Working full time + grad school + a learning disability = is it possible?

[juillet]

It is not required to have an MFA in writing as of right now, but from what I hear about graduate programs is that it will enhance how you look, how much you get paid in the long run, etc. A lot of jobs in writing pay squat, so if I were to get an MFA and work my way up, the MFA could potentially get me into a high position at a publishing business or a magazine business because I have an MFA and many people in publishing only have a BA. Really, the purpose of the MFA would be for the long term, but it’s not necessarily needed in my industry… I would just be a step ahead of most applicants.

Who is telling you this information? I am not in publishing or editing, so I defer to the experience of people who are. But I do want to say that you should just make sure that the advice you are getting is coming from professionals in that field OR from professionals who are well-connected and knowledgeable about that field. Graduate programs are always going to encourage you to get a graduate degree. And it’s a common misconception to believe that a master’s degree in general puts you ahead of BA-level applicants, but that’s not always the case. In fact, many employers would take a BA-holding applicant with 3 years of experience over an MFA-holding applicant, depending on the field. Another common misconception is that having a graduate degree means you can start at a higher level than people without one, but that’s not always true either - experience is usually valued over education.

I also agree with the advice that a degree from William Paterson isn’t necessarily going to be super marketable…reputation and prestige of program matters a lot more for graduate school.

I mainly wanted to go to willyp because I did my undergrad there and for this particular program they don’t require the GRE.

IMO, avoiding the GRE is never a good reason to apply to, or not apply to, a specific program. Think about it this way: The GRE is 3-4 hours of your time on a random day. Even if you include studying, that’s what, an additional 10-20 hours? Where you get your graduate degree can affect the whole trajectory of your career. Do you want to base your long-term career decisions on trying to avoid one exam that at most affects 25 hours of your life?

Also, I have to be honest, I feel like I hardly learned anything in my BA for the editing industry. I know it’s a learning process and you have to get experience, but I feel really really unprepared. The MFA would provide me with a more in depth teaching of it.

That’s normal. A BA isn’t supposed to prepare you for a specific industry; you learn that stuff on the job. I would be cautious in assuming that any MFA program will teach you how to navigate the publishing industry, though; MFA programs usually are academic writing programs.

[qupte]Lastly, one of my long term goals is to teach at a university, if possible. I don’t plan on ever getting a PHD, but most colleges offer positions for writers to teach with an MFA, so that’s another goal of mine.

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AH, here are some issues. First of all, you should now that the academic job market is terrible. It’s especially terrible in the humanities and writing. Competition for jobs teaching writing and literature is super steep. You’ll also be competing with people who have both an MFA and a PhD (yes, people do it!) Because of that, if you wanted to teach at a college/university, it’s imperative for you to get your MFA at the best-reputed program you can. WPU, unfortunately, is not the kind of MFA that will make you competitive at many departments of writing/English.