Submission & Formatting Guidelines
Financial Aid
All students who wish to to apply for or renew financial aid must submit a FAFSA annually. Applications may be submitted any time between October 1 and March 1, and should use tax information from two years prior.
Applications are available online at fafsa-application.com. The Federal School Code for Warren Wilson College is 002979. While the FAFSA will be routed to the College’s financial aid office, students must also send a copy of the Student Aid Report (SAR) to the Director by March 1.
Enrollment Agreements
Due:
mid-September/mid-March
Current Deadline:
March 11, 2020
What to Submit:
Submit a completed Enrollment Agreement with the non-refundable $1500 deposit (payable to MFA Program for Writers at WWC) OR request for Leave of Absence and $200 LOA fee. (Note that late LOA requests incur additional fees of $500 if received by November 1/May 1, $1000 if received by December 1/June 1, and $1500 if received after December 1/June 1.)
Also due:
- Workshop Preference Form (click here for the Word document or here for the PDF)
- Petitions for Novel or Additional Genre Extra Semester
How/What/How Many to Submit:
All students should email the completed enrollment agreement and Workshop Preference Form to the MFA office.
Students submitting petitions for Novel or Additional Genre semesters should review specific guidelines in the tab to the left.
International students may return all materials via email to the MFA office.
Additional Genre Application
Due:
mid-September/mid-March
Current Deadline:
March 11, 2020
Who is Eligible:
Any student in good academic standing who is making consistent, timely progress toward completion of degree requirements. Although the board will consider persuasive exceptions, additional-genre semesters are viewed as most appropriate for students who have completed an approved Degree Essay.
What to Submit:
- A recommendation for the project from a previous or current supervisor, submitted by the supervisor directly to the Program Director, Debra Allbery ([email protected])
- An articulate, persuasive statement outlining the project and its relevance to the primary course of study; and
- A writing sample in the proposed genre
Length of Sample:
- Fiction: 25 pages
- Poetry: 10 pages
- Creative Nonfiction: 25 pages
Formatting:
- 1” margins on all sides, 12-point font (serif fonts preferred)
How/What/How Many to Submit:
Electronic copy directly to the Program Director ([email protected]).
For more information, see page 51 of the Program Handbook.
Novel Extra Semester Application
Due:
mid-September/mid-March
Current Deadline:
March 11, 2020
Who is Eligible:
Students who have completed two semesters of study and who have completed and revised at least 100 pages of a novel draft.
What to Submit:
- One page from the student detailing the project;
- One short email from the current supervisor supporting the request (emailed to Deb); and
- 100 pages of the novel in progress
Length of Sample:
100 pages of the novel in progress
Formatting:
- 1” margins on all sides, 12-point font (serif fonts preferred)
How/What/How Many to Submit:
Emailed (as .doc or .pdf) directly to Deb ([email protected])
For more information, see page 52 of the Program Handbook.
Petition to Graduate
Due:
early September/early March
Current Deadline:
March 4, 2020
What to Submit:
The Petition to Graduate should include one-third to one-half of the final thesis manuscript. This sample should include your most polished, most representative work; material included in the Petition must appear in the final version of the Thesis, although further revision is permitted (indeed, expected). The Petition is viewed as a sample of the thesis-in-progress; the order of stories or poems does not matter. Please include a cover page with your name and address; a table of contents may be included but is not required.
Length of Sample:
1/3 to ½ of the final thesis manuscript, typically as follows:
- Fiction: 35-45 pages
- Poetry: 15-20 pages
Formatting and Printing:
- 1” margins on all sides, 12-point font (serif fonts preferred)
- Single-sided preferred
How/What/How Many to Submit:
One hard copy and one digital copy to the MFA office.
Degree Essay
Essay Cover Page (PDF) Essay Cover Page (Word)
Due:
mid October/mid April
Current Deadline:
April 8, 2020
What to Submit:
Full essay in MLA format with title page and bibliography. The cover page should follow the template on page 16 of the Handbook.
Length of Essay:
30-50 pages
Formatting and Printing:
- 1” margins on all sides
- 12-point font (serif fonts preferred)
- Pagination in the upper right-hand header
- Secured with a binder clip
- Double-sided printing of the body of the essay is permitted; the title page must be single-sided
How/What/How Many to Submit:
1 email copy to your supervisor
2 hard copies and one digital copy (Word or PDF) to the MFA Office
International students may submit their essays via email to the MFA office.
For more information, see pages 12-13 of the Program Handbook.
Worksheets
Due:
late October/early May
Current Deadline:
April 29, 2020
What to Submit:
The “best” workshop experiences usually happen to students who submit work for which candid response is genuinely desired. Workshops, with their close focus on craft, are most efficacious with work that is literally in-progress. However, early draft material is usually not near enough to an embodiment of its intent to communicate that intent to readers, and discussion may describe a confusing range of possibilities. Remember, too, that worksheets are read by the faculty as samples on which decisions about supervisor assignments will be made.
