On the US side of things, not sure how much this applies to Canada:
I have an MFA in poetry, and want to add a caveat to the 'it's useful for teaching at university' idea. While it is true that *technically* an MFA puts one into a position to teach college writing, the reality is that the vast majority of MFA alums are...not doing that.
The simple fact is that there is VERY LITTLE creative writing work at the university level that is not, these days, handled by graduate students or tenured mega-stars. And they ain't making new tenured mega-stars. The tenure-track creative writing gig is more or less a thing of the past, and one generally needs to have a Ph.D. or an MFA + SEVERAL HIGH-PROFILE non-genre books published to be truly competitive for those few gigs that are out there. OTOH, the MFA can be useful in getting check-to-check adjuncting jobs.
If you can get a full ride (tuition+stipend/TA gig), it's worth doing just to have scads of time to just focus on writing. If you can get into a genuinely prestigious program it makes for useful networking (though not so much to be worth doing if that's your primary motivation).
If you can't get a full ride, then you're talking taking on student loan debt. If you can't get into a top-15 program, you're unlikely to be dazzled by all of the new doors that are suddenly open, network-wise -- though you may well have a great cohort that become new friends.
Again, this is a very US-ian assessment. Mileage may vary in countries that actually believe in arts/higher ed. funding.
no subject
I have an MFA in poetry, and want to add a caveat to the 'it's useful for teaching at university' idea. While it is true that *technically* an MFA puts one into a position to teach college writing, the reality is that the vast majority of MFA alums are...not doing that.
The simple fact is that there is VERY LITTLE creative writing work at the university level that is not, these days, handled by graduate students or tenured mega-stars. And they ain't making new tenured mega-stars. The tenure-track creative writing gig is more or less a thing of the past, and one generally needs to have a Ph.D. or an MFA + SEVERAL HIGH-PROFILE non-genre books published to be truly competitive for those few gigs that are out there. OTOH, the MFA can be useful in getting check-to-check adjuncting jobs