What are the top-ranked low-residency MFA programs in the United States and Europe?

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Clarification of Question by johnanderson-ga on 04 Apr 2003 07:43 PST

Oops - meant to say an Masters of Fine Arts in Writing (Poetry)...thanks again!

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Request for Question Clarification by lmnop-ga on 04 Apr 2003 07:51 PST

I may be able to help here with two clarifications:
1) can you limit which countries somewhat?
2) what are your particular needs/wants for "low-residency"
Thanks,
LMNOP-ga

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Clarification of Question by johnanderson-ga on 04 Apr 2003 09:55 PST

Hi,
I had been thinking Ireland, too, but let's just narrow it down to the
US. As we're talking about a low-residency program, any state is fine.
As far as technical requirments, the residency part would have to be
less than three weeks a year onsite with the rest conducted vie email,
phones, cassettes... What I'm looking for, is some sort of ranking - I
remember US News had conducted a ranking back in 1998 or so, but I
haven't seen anything since. I'm mostly concerned with quality of
teachers/poets in these programs (are they reputable, published
widely, are they known for their teaching as well?) and the curriculum
itself - is it considered strong/helpful/immersive? How much of th
curriculum is writing and how much reading (reading seems to have been
forgotten in many programs...) What is the quality of the feedback on
writing from the teachers? Thanks!

The on-line version of the U.S. News rankings is here:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Since the cost for the next 6 months is about $10, that’s most of what
your question would pay, so I have to skip out of giving you my own
analysis of the charts. And I couldn’t find another similar but free
source on line. You can check it yourself, though, and might find the
information all you need!

My own experience near where I live is that Bard College (New York)
has a wonderful reputation for their MFA summer program, but I think
it takes more like 6 weeks each summer. And I'm not sure what sort of
wriiting aspects it has. Getting a truly on-line experience with
minimal hands-on contact must be possible, but you might choose
something near you because there is nothing like an evening discussion
once a week or something like that for developing ideas. I speak as a
college teacher (including in a non-residency program in Vermont).
Give that thought a spin.

Good luck. Thanks for the clarification!

LMNOP-ga

Thanks!