Graduates do not submit worksheets.
Length of Worksheet:
Fiction: 15-20 double-spaced pages (a synopsis may be provided on an additional unnumbered page)
Poetry: 4 single-spaced pages (one poem per page)
Formatting:
- Name in upper right hand header
- Pagination in lower right hand corner
- Margins: 1” top and bottom, 1.5” right and left
- 12 point Times New Roman
How/What to Submit:
Electronic copy (.doc or .docx) to Trish ([email protected])
Students with formatting concerns may also submit their worksheet as a PDF. Note that PDF should be in addition to the Word document.
For more information, see pages 64 of the Program Handbook.
Midterm Evaluations
Due:
mid-September/mid-March
Current Deadline:
March 18, 2020
What to Submit:
Midterm Evaluation Form
How/What/How Many to Submit:
PDF attachment uploaded to the current Google form.
Final Evaluations
Due:
mid-November/mid-May
Current Deadline:
May 20, 2020
What to Submit:
- Final Evaluation Form
- Correspondence Log
- Creative Sample (see guidelines below)
- Semester’s Accepted Annotations
- Semester Bibliography uploaded to current Google form
Essay semester students submit a final corrected copy of the degree essay.
Final semester students submit a copy of their thesis manuscript and MLA-formatted comprehensive bibliography.
Graduates submit all final evaluation materials one week later with their thesis manuscripts. Final evaluation materials should include the final evaluation, working journal or accepted annotations, AND the thesis materials (outlined in the Thesis Manuscript tab). Upload these materials to the current Google form as PDF attachments one week after the last day of the semester. Note that your supervisor must receive their copy of your final evaluation no later than the last day of the semester.
Length of Creative Sample:
Fiction: 20-35 pages
Poetry: 10-15 poems
Formatting:
The correspondence log may be attached to the Final Evaluation Form. Creative Samples, Annotations, and Bibliographies should be separate documents.
Annotations may be presented as a continuous document, with each annotation beginning on a new page.
- 1” margins on all sides
- 12-point font (serif fonts preferred)
- Pagination in the upper right-hand header
How/What/How Many to Submit:
Digital copy of final evaluation to current supervisor
PDF attachments of Final Evaluation, semester log, creative sample, accepted annotations/working journal and semester bibliography to current Google form
Thesis Manuscript
Due:
Late November/late May, one week after the last day of the semester
Current Deadline:
May 27, 2020
What to Submit:
The Thesis Manuscript is a collection of original work (poems, short stories, chapters of a novel) generated or substantially revised while in the Program.
The thesis manuscript should include a title page (as shown in the program handbook) and a table of contents.
Length of Thesis: (students must strictly adhere to these page limits)
Fiction: 70-100 pages
Poetry: 30-50 pages
Thesis Manuscript Formatting:
- 1” margins on all sides
- 12-point font (serif fonts preferred)
- Pagination in the upper right-hand corner with page 1 as the first page of the thesis manuscript
- Single-sided preferred (double sided printing of the body of the thesis is permitted; the title page must be single-sided)
- Manuscript pages should be secured with a binder clip.
How/What/How Many to Submit:
- 1 digital copy of the Thesis and the Comprehensive Bibliography to current supervisor
-
1 digital copy of the thesis manuscript and comprehensive bibliography to the MFA Office along with the final evaluation form and the working journal or accepted annotations uploaded to the current Google form by the due date; note that your supervisor must receive their copy of your final evaluation no later than the last day of the semester.
- 1 copy to each Thesis Committee member (format TBD by individual committee members). Graduating students are provided with thesis committee information during the final week of the semester.
For more information, see pages 15-16 of the Program Handbook.
Thesis Volume
Thesis Cover Page Thesis Volume Table of Contents
The thesis volume comprises the materials archived in the WWC library: the thesis manuscript, degree essay, and comprehensive bibliography.
Due:
During the graduating student’s final January/July Residency
Current Deadline:
July 2020
What to Submit:
All graduates must submit to the MFA Office a full, clean copy of the following during the final residency. The thesis volume submitted during the residency should be loose, in a box/folder, or secured with a binder clip. Single-sided printing is preferred for the thesis manuscript and degree essay; title pages must be single-sided.
The comprehensive bibliography may be printed double-sided.
The thesis volume submitted during the Residency should include:
- Title page with provisions for approval signatures (see sample above)
- Table of Contents (see sample above)
- Manuscript, formatted as noted above
- Degree Essay (listed in the Table of Contents as Appendix 1 to avoid repagination)
- Comprehensive bibliography, formatted as noted above (listed in the Table of Contents as an Appendix 2 to avoid repagination)
The title page, table of contents, manuscript, and essay must be single-sided.
The comprehensive bibliography included in the thesis volume may be double-sided.
The thesis volume submitted during the residency should be loose, in a box/folder, or secured with a binder clip.
For more information, see pages 15-16 of the Program Handbook.
