Essential Links

• Miami University’s Graduate School’s Statement of Student Responsibilities. 
• Student Counseling Service – 513-529-4634.
• Handbook for Department of English Graduate Students
  (This contains MFA curriculum and much more)
• Support for External Funding Seekers
• Graduate Education Enrichment Fund (GEEF) Request Form

Expectations

According to Miami University’s Graduate School’s Statement of Student Responsibilities, your instructors and the university will expect you to: 

• Work to the best of your ability and attend class according to the university regulations.
• Be attentive during class and participate constructively in class work.
• Complete the work you are assigned and submit it on time.
• Prepare work that is honest, independent, and original.
• Show respect and courtesy for them and fellow students while being open to the ideas of others.
• Be open to constructive criticism directed at correcting your academic errors and developing your scholarly abilities.
• Provide them with constructive criticism that is aimed at improving your learning experience.
• Abide by university regulations prohibiting academic misconduct.
• Endeavor to ensure that the learning environment is free from ableism, sexism, racism, and other forms of prejudice that negatively influence student learning.

ADDITIONAL MFA-program Specific Expectations

Workshop: Good citizenship = presence, attention, kindness and preparedness

Submitting work and peer responses per schedule

Attending readings & dept events: Consistent participation (and enthusiasm!)

Teaching: Preparation and consistent, in-person attendance (and enthusiasm!)

Staying on schedule with grading and comments 

Lots of support available: Comp office, CW faculty and peers, CTE, HCWE

Teaching Timeline: First year: Comp training and teaching Eng 111 

Second Year: Eng 607 (CW pedagogy training) and Eng 226

Thesis Timeline: First year: Choose advisor and committee, create rationale, write Second year: Write, read, revise and defend

Steps to Your MFA

(Important links from the Fall 2023  “Steps to Your MFA” presentation (by Cathy Wagner and TaraShea Nesbit), which has the info you need for moving through the rationale and thesis process and completing your degree.)

• Steps to Your MFA (slideshow from presentation)
• MFA Orientation Info Sheet (more detailed version of slide presentation.) ALL MFA STUDENTS SHOULD READ AND KNOW THIS
• Graduate Handbook: degree requirements. Again, all MFA students should read and know this.
• ENGGRADS Canvas Site: form links, sample rationales (may be out of date, check with Sara)
• Thesis Committee Form: complete by end of spring semester first year, or prior if possible
• Rationale/list forms for professors and grad students to sign off on rationale/list: due on first of any month, ideally before Halloween/Nov 1 of second year
• Grad school deadlines: format check, thesis upload. Scroll down for date chart
• Apply for graduation six months ahead
• Format check: template and where to submit.
• Steps to Graduation (grad school website)

AWP Conference Registration links

Attending the AWP Conference is not a program expectation, and it’s not for everybody. But since several students typically attend, I have provided some tips and links here for the curious. Also feel free to ask faculty members and second years about their experiences.

• Our institutional membership with AWP gives you a student membership. You should receive an email from them, but you must confirm. It has a lot of great resources, such as archives of Writers Chronicle articles on teaching and writing craft, prompts, lesson plans, etc. It also has the all important AWP Job List.
• If you are thinking about attending the AWP Conference in Spring semester, here’s the relevant page: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/registration_overview
• Here’s the Q&A: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/faqs
• This is the actual page to register: https://www.awpwriter.org/store/individual_registration
• Important Note: Make sure you register for AWP as a student as it’s vastly cheaper than even the member rate, which is expensive. Pre-registration is cheaper than onsite, but don’t register until you are sure you are going to go because it’s nonrefundable.
• Section 9 of the grad handbook has information on graduate enrichment funding requests: https://miamioh.edu/cas/graduate-programs/english/graduate-programs-handbook.html Also: https://miamioh.formstack.com/forms/geef
• We usually have a table with Miami University Press at the book fair, where people often gather & connect.
• AWP also has options to attend the conference virtually.
• The work-exchange program has a deadline of about January 5th (that was the deadline for 2024).

Teaching Links:

• King Library workshops you can arrange for your ENG226 classes.
• In the creative writing section of ENG 607 (teacher training), we build an extensive resource library for teaching.