With the cost of an getting MFA higher now than any other time in history, I decided it would be a real service to the Smartly community to scour the internet to find all the fully (or mostly) funded programs across the U.S. for any of you considering going that route. To my surprise and delight, there are quite a few programs out there that wave tuition for accepted students, while also training and paying you for teaching assistant work. This means that you could potentially earn a masters degree without debt, and you could graduate with a leg-up on the competition for those few, highly-coveted academic positions, by gaining university-level teaching experience. Yow! You can’t ask for more than that.

I’ve been talking to a lot of people lately about the high cost of getting an MFA. Having After receiving my MFA from a school ranked 7th in tuition cost by the Design Degree Central, located in one of the US cities ranked highest for cost of living (I love you CCA, and San Francisco!), I’m no stranger to the sticker shock of following your dreams towards a masters degree. But the sharp increase in tuition for higher education in the last 5-6 years has turned something that was once a stretch into a potential financial disaster.

The experience I had in graduate school was one of the best in my life, and the skills, framework, and community that I came away with have shaped my career path every day since I graduated. However, faced with today’s prices, I don’t think I would have been able to take the leap. Reading the opinions of giants like Jerry Saltz and Coco Fusco on the matter give little hope that many who earn newly minted MFAs from the country’s top schools will ever be able to recoup the financial investment that is now required.

My own conversations with recent MFA graduates focus on how their student loans payments feel like the primary barrier to gaining traction in their art careers. The added burden of the typical $500-$800 (and often more) of monthly loan payments can eliminate the possibility of studio space, and chew up time away from a steady gig to make meaningful strides in their practice.

Here’s the list I complied from a variety of sources (in alphabetic order). You’ll have to do your own due diligence to find which one will work best for you, and what exactly they offer, but this list will get you started towards your free (or low-cost) MFA!

Alfred University – Alfred, NY
Specifically for ceramic art. Accepted students get grant for full tuition waiver for full program as well as a guaranteed assistantship with stipend. (An informed Smartly reader has written in to let us  know that Alfred also funds sculpture, glass, electronic art, and they’re starting an MFA in Painting that will be a collaboration with Düsseldorf — thanks for the extra info!)

Arizona State University –Tempe, AZ
Teaching assistants are given a tuition waiver, health insurance and a stipend.

DoVA University of Chicago – Chicago, IL
All students receive half-tuition fellowship for their 1st year, and full tuition fellowship their 2nd year. There are also paid teaching assistantships.

Florida State University — Tallahassee, FL
Graduate students are eligible to receive full tuition waivers, teaching or technical assistantships based on merit, and are additionally eligible  to receive a subsidy toward the university health insurance plan.

Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge, LA
Students pay for their own cost of living; however modest stipends of $6,300 per year come with an assistantship, which includes a tuition waiver.

Mills College – Oakland, CA
Accepts 12 students a year, all of whom receive 25% tuition scholarship for their 1st year and 75% tuition scholarship teaching assistantship their 2nd year. Review their financial aid opportunities.

Northwestern University – Chicago, IL
MFA in Art Theory and Practice program only accepts 5 graduate students each year, but they fully support all these students with tuition waivers, healthcare coverage, and stipends.

Ohio State University – Columbus, OH
Most students accepted into the MFA Program are funded with a 50% stipend (20 hours work a week) and tuition waiver. These appointments may include teaching introductory courses, assisting in department labs and working for The Arts Initiative

Rutgers University – New Brunswick, NJ
All 1st year students get a tuition waiver for out-of-state tuition equivalent, and 2nd year students get tuition waiver for in-state tuition equivalent.

Stanford University – Stanford, CA
Through a combination of fellowship funds and teaching assistantships, each Art Practice graduate student normally receives an aid package that includes tuition and stipend as well as small materials grants.

Tulane University – New Orleans, LA
All admitted graduate students receive a full tuition waiver and a generous assistantship stipend. Teaching and teaching-assistantship opportunities are available to all admitted students each semester.

UC Irvine – Irvine, CA
Successful U.S. applicants typically receive full academic financial support. Each graduate student is appointed to 6 Teaching Assistant and/or Teaching Associate positions during their three years in the program (two each year).”

UCLA – Los Angeles, CA
This school will award year-long graduate fellowships, which offer tuition waiver and a stipends

University of Connecticut – Storrs, CT
Full tuition waiver for full-time students with teaching/research stipend ($11,000) plus health benefits for three years.

University of Delaware – Newark, DE
Students pay cost of living but stipends for teaching are given to all second year students.

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign – Champaign, IL
Graduate students in good standing in the School of Art + Design typically receive support packages that include waivers of full tuition and most fees.

University of North Texas – Denton, TX
Half-time teaching assistant appointment are offered $5,500 a semester in compensation, plus waiver of out-of-state tuition, and reduced rate on state health benefits

University of Maryland – Baltimore, MD
The majority of accepted students get Graduate Assistantship positions with tuition remission and stipend. Other fellowships and awards are available as well.

University of Massachusetts Amherst – Amherst, MA
This is a 3 year program that accepts six students per year, and awards teaching assistantships completely defraying the cost of tuition to most of our graduate students.

University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI
Awards range from stipends and discretionary funds that offset studio expenses to teaching/research assistantships and full tuition waivers.

University of Minnesota Twin Cities — Minneapolis, MN
This program is 100% tuition remission and 95% medical benefits for three consecutive years — wow! The number accepted varies, depending on the available stipends, but it seems to be about 8 per year.  All MFA students are fully funded through fellowships or assistantships, and the program is 3 years long. Their websites indicates it’s ranked 55th among other MFAs.

University of Southern California, Roski School of Fine Arts – Los Angeles, California.
If you’re awarded a teaching assistant you’ll be given full tuition credit and a stipend.

University of Tennessee — Knoxville, TN
This 3-year program offers 100% tuition coverage! Twenty-six students attend at a time so the number of accepted applicants can vary. There are extra fees for out of state can be up to $1,000, in-state fees are less. According to their website, their print-making program is ranked 2nd of print-making programs, and the MFA as a whole is ranked 17th among public schools, 33 among all universities.

Washington State University – Pullman, WA
Most teaching assistantships include a full tuition waiver (once in-state status is granted), about $13,000 in an annual stipend, and health insurance.

Know of some other programs that should be on this list? Please leave it in the comments below and I’ll add it! Does this list open up some new options for you? I’d love to hear about it. You can always send me an email directly at christina@sm-artly.com.

Want more? Join my Free online community, Artists Making Dollars and Sense, where we discuss all this stuff in real time. Hope to see you there!