend the residencies in Canada (you do not require one to take any other courses, as they are by distance education). Please see the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website for details. We will provide assistance and appropriate documentation where necessary. The process is usually quite straightforward.

How important are the residency periods?

The residencies are a vitally important part of the optional-residency MFA. A student's first residency, in particular, provides a grounding in the methods of writing workshops and distance learning as well as a physical introduction to the students and faculty he or she will be working with in the future. Students who have not attended the residencies have often found the online workshop experience more difficult.

We understand, however, that for some students, work, location or family issues make it very difficult or impossible to attend residencies. Therefore, though strongly recommended, we do not make residencies mandatory.

Do you have more questions?

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