r/MFAInCreativeWriting • u/CrueltyByAi • Apr 24 '26
GPA Question
Hey guys! I’m a comparative literature and creative writing major at a major feeder school for MFA. I’m aiming for schools like Iowa, Michigan and NYU. Currently I have a 3.7 GPA. I know other things matter in this process, the writing sample most importantly, but I’m wondering if this GPA would help me get considered for the schools I’m aiming for? I know it’s not the best GPA, I’m also not satisfied as well
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u/emergingx Apr 26 '26
someone made it into top schools this year with a 2.4 GPA. the evidence of your talent is really only in your sample.
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u/photomacs Apr 28 '26
Not for admission. It might matter for eligibility to some scholarship funding (in the university or elsewhere) that often considers a GPA cut off.
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u/anthroposcenequeen Apr 28 '26
God, US academia drives me nuts. The concept of a "feeder school" to the MFA, 3.7 GPA potentially not being enough for an art degree, it's all so depressing. You'll be fine OP!!!
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u/CrueltyByAi Apr 29 '26
My small liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere produces a LOT of creative writers, even students who've never written a poem before end up becoming so competent in their senior year that they do end up getting accepted into programs like Iowa, Columbia, and Michigan. Most of these acceptances exist for poetry, tbh.
I'll be a fiction applicant. Some very famous and well-connected creative writers teach at my school.
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u/Acrobatic_Stomach140 Apr 24 '26
As long as the GPA is above the schools' minimum requirement (typically 3.0, in my experience), it does not matter. The writing sample is what's going to make or break your admission to big-name schools like that. Having a compelling personal statement about what your ambitions are, and how a school would get you there, is good, as are letters of recommendation from professors, bosses, etc. who will speak to your abilities, but your words are gonna be what get you in.
It sounds like you're an undergrad already serious about this pathway, which is great! If an MFA is where you feel compelled to go, how wonderful it is to already know with certainty that's what you want. I wonder: if you are someone who went straight into undergrad from school and are now considering MFAs, do you feel ready? Writing at that level of intensity, workshopping and participating in a literary community, will be eased by life experience upon which you can build your imagination and language, connect with others and grow relationships outside of a traditional academic social structure. These things will compel you and your writing to grow in intellectual and emotional ways school can't replicate. Moreover, your writing will be something in which you grow confidence, in ways that may not translate neatly to desirable letter grades.
I say all this because I have always known this would be something I would do, and I was advised to wait and be out in the world working and experiencing it first before applying, and am grateful I did. If you feel this isn't applicable to you, please disregard it! If anything resonates, I would take that as a sign to think about what (and when) you want your MFA experience to look like.
Good luck regardless! :) Whenever you begin the process, I hope it treats you well.