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New Mexico State University, Department of English

Average Overall Rating

Program Description

The MFA at NMSU is a three-year program, featuring the Master Workshop in the final year, wherein students workshop their book-length theses. This is a valuable opportunity that you'll find in very few other programs. We also offer fantastic teaching opportunities for students with GAs. The teaching load is 1-1, and students typically teach at least one creative writing class before graduating. The pay is higher than most, and the cost of living here is low.

The workshops are rigorous but friendly. We do not encourage or accept cutthroat workshops. We offer fellowships, prizes, opportunities to teach writing in the public schools, and editing opportunities with Puerto Del Sol, our literary magazine.

Las Cruces is in the high desert with enormous mountains overlooking the Rio Grande river valley. (Cruces was recently voted the most livable small city in the country.) We play pool every Thursday, and we gather after every reading—twelve or so over the academic year. Graduating students read with visiting writers, such as recent visitors Richard Russo, Mary Ruefle, and Ander Monson.

Average Student Ratings

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Student Reviews

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Yes.

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Review of the Program:

I knew nothing. Nothing about poetry. Nothing about fiction. Nothing about teaching. In three years, I learned invaluable and permanent…

July 22, 2009 | 4 of 4 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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A. West | '2007

How I found my tribe

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Review of the Program:

There's so much to say about this program that I don't know where to start. I see that others have…

May 12, 2009 | 0 of 0 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Dorine Jennette | '2003

NMSU: Distilled

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Review of the Program:

Recently, a person who writes screen plays asked me to sum up (I think he called it "distill") the main…

May 12, 2009 | 1 of 2 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Becker | '2005

Best Decision I Ever Made

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Review of the Program:

Like other leading programs, New Mexico State boasts distinguished and award-winning professors, renowned visiting professors, a thriving community of gifted…

April 27, 2009 | 2 of 2 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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JRo | '2007

Still Using It!

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Review of the Program:

Connie Voisine called me on the phone to acknowledge my acceptance to the program. It was during the the televised…

April 27, 2009 | 1 of 1 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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T. Brown | '2006

Powerful Writing Craft developed in Great Community of writers with no distractions

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Review of the Program:

Great program because craft is taught in tangible and diverse ways. The faculty is brilliant and generous. The workshops are…

April 26, 2009 | 0 of 0 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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l robertson | '2009

A truly fantastic experience.

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Review of the Program:

I've spent the last three years devoting myself to writing, to becoming a better writer with the support of wonderful…

April 25, 2009 | 0 of 0 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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KD | '2009

More work than you think; more fun than you think...

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Review of the Program:

Get down to Las Cruces for a real education, friendly people, and lots of support.

This is…

April 25, 2009 | 1 of 1 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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B. Drexler | '2009

Desert, Epiphany, Lust

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Review of the Program:

There are so many different criteria for a good writing program: Are the teachers strongly qualified? Is the cost of…

April 25, 2009 | 1 of 1 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Davo | '2010

Getting the work done

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Review of the Program:

There are lots of reasons to pursue an MFA in creative writing. If what matters to you, the applicant, is…

April 23, 2009 | 4 of 4 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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A. Martinez | '2004

Like summer camp. For writers.

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Review of the Program:

Overall, my experience with the MFA program at NMSU was very positive. I entered the program young and very inexperienced…

April 23, 2009 | 3 of 3 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Lindsay Armstrong | '2007

An amazing experience---impossible to summarize.

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Review of the Program:

The instructors here are extraordinary. I'm struggling to explain how extraordinary without sounding hyperbolic. But they really taught me how…

April 23, 2009 | 4 of 4 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Casey Gray | '2004

There's no place like Cruces...

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Review of the Program:

The best experience of this writer's life. As other reviewers have made mention, the faculty at this program is outstanding.…

April 23, 2009 | 5 of 5 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Heather H | '2003

Desert mountains, hot chile, good place to buckle down.

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Review of the Program:

This program is a great opportunity to write hard for three years, and to teach a reasonable load in a…

April 23, 2009 | 3 of 3 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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alumnus | '2006

A Debt I Can Never Repay

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Review of the Program:

If you are looking up information on graduate writing programs on gradinsider.com you are absolutely nothing like me (you are…

April 23, 2009 | 7 of 7 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Stevie C | '2006

learn to live the life

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Review of the Program:

I’m going to admit that when an undergrad. prof first recommended the NMSU MFA program to me, I was excited…

April 22, 2009 | 4 of 4 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Jill Stuke | '2004

Best Deal in the USA

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Review of the Program:

I had an amazing two years to NMSU and left without any debt at all. The faculty and courses were…

April 22, 2009 | 2 of 2 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Wilder | '1996

Three of the most inspirational years of my writing life thus far.

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Review of the Program:

The quality of the lectures I received at NMSU can't easily be put into words. I was constantly inspired by…

April 22, 2009 | 5 of 5 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Stefan McKinstray | '2006

Great community of writers

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Review of the Program:

The best part of my MFA has been exchanging work with all these great writers. How cool to be taken…

April 22, 2009 | 4 of 6 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Nick Voges | '2009

Desert + Monsoons + Classroom Ebullience = Words

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Review of the Program:

The time I spent at NMSU honing my fiction was almost ethereally great--not so ethereal, though, because I came away…

April 22, 2009 | 4 of 5 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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ParkerStaley | '2007

writing for life

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Review of the Program:

this is a place where writers are encouraged to live as they write. the three year program keeps the course…

April 22, 2009 | 4 of 5 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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thejstyle | '2010

Best Kept MFA Secret

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Review of the Program:

Why would you want to move to a sleepy desert town to pursue your MFA? Because that sleepy town fosters…

April 21, 2009 | 7 of 8 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Jacquie Fuller | '2005

A Place Like No Other

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Review of the Program:

I love the sense of community in this program and how everyone pitches in to make it work. There are…

April 21, 2009 | 5 of 6 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Almost Done with 2nd Year | '2010

You can't find better professors or green sauce.

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Review of the Program:

I'm in my second year, teaching an undergraduate creative writing class, and sometimes during our graduate workshop, the back of…

April 21, 2009 | 4 of 5 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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Candice Morrow | '2010

I couldn't ask for more from this program (but if I did ask for more I would probably get it).

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Review of the Program:

I've had an amazing time at NMSU. I want to echo what's been said about the strength of our community…

April 21, 2009 | 4 of 5 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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CG | '2010

This Program is A Rare Gem!

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Review of the Program:

Without doubt, my years spent in the NMSU MFA program have been some of the best, most memorable, and most…

April 21, 2009 | 6 of 7 people found this review useful | Report as offensive

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AT | '2009

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Contact

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Las Cruces, New Mexico
Southwest

Admissions

Full-time: Yes

Part-time: Yes

Length of Program: 3 Years

Low Residency: No

Student Body

Genre

Fiction
Poetry