Vermont College of Fine Arts

College Hall

— Photos by dg

The Vermont College of Fine Arts…

is located on top of a hill in Montpelier, VT, a short walk from the coffee shops, restaurants and bookstores downtown. You can see the bell tower of the venerable College Hall from the freeway. In the summer, people play soccer and softball and walk their dogs on the green; in the winter there is an outdoor skating rink. On July 4 every year we all stand outside and watch the fireworks.

VCFA offers Master of Fine Arts degrees in writing, visual arts, writing for children & young adults, music composition, and graphic design, all taught on the low-residency model.

MFA in Writing students…

generally study for four semesters (dual genre students do five) in their chosen field, either fiction, creative nonfiction or poetry. Each semester involves a 10-day intensive residency on the college campus in Montpelier, VT, followed by roughly five months of study with a faculty advisor (usually five students per advisor per semester). Students are required to send their advisor five packets of written material including creative work and critical essays in response to readings. In the third semester, students are required to write a lengthy critical thesis as well as complete their creative work. In the fourth semester, they have to polish their creative work and present it in thesis form and write a lecture for delivery at their final residency. In any given semester, a faculty advisor can have a mix of first, second, third and fourth semester students. Summers VCFA offers an alternative residency in Slovenia for a small group of faculty and students. In the winter, there is a residency in Puerto Rico.