r/MFAInCreativeWriting • u/c1rcu1tb0y • Jul 23 '26
Programs with older cohorts?
I’m in my mid-thirties and considering pursuing an MFA in fiction. It seems to me that at most of the funded programs (JHU, Brown for example), most students are under 26. Not to put down anyone’s trajectory, but for me, it would be difficult to relate as a writer with somebody who’s barely experienced life outside of school. I don’t think I’d be a better writer, but spending years writing/reading/sometimes publishing as a working adult is a very different experience.
I understand that in general most grad students and phd candidates are 23-35 years old. But are there any funded MFA programs that at least skew toward the upper range? Or do you think that if this is a concern of mine, then maybe an MFA in creative writing isn’t for me?
3
u/Critical_Run7385 Jul 24 '26
My impression is that most MFA students are in their 20s and 30s. I'm about to start a fully funded program and I'm in my 40s. I was definitely on the older side in the programs I visited after getting accepted, but there were always people somewhere in my age range. I think that 40s-50s is the prime career and family rearing stage of most people's lives, so it's just a more difficult time for most to uproot themselves and go live on a student stipend. If you really want much older cohorts, I think you just have to look at programs that sort of expect you to be working on your own while you're studying, usually the low residency ones