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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just audit a workshop at a local university. GMU has a program. [/quote]

Why is everyone so down on OP doing this, when she has the $ for it and isn't going in with super unrealistic expectations? I would ABSOLUTELY go get my MFA today if I had the cash lying around.[/quote]

People are "down on" it because they have experience with it. I won't call MFAs programs a scam, but they are damn close. OP can do what she wants to do -- work on her writing in a workshop environment -- in better ways. [/quote]

But she doesn't want those other ways. She has $ in a 529 to spend. I know people with MFAs who had a good experience. [/quote]

I question that "good experience." I mean, I'm sure they think they did. The very worst writer from my MFA program (and she's terrible, and fwiw was over 50 when she entered the program after having been denied admission 3x (why they eventually admitted her I don't know)) goes on and on about what a wonderful experience it was as she vanity publishes book after book that the people we went to school sneer at.

For context: I overheard a conversation had by a group of program directors from several low res programs -- and they were discussing the serious ethical problems that come with the boom in MFA programs. Chief one being that large numbers of students who will never be writers, because they don't have any talent, are accepted to and enroll in MFA programs every year ... all full of hope and a willingness to spend on the degree because they don't understand that not only will they never make a cent as a writer, they probably won't even manage to get published in a lit mag that doesn't pay. MFA programs support writers -- but not the ones that enroll in their programs. MFA programs were designed to support the writers employed by the programs to teach. Those writers have books and maybe even acclaim and/or fame, but not a lot of money. A job as a professor gives them the support they need to continue writing and a (somewhat) respected place at the table (see the hierarchy at the AWP conference). Out of my MFA cohort, I'm the only one who has seen any success at all, and if I had to do it over again I would not bother with the MFA.

Oh, and I appreciate everyone's suggestion that OP attend Bread Loaf, Sewanee or Tin House, but that might not happen for OP. I've been to 2/3 (and only as a paid contributor), but many of my friends from my MFA cohort have applied to all of them, year after year, and have never been accepted. There are other writers' workshops that are easier to get into, and many are pay-to-play, so OP could do conferences ... and I think they would be a better bet than an MFA program. But OP shouldn't get too excited about the idea of attending the more selective conferences -- the odds aren't good. But, OP, if you want to you can still apply to Sewanee (the BL and TH app deadlines have passed) and see what happens. [/quote]

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