Every admitted student for the MFA degree in the Creative Writing Program will receive a full-tuition scholarship. In addition, all admitted students will receive one year of basic university health insurance and stipend support for the academic year; for the 2025-2026 academic year, stipends total $21,750 per student. To receive their stipend, students must teach one semester of Creative Writing at Boston University (likely, a section of CAS EN 202 – Introduction to Creative Writing) or teach at nearby Boston Arts Academy, a dynamic public high school for painters, musicians, dancers, actors, composers, and choreographers.
Additional stipend support for fiction writers is made possible for fiction writers through the awarding of the Leslie Epstein fellowship, the Saul Bellow Fellowship, and the Helen Deutsch Fellowship. MFA fiction writers are also eligible for the Saul Bellow and William A. Holodnak Fiction Prizes, which are awarded by the fiction faculty.
Finally, upon completion of their academic requirements, all MFA poets will be eligible for a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship, allowing for up to three months of travel, writing and study outside the United States; MFA fiction writers will be eligible for a Leslie Epstein Global Fellowship. We estimate that Global Fellowship amounts in 2025-2026 will be approximately $4000-$5000 per student.