The Top 20 MFA Programs in Creative Writing

There is not a federally sanctioned accredited body to actually rank creative writing programs in terms of an MFA program, especially in creative writing.

This ranking is based, in part, upon the reviews of published authors who have read books by authors from these universities coupled with the results of avid readers of fiction who were impressed to the extent that they surrendered rankings based on their readings. We then followed up by contacting those authors to arrive at the schools to which they attended and/or earned an MFA in creative writing.

We took into account that many world renown authors do not have an MFA, therefore, we asked them "Which school would you attend toward earning an MFA if you were just starting out?"
Rankings are strongly dependent on the success of the MFA students toward publishing and gaining national recognition for their novels. Again, many famous authors do not hold a degree in the arts. That's one reason their evaluations of schools is necessary.

We credit the following resources for their contributions: Poets & Writers Magazine, gradschools.com, acclaimed novelist and The Atlantic Magazine.

We dissected a preponderance of information to arrive at this list. Here they are in the order of their rankings.

(1)The University of Iowa - Iowa City
(2)The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
(3)The University of Virginia - Charlottesville
(4)The University of Houston - Houston
(5)Boston University - Boston
(6)The University of Massachusetts - Amherst
(7)John Hopkins University - Baltimore, MD
(8)New York University - New York City
(9)The University of Texas - Austin
(10)The University of Wisconsin - Madison
(11)Cornell University - Ithaca, New York
(12)Brown University - Providence, RI
(13)Columbia University - New York, NY



(14)Indiana University - Bloomington
(15)Syracuse University - Syracuse, NY
(16)The University of Georgia - Athens
(17)The University of California - Irvine
(18)The University of Oregon - Eugene
(19)The University of North Carolina - Greensboro
(20)The University of Utah - Salt Lake City, Utah