MPhil in Creative Writing in TCD

p to the e · 08-01-2009 03:03PM #1

Hi there, i was recently looking up this postgraduate course in TCD just purely out of interest. i have a degree in engineering and have worked in industry for about a year now but honestly i'm just don't like it.

Have always told people that i'd like to be a writer so found a course. any thoughts, suggestions. i'd also need a portfolio. i've never done anything like this so does anyone know what information would need to be contained in this. Thanks:D

claire h · 08-01-2009 06:07PM

To be honest with you, I'd take a writing class or two elsewhere before applying for the MPhil - it's apparently quite difficult to get into, and you're up against people who have been writing for years and often already been published or have won awards even before they start the course. (Bios of students from last few years are here: http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/facingwhite/bios.html, http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/incorrigiblyplural/bios.htm, http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/sixteenafterten/authors.html) You'll need to put together a portfolio of creative work, short stories or poems or excerpts from a novel-in-progress, and you'll want this to be good work as opposed to first-draft stuff, so they do have quite a high expectation of you going in. Unless you have a lot of polished work lying around ready to go, applying for entry next year might not be the way to go.

p to the e · 09-01-2009 12:42PM

claire h wrote: »

To be honest with you, I'd take a writing class or two elsewhere before applying for the MPhil - it's apparently quite difficult to get into, and you're up against people who have been writing for years and often already been published or have won awards even before they start the course. (Bios of students from last few years are here: http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/facingwhite/bios.html, http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/incorrigiblyplural/bios.htm, http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/sixteenafterten/authors.html) You'll need to put together a portfolio of creative work, short stories or poems or excerpts from a novel-in-progress, and you'll want this to be good work as opposed to first-draft stuff, so they do have quite a high expectation of you going in. Unless you have a lot of polished work lying around ready to go, applying for entry next year might not be the way to go.

cheers. that's what i was considering alright. it's one thing to have an idea but it's another to get it on paper. plus i think i was pushing it. the deadline is end of February. might consider taking it one step at a time. thanks again.

MPhil in Creative Writing in TCD

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