Admissions

Admissions is now open and the deadline is January 5th, 2019.

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Application Requirements for the PhD Program
Application Requirements for the MFA Program
Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
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The Department of English offers a complete program of study in literature leading to the PhD degree. The department also offers a program leading to the M.A. with an emphasis on Creative Writing.

Please review the UC Davis Graduate Studies Admissions & Application page in addition to the program requirements listed below.

Application Requirements for the PhD program in Literature

Applications are reviewed once all supporting materials have been received. For more information about your application status, please check online or contact the graduate program staff.

Program Requirements
Designated Emphases We Offer
Past Student Work
Recent Job Placements
Check out courses we offer

Statement of Purpose, and the Personal History and Diversity Statement. You may see the prompts and instructions for those two items, here.
3 Letters of Recommendation (online submission only; letters sent via Interfolio or other Letter Service not accepted.)
UC Davis requires academic records from each college-level institution you have attended. You will be instructed to upload scanned copies of your transcripts after you have submitted your online application. Official guidelines and instructions may be found here.
Application Fee ($105 domestic; $125 international)
1-2 research or term papers written for English courses (the total should not exceed 30 pages)
GRE scores (from the General Test; we do not require Subject Test scores) taken within the last 5 years
Please use the following codes to ensure your GRE scores are sent to the correct location: Institution Code: 4834 Department Code: 2504
Although there is no required minimum GRE score for applications, most of our successful applicants have verbal and analytic GRE scores in the upper 90th percentiles. However, an outstanding writing sample and overall strong application do in some cases lead us to overlook GRE scores that do not reflect the quality of the application as a whole.

Prospective students may also submit a Fellowship Application after applying to the program.

International Applicants: Please review the following application information from the UC Davis Office of Graduate Studies.

Application Requirements for the MFA program in Creative Writing

Applications are reviewed once all supporting materials have been received. For more information about your application status, please check online or contact the graduate program staff.

Program Requirements
Check out our graduate reading series, Fig+Axle
Past student work
Check out courses We Offer

Statement of Purpose, and the Personal History and Diversity Statement. You may see the prompts and instructions for those two items, here.
3 Letters of Recommendation (online submission only; letters sent via Interfolio or other Letter Service not accepted.)
UC Davis requires academic records from each college-level institution you have attended. You will be instructed to upload scanned copies of your transcripts after you have submitted your online application. Official guidelines and instructions may be found here.
Application Fee ($105 domestic; $125 international)
Writing samples in your preferred genre (poetry, fiction, non-fiction or multi-genre), consisting of: 10-12 poems or up to 30 pages (double-spaced) of prose. If your work is of a hybrid form (between or across genres), do not exceed 30 pages.
In our program all students take at least one workshop in a genre that is not their "primary" genre, so you do not need to apply in multi-genre to have access to courses in multiple genres. You should submit your best writing in the genre you want to concentrate on. Choose "multi-genre" only if the writing you want to concentrate on does not fit into the primary three genres, but, rather, mixes different modes of literary writing.
GRE scores (from the General Test; we do not require Subject Test scores) taken within the last 5 years.
Please use the following codes to ensure your GRE scores are sent to the correct location: Institution Code: 4834 Department Code: 2504
GRE scores are often used to secure employment for students admitted to the program. The stronger your GRE scores, the more competitive you become in this regard.

No Fellowship Application required. Departmental funding will be determined by the admissions committee. We have a limited number of first-year funding packages that are offered at admission, and all students who are successful in their first year have access to full funding in their second year. In addition, most students who attend are able to access partial or full funding after admission.

International Applicants: Please review the following application information from the UC Davis Office of Graduate Studies.