Deepen your passion, find your people in Mason's BFA Program. Join a community of writers committed to sharpening their craft and yours in one of the country's only undergraduate BFA programs in creative writing. The BFA is structured to give students ample opportunity to learn to write and think creatively while also developing writing skills for the job marketplace. Study with award-winning faculty who will work to develop your literary art and help chart your journey toward sustaining a vibrant writerly life.

Because acceptance to the BFA in Creative Writing is competitive, we advise students to take some college level coursework in creative writing before applying to the program. Most institutions offer Introduction to Creative Writing as well as writing classes in Fiction, Poetry, and/or Creative Nonfiction. Successful completion of even one creative writing course before coming to Mason will make the internal application process much easier by ensuring the applicant will have a strong writing sample and an enthusiastic Instructor recommendation. In most cases, transferred creative writing classes at any level can be applied to foundational requirements in the major.Students interested in Mason are encouraged to focus on completing courses that meet general education requirements.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences have additional requirements in: philosophy or religion, social and behavioral science, foreign language through the intermediate level, and non-western culture. Students are encouraged to use the "Contact an Institution" section of the portal and connect with our staff for questions related to specific course equivalencies and requirements.

• Create a schedule for all required courses, pay attention to prerequisites and when courses are offered, complete your first math and English courses in your first year
• Connect with an advisor at your community college and George Mason University within your first year via College Connect

To preview the requirements for the internal application to the BFA, email the major advisor, Laura Scott at lscott@gmu.edu. You are also welcome to apply before transferring, but acceptance is contingent on acceptance to Mason. Applicants with strong writing samples, instructor recommendations, and experience in writing workshops are most likely to be accepted into the BFA on their first attempt, but if we need more evidence of readiness for a structured creative writing program like ours, we may ask the applicant to re-apply with more information. We want to include anyone who is passionate about creative writing, but we also want to make sure our BFA students are fully prepared for the program.

BFA students can enhance their majors by working with WATERSHED LIT: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice, a collective of organizations whose missions create and promote transformative experiences in the literary arts at Mason and beyond, including a major book festival, an independent press, a daily online poetry anthology, a center for international writers, an annual conference, a project focused on the teaching of writing, and two highly regarded literary journals.

For an intensive experience in professional development, consider our new minor in Dynamic Publishing with an Art & Design track and an Editorial & Production track.

Highly motivated transfers may elect to apply for the English Honors program, which offers advanced, topic-driven seminars taught by research faculty. English Honors is a stepping stone toward post-graduate study or a variety of research and writing-intensive careers.

Our recent graduates have enjoyed a variety of successes in publishing, scholarship, education, and social justice. Andrew Joseph White's (BFA 19, MFA 22) debut novel HELL FOLLOWED WITH US was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2022, and Shellie Kalinsky (BFA 22) is a first year MFA fiction candidate at Mason, whose story, Turtle Pond was published in The Madison Review Extended Cut.

Julija Pivo (BFA 20), won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Fellowship to Lithuania, where she has assisted local English teachers in their classrooms and served as a cultural ambassador for the US. 

Tulane Simpson (BFA 22), was selected to present their project Eco-Androgyny: Environmentalism Beyond the Gender Binary, as part of Posters on the Hill, an event where undergraduates present their research to lawmakers in the hope of influencing policy.

• Completing your Associate transfer degree post-high school satisfies all lower division general education requirements and increases the chance of completing your bachelor's degree?
• Exceeding 3 years or 90 credits at your community college means you may have exhausted your financial aid at that college and have limited your future financial aid at: George Mason University

• Our students enroll from all over the Commonwealth, all 50 states, and more than 130 countries.
• Transfer students are encouraged, but not required to join our residential campus community of 6,300 students.
• Mason transfers thrive in any number of the 470+ academic, cultural, or social student organizations.