Career Paths for MA and MFA Graduates

The English Department at BYU offers two graduate degrees: the MA in English and the MFA in Creative Writing. Both degrees are excellent preparation for students interested in academic careers as well as in education, the private sector, and nonprofits.

We see several trends in employment among our MA and MFA graduates. Many students go on to become editors, administrators in higher education, published novelists, tenure-track professors, high school teachers, middle school teachers, part-time university teachers, and technical writers.

Our recent graduates work in areas including acting, addiction treatment, communications management, content delivery, content marketing, curriculum development, fundraising, grant writing, graphic design, health insurance, human resources, international diplomacy, law, marketing, product management, public relations, real estate, sales, user-interface/user-design, and video game design, among other areas. They have found meaningful employment with organizations including Aethon Books, Amazon, Aribex, BambooHR, BYU Center for Language Studies, BYU Faculty Publishing Service, BYU University Communications, Cedar Fort Publishing, Certiport, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, doTERRA, Dungeon Master Direct, Experian, Gabb, Google, Holy Cross Ministries (Salt Lake City), Marvell Technology, Muck Rack, PDQ.com, Podium, Thraseo, Title One, UTMB Health, the US State Department, and the Women’s Success Center at Utah Valley University, among many other employers.

In recent years, our MFA students have published novels with publishers and imprints including By Common Consent, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Roaring Brook Press, Signature, Simon and Schuster, Titan Books, and several others.

Many of our MA and MFA graduates decide to continue for the PhD degree, including at some of the top programs in the United States and the world.

From 2014–2024, our MA students went on to PhD programs at Arizona State University, Duke University, George Mason University, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Oxford University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, Stanford University, Texas Christian University, Tufts University, University of Alabama, University of California-Irvine, University of Hawai‘i, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Nevada-Reno, University of New Mexico, University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Vanderbilt University.

From 2014–2024, our MFA students continued to PhD programs at Ohio University, Oklahoma State University, Texas Tech University, University of Missouri, University of North Texas, University of Oklahoma, University of South Dakota, University of Utah, and Yale Divinity School.

Typically, the PhD represents the most direct path toward a tenure-track job as a college or university professor. Over the years, many of our masters students have gone on to finish PhD programs and find tenure-track positions. However, obtaining a PhD is no guarantee of a tenure-track job, and humanities PhD students today tend to pursue the degree for a wide variety of fulfilling professional and personal goals.