2010 MFA Rankings: The Top Fifty

Rank School
Votes
(of 508)
Poetry
Rank
Fiction
Rank 		Nonfiction
Rank		 Total
Funding
Rank		 Annual
Funding
Rank
Selectivity
Rank
Postgraduate
Placement
Rank
1 University of Iowa in Iowa City 253 1 1 1 21 22 22 2
2 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 169 3 2 * 16 4 14 4
3 University of Virginia, Charlottesville 144 2 4 * 21 21 2 7
4 University of Massachusetts, Amherst 132 4 5 * 40 41 15 30
4 University of Texas, Austin 132 5 6 * 1 1 1 1
6 University of Wisconsin, Madison 129 6 11 * 21 22 8 7
7
 Brown University in Providence 127 8 3 * 19 20 5 19
8 New York University in New York City 125 7 7 * + + 38 15
9 Cornell University in Ithaca, New York 110 9 7 * 10 2 3 3
10 University of Oregon, Eugene 104 15 12 * 27 29 7 5
11 Syracuse University in New York 97 20 10 * 5 7 30 23
12 Indiana University, Bloomington 93 13 14 * 6 8 11 15
13 University of California, Irvine 91 26 9 * 26 28 9 12
14 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 85 17 14 8 29 27 17 10
15 Brooklyn College, CUNY 81 39 13 * * * 36 *
16
University of Montana, Missoula 78 17 17 17 47 46 24 19
17
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore 77 11 16 * 30 30 10 *
18
Vanderbilt University in Nashville 76 13 18 23 25 26 4 *
19
University of North Carolina, Greensboro 75 10 19 * 33 31 12 12
20
Washington University, St. Louis 70 15 24 * 12 3 6 15
21
University of Florida, Gainesville 67 22 21 * 13 16 13 15
22
Columbia University in New York City 66 38 19 10 * * * 28
23
University of Notre Dame in Indiana 62 34 22 12 + + 32 *
24
Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia 56 32 26 4 + + 23 *
24
University of North Carolina, Wilmington 56 22 25 5 41 42 39 *
26
Arizona State University, Tempe 55 19 28 35 15 18 18 *
26
Hunter College, CUNY 55 45 22 6 * * 26 *
26
University of Houston in Texas 55 11 34 18 34 34 N/A 6
29
Colorado State University, Fort Collins 53 20 34 * 42 43 N/A *
29
The New School in New York City 53 47 27 3 * * 41 *
31
 Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York 52 27 33 8 * * N/A 26
31
University of Washington, Seattle 52 27 28 * * * 29 *
33
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa 51 25 31 29 2 18 20 9
34
University of Arizona, Tucson 49 32 28 2 + + 49 22
35
Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana 45 22 40 * 9 10 21 *
36
 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 41 31 45 * 17 24 18 25
37
 George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia 40 39 34 12 + + 46 28
38
 Boston University in Massachusetts 39 39 38 * + + 35 11
39
University of Nevada, Las Vegas 38 48 31 * 35 35 33 *
40
 Ohio State University, Columbus 35 27 + 35 7 9 37 32
41
 University of Maryland, College Park 34 37 44 * * * * 24
42
 Florida State University, Tallahassee 33 39 + * 38 38 * *
42
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 33 * 46 * 3 5 * *
42
Rutgers University, Newark in New Jersey 33 * 37 12 *
* * *
42
University of New Hampshire, Durham 33 39 40 7 * * * *
46
 Pennsylvania State University, University Park 32 45 46 11 28 14 28 *
47
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale 31 27 48 * 14 17 * *
47
Texas State University, San Marcos 31 * 40 * + + * *
49
University of Mississippi, Oxford 31 + 40 * 18 25 16 *
50
 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 30 34 + * 4 6 27 *
50
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond 30 + 38 * 31 32 * *
50
Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg 30 34 + * 8 10 34 *

Note: An honorable mention goes to Bowling Green State University, a two-year program in Ohio that ranks among the top fifty programs in selectivity (#47), total funding (#46), annual funding (#45), and poetry (#48), and received pluses in overall votes and fiction. For a ranking of the additional eighty-eight full-residency MFA programs, click here.