Fellowships
Thanks to the generous support of our donors, the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing offers four fellowships for students starting the program during the winter residency/spring semester: the Michael Steinberg Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction, the Dennis Lehane Fellowship for Fiction, the Jacqueline Woodson Fellowship for a Young People’s Writer of African or Caribbean Descent, and the Sharon Olds Fellowship for Poetry.
Fellowship recipients will receive a $1,000 award toward their first semester’s tuition.
Fellowships are awarded based on the quality of the applicant’s writing sample; see general application guidelines.
Fellowship applications are due October 15, 2010 (not a postmark date; materials must be received in our offices before or on October 15.) Fellowship applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early. Notification letters will be mailed on November 1, 2010. Awards must be applied toward the winter residency/spring semester directly following acceptance; fellowships cannot be deferred or applied toward a summer residency/fall semester start.
To read bios of our donors, click the links below; our poetry donors wish to remain anonymous.
Need-Based Scholarships
MFA students who wish to be considered for a Pine Minor College need-based scholarship and/or federal student loans must apply for financial aid (see instructions below). This is a separate process from the admission application. Roughly twenty percent of our students receive need-based scholarships.
We recommend that you apply for financial aid at the same time that you apply for admission; however, you must be accepted for admission before you will receive a formal financial-aid award, including a need-based scholarship.
Prospective students applying for need-based scholarships are encouraged to submit their materials well in advance of the application deadline, regardless of whether they are applying for a summer residency/fall semester or winter residency/spring semester start. Admission to the program is run on a rolling basis, and so our limited number of need-based scholarships are awarded to eligible students until funds for each enrollment period are dispersed. It is therefore very important that students hoping for a need-based scholarship apply early.
However, those applicants who are also applying for a fellowship must send in all materials by the fellowship deadline of October 15, 2010. (Not a postmark; materials must be received by the Solstice MFA Office by October 15.) Again: fellowships are only available to students starting the MFA Program during the winter residency/spring semester.
Each need-based scholarship awarded will range from $2,000 to $4,000 total, allotted in $500 to $1,000 increments per semester over the course of four semesters.
Applicants hoping to be awarded both a need-based scholarship and genre-specific fellowship must apply no later than the October 15 deadline.
Applying for Financial Aid
If you don’t already have a Personal Identification Number (PIN) visit www.pin.ed.gov to register for one. The PIN will serve as your electronic signature. This process generally takes only two to three days.
Once you have your PIN, go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on the Web. Our federal school code number is 002201. When filling out your FAFSA form, select "undergraduate/graduate," not "graduate plus."
In approximately one to two weeks, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) via e-mail from the federal processor. Review your SAR carefully. Any necessary corrections can be made online. Pine Manor automatically receives this information. Once you have been accepted, your file will be reviewed for an award package.
Financial Aid Application Deadlines
If you are planning to apply for Federal loans, the FAFSA can be filled out any time during your application process.
Per above, we recommend students fill out the FASFA in tandem with the MFA application. Sooner is always better than later.
Questions about financial aid should be directed to: