Most of the following information will be available in our upcoming MFA101 self-study course. Watch for it on the January calendar.
One of the most often asked questions is “How do I know what classes I still need to fill out my certificate?”
There are a few ways but the easiest is to keep track of the courses on a spreadsheet as you take them. You can find a pre-made tracking sheet by hovering over MENU – click on SUPPORT. On the Support page, you will see the MFA program info in the left-hand column.
Click on MFA Worksheets. That brings up a PDF with a Sample Worksheet, below that there are three blank ones, one for each certificate. You can download that PDF and print off the worksheet that applies to your certificate and add in your courses.
You can also find the Nonfiction MFA Worksheet on the Support page.
The next logical questions are, “How do I know where to count my credits? What counts as a Short Story Course? What about Western, Modern? What classes fit here?”
Let’s take a look at the categories on that worksheet.
The first column is Core Courses. As you should already know, MFA Core Courses are
This applies to both Fiction & Nonfiction certificate programs.
The second column on the worksheet is the Goal. This is how many credits you need for the certificate you are pursuing. Those goals are listed on the worksheets. For instance, Core Course requirements for the Short Story certificate is 80 weeks (or credits), for the 3-year MFA certificate, it is 112.
The third column is MFA Foundation Courses. For both nonfiction and fiction, these courses are anything with an “MFA” heading that isn’t a Core Course. All the rest of the classes are Foundation courses.
Then again you have the goals for the Foundation Courses.
The next category on the worksheet is Short Stories. This is an easy one, ALL literature courses count as Short Story courses. So you have a choice where you want to list your credits. Keeping in mind that certain authors/courses will only fit one of the remaining categories, (Western, World, or Modern).
After that, the three certificates differ slightly.
Let’s cover the 3-year MFA certificate first.
On this worksheet, you have three columns; Western Literature, World literature, and Modern Literature. How are you supposed to know which of those categories a Literature falls into?
Once again, we’ll head to the Support Page. Under the Worksheets, you’ll see a link to the WVU MFA Master Reading List. By reading over this list, you should be able to place most of the authors into an appropriate category.
However, there are many authors/courses that fit into more than one heading. For instance, an author might fit into both Modern and World. In these instances, you have a choice of where to count those credits.
The next column is Workshops. These are not the workshops that you might have at the end of a longer course. These are Workshops that are held throughout the year specifically for this purpose. You will sometimes see them announced in the banner at the top of more WVU pages. Otherwise, you can submit your story for a workshop by hovering over Course Manager and clicking on the link: "Upload MFA Story".
In fact, we recently had a call for submissions to the workshop which is still open. In order to hold a workshop, there needs to be a minimum of eight submissions. Currently, or last I heard there were only four or five submissions. So anyone wanting to fill out the Workshops section of their certificate must wait until one of these workshops is filled.
That is one reason that anytime you have a short story that has been
The final column is Electives/Independent Studies.
Let’s start with Electives - Electives are courses you can choose to take. So in this instance, they are additional courses taken after you've filled your needed credits. Once you have filled the required credits in core or foundation courses any other 'MFA' courses you take can be counted as Electives.
Independent Studies – Independent study enables a student to pursue
The topics for independent studies are wide open. Theoretically, you could create your own course on the mating habits of polar bears if that’s where your interest lies. The length of an Independent Studies course is generally 16-weeks.
Considerable effort goes into these studies. I hope to have an example of an Independent Study proposal for you soon. Once a proposal is completed the advisory group will give the okay for the student to proceed. The finished project will be turned into the advisory group for approval and credits.
The Two-Year, Short Stories Certificate Worksheet is much the same as the three-year. The only real difference is it does not have a requirement for “Modern Literature”.
The One-year certificate differs in that the only category for literature is, Short Stories. Therefore, you have no choices to make, all your literature classes would be counted as short stories. This certificate does not require a Workshop.
In the next issue, we’ll discuss some strategic tips on rounding out your certificate.