MA in Writing

Upload a copy of your transcript from each university and college attended. Please ensure the institution’s name and your name is on the document you upload. Transcripts from any schools and study abroad programs must be submitted since Bachelor's Degree institutions typically do not list transfer and study abroad courses with grades.

Academic and/or professional letters are required from two individuals who can attest to your competence and ability to succeed in the writing program.

A Upload your passport’s photo/information page.

In no more than three pages, tell us about your writing—the kinds of subjects or themes you're drawn to, writers or movements you've found influential, your strengths and weaknesses, or anything else that might give us a sense of your work. Explain how your writing sample gives evidence of your interests and aims as a writer. Please discuss your goals for your writing during your time as an MFA student, and tell us why you are interested in the MFA program at the University of San Francisco. In addition, please let us know if there's any particular characteristics about living your life as a writer that we should know about. The statement should be double-spaced and set in 12 pt. type.

The writing sample, the most heavily weighted component of the application, should comprise no more than 20 pages of writing in the genre in which you are applying (fiction, nonfiction, or poetry). Please indicate the genre on the first page of the writing sample. The writing sample should include original work that demonstrates your talents and interests as a writer. It should not include collaborative assignments, such as edited pieces for newspapers, because these might not accurately represent your own work. Prose should be double-spaced, and all writing samples should be set in 12 pt. type.