The MFA in Writing is awarded upon the satisfactory completion of at least six quarters of registration, 72 units of required coursework, a preliminary reading or presentation at the end of the first year, a completed manuscript or project, and a reading or presentation of the final project. Students must specialize in Fiction or Poetry. Normative time for the degree is two years of full-time study.
| Requirement | Units | Description |
| History and Theory | 8 |
LTTH 250. Writing and Theory (4) |
| Graduate Seminars in Literature | 4-12 |
Graduate seminars in Literature outside of the Writing section (or, with permission, upper division course(s) or guided independent study in Literature). A minimum of 4 units must be from a graduate seminar. |
| Graduate Seminars in an Art Practice or Theory | 4-12 |
Graduate level courses or guided independent study either in an art practice or theory offered outside of the writing program (this could be in Visual Arts, Music, or Theatre) or in graduate seminars offered by the Literature Department in a language other than English. |
| Writing Workshops | 20 |
Five graduate-level writing workshops within a specific genre or a combination of genres: Students may apply more than 20 units of writing workshop credit to the degree. |
| Apprentice Teaching | 12 |
Guided teaching at UC San Diego. Teaching Assistantships carry 2-4 units of credit per quarter. Students may, with permission, apply up to 24 units of TAship credit to the degree. |
| MFA Thesis | 8-12 |
Research guided by faculty, culminating in an acceptable manuscript of fiction or poetry. A maximum of 12 units of thesis credit can be applied to the degree. |
| Total Units | 72 |
At the end of their first year in the MFA program all students will make a public presentation (a reading or performance) of their year's work.
Students will complete a final project consisting of a manuscript of fiction (120 pages) or poetry (65 pages) that the student's MFA committee deems to be of high quality. The manuscript will be the culmination of two years of course work within the student’s chosen genre and will have undergone extensive editing and revision before submission for the final project.
There is no written final examination for the degree, but great weight is given to the candidate’s final presentation and capstone discussion of the final project.
At the end of the second year, as the capstone event, the MFA student will make a public presentation of the final project (thesis)—a reading of the completed manuscript, a screening, or a performance of the student’s work. The student will meet with his/her thesis committee after the public presentation for a discussion of the final project.