To Ph.D. or to M.F.A., that is the question…

Trying not to rant, I’ve been thinking about things to post here other than the rage just waiting to splatter themselves on this page. Couldn’t really think of any (because bottling up my frustrations about work, etc. is really such a distraction). So I surfed the net, checked my bookmarks, and came across this entry (more about this later) from orgtheory.net that reminded me of my search for universities that offer a Ph.D. and/or M.F.A. in Creative Writing.

You see, I’m supposed to be on a Ph.D. study grant this year. But I set that aside for another year since the professor who left for his Ph.D. had to extend another year due to some bureaucratic mishaps (there we go again). The turn of events was a blessing in disguise because last year I felt quite unprepared to pursue a doctoral degree; in fact, the school year ended with me not having applied to any school or filed for any grant. This year, I kind of feel excited about the prospect of becoming a student once again.

But that isn’t really what I want to talk about.

A related question was raised when I was processing the applications for new faculty hires for this semester. One of the faculty applicants had an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (from De La Salle University-Manila) and another finished a Doctoral Program in Plastic Expression (from Kyushu Sangyo University in Fukuoka City, Japan). While deliberating about the possible ranks to be assigned to the two applicants, someone asked if the doctoral degree is higher than the M.F.A.? My answer was that they were both terminal degrees, with some universities opting for an M.F.A degree program and other schools choosing a doctoral program (usually with a creative work dissertation) but never both. I presume the administration was satisfied with my answer (as recommending party).

Which lead me to think about my own prospects. Should I pursue an M.F.A. in Creative Writing or a Ph.D. with a creative work dissertation? And what really is the difference between the two?

One enlightening site is the FAQ section of the Cornell University MFA program. Here are some of the q&a that are pertinent to my search:

Does Cornell offer a Ph.D. in Creative Writing?

Cornell offers only the scholarly Ph.D., not the Ph.D. with creative dissertation

What is the M.F.A./Ph.D. joint-degree program?

Each year one or two students may be admitted to both the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing and the doctoral program in English Language and Literature. In their first two years these students take the M.F.A. writing workshops and Ph.D. seminars and write an M.F.A. thesis to receive the M.F.A. degree. In their third year they proceed toward completion of the remaining requirements for the Ph.D. degree, a normative five-year program.

Do M.F.A. students take courses with Ph.D. students?

Yes, with the exception of the M.F.A. workshops, which are open only to M.F.A. students and M.F.A./Ph.D. joint-degree students, English graduate courses are open to all graduate students. M.F.A. students are also permitted to design their own program of study outside the M.F.A. workshops, and many take a very wide variety of courses other than those offered by the English graduate program.

What is the difference between an MA degree in Creative Writing and an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing? Does Cornell offer both?

The M.F.A. is considered a terminal degree–a degree beyond which there is no other graduate degree, and a degree which qualifies one for teaching at a college or university. Normally, M.F.A. programs are longer and more demanding that MA programs. Cornell offers only an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing.

Some universities offering the Ph.D. with creative dissertation explains their programs this way:

From the University of Tennessee: The Ph.D. in English with Creative Dissertation offers outstanding writers the opportunity to pursue a professional program that emphasizes both creative writing and traditional literary studies…. The Ph.D. with Creative Dissertation enables students to compose their original creative work, culminating in a book-length manuscript, with the guidance of our excellent creative writing faculty. Students in this program complete all the degree requirements for the Ph.D. and are prepared to pursue university professorships.

The University of Denver, where my professors in creative writing earned their Ph.D.’s, has this to say about their Ph.D. program:

DU’s Program in Creative Writing is the only writing program in the country that focuses exclusively on doctoral study. All of the University of Denver’s graduate students in Creative Writing are PhD students. At other creative writing doctoral programs, MFA and MA students generally outnumber creative writing PhD students in workshops. We pitch our workshops and other courses to the sophisticated levels of students who have done an MA or MFA in creative writing elsewhere (recent PhD students have come from Brown, Iowa, the Art Institute of Chicago, U-Mass-Amherst, Florida, and many other celebrated MFA programs). We no longer offer an MA in creative writing (and we’ve never had an MFA).

The University of Southern California, offering a Ph.D. track in Literature and Creative Writing, provide details about the kind of work their students accomplish:

The Ph.D. program provides dual emphasis in literature and creative writing, culminating in the dissertation, which combines critical analysis with creative originality. Doctoral candidates not only read and write texts as finished products of scholarship in researching their creative work’s literary and historical milieu, but also consider the text as writers create it, then compose texts as writers, a process that goes to the source of the study of literature and of literature itself. This integration of literature and creative writing is reflected in the structure of the dissertation, which introduces the creative work within a context of critical inquiry, bringing together the examination and embodiment of the literary act, a new model of scholarship and creative innovation.

The University of Utah offers a different take:

The Ph.D. in Literature with Creative Writing emphasis is neither a fine arts degree nor simply a traditional literature Ph.D. with a creative dissertation. The program is designed to help the student become a better writer, as well as a writer who knows the history of his or her chosen genre and is aware of the critical theory relevant to it.

The Ph.D. is generally recognized as a writer’s best preparation for a teaching career at the college or university level. Many colleges cannot afford to hire someone to teach only creative writing; the Ph.D. is strong evidence that the writer can also teach literature courses, and that she or he can take a full and active part in the academic community.

The Princeton Review offers these lucid thoughts:

The M.F.A. in Creative Writing entails a combination of writing workshops, literature lectures and seminars, and elective courses intended to help writers improve upon their craft to the point where they’re able to find a public audience for their work. Most programs last two years, though some can extend beyond this. Regardless of the timetable, you probably won’t be able to call the degree your own until you’ve completed a manuscript of publishable quality—and it’ll be your professors, not you, who decide what that means.

Now before you start printing out your latest story and writing checks for app fees, there’s something you need to note about an M.F.A. in Creative Writing—or any other M.F.A. discipline, for that matter. An M.F.A. is not necessarily a job-preparation degree like a lot other graduate programs. Rather, an M.F.A. is largely an artistic endeavor.

If you’ve done a bit of research, you may have noticed that some schools offer an M.F.A., while others offer an M.A. with an emphasis on Creative Writing. Whereas an M.F.A. gives students more freedom to focus on their crafts as artists, an M.A. is more tightly structured within a grid of theory and literary criticism. Another difference: Most M.A. students will have to complete a critical thesis to earn their degree, while the M.F.A. students will need to write a creative manuscript.

One benefit of an M.F.A. is that it’s a terminal degree, so when you finish, you have completed the track of scholarship in your field. For this reason, the M.F.A. often requires more courses than the M.A. Prospective students need to do their research when choosing a program.

Many programs offer a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in creative writing, though some now offer Ph.D.s in creative writing. A Ph.D. in English with a specialization in creative writing will require a good deal more analysis of literature. Both take between five and seven years, and require a creative dissertation.

So, what now? To Ph.D. or to M.F.A.?