The following components are submitted via the online application platform:
- Undergraduate and graduate transcripts
- Graduate School application
- English Department application
- Statement of purpose
- This letter of application should address your goals for your graduate studies and describe your personal, academic, and professional interests and experience. This statement should also indicate how our program is appropriate for your research/creative interests and career goals.
- Statement of Teaching Interest (only for those applying for a Graduate Assistantship) Curriculum vitae or professional resume
- This statement should include discussion of your relevant experience and qualifications.
- Writing sample (work whose authorship is either shared or unspecified should be accompanied by a brief statement clarifying your role in the project)
- Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication: Please submit samples of writing that include academic work that reflects strong research potential. Samples may also include work done as a professional communicator, such as grant proposals, research reports, manuals, program evaluations, or brochures.
- M.F.A. in Creative Writing: Please submit 10 poems or 20-25 pages of fiction.
- M.A. in Creative Writing: Please submit 6 to 8 poems or 15 to 25 pages of fiction.
- M.A. in English Studies for Teachers: Please submit a sample(s) of your academic or professional writing that reflect(s) strong research potential. The sample(s) may also include work done as a professional communicator, such as grant proposals, research reports, manuals, program evaluations, or brochures.
- M.A. in Literature: Please submit a sample of your academic writing in the discipline that includes secondary research.
- M.A. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication: Please submit two or more samples that include academic work that reflects strong research potential. These may also include work done as a professional communicator or educator, such as grant proposals, research reports, manuals, program evaluations, or brochures.
- Three letters of recommendation
- Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication: Three letters of recommendation are required from professors, employers, or others qualified to evaluate potential for graduate work, along with a completed recommendation form. If applying for a graduate teaching assistantship, these letters should also address experience or potential as a teacher.
- M.F.A. in Creative Writing: Three letters of recommendation are required from individuals familiar with the applicant’s work. Those writing letters of recommendation are customarily former or current professors of the student; however, people who know the applicant in other capacities are also appropriate. Students applying for an assistantship should consider asking someone who has observed their teaching (if this is possible) or someone who has supervised their work.
- M.A. in Creative Writing: Three letters of recommendation are required from individuals familiar with the applicant’s work. Those writing letters of recommendation are customarily former or current professors of the student; however, people who know the applicant in other capacities are also appropriate. Students applying for an assistantship should consider asking someone who has observed their teaching (if this is possible) or someone who has supervised their work.
- M.A. in English Studies for Teachers: Three letters of recommendation are required from professors, employers, or others qualified to evaluate potential for graduate work, along with a completed recommendation form. If applying for a graduate teaching assistantship, these letters should also address experience or potential as a teacher.
- M.A. in Literature: Three letters of recommendation are required from individuals familiar with the applicant’s work. Those writing letters of recommendation are customarily former or current professors of the student; however, people who know the applicant in other capacities are also appropriate. Students applying for an assistantship should consider asking someone who has observed their teaching (if this is possible) or someone who has supervised their work.
- M.A. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication: Three letters of recommendation are required from professors, employers, or others qualified to evaluate potential for graduate work, along with a completed recommendation form. If applying for a graduate teaching assistantship, these letters should also address experience or potential as a teacher.
Although the Graduate School and the English Department do not require applicants to submit scores on psychometric examinations (e.g., the Graduate Record Examination), applicants are encouraged to submit scores to the English Department if they have already taken the exams. We also encourage applicants to submit a FAFSA to the Graduate School.
Note: An application cannot be considered until all items are received.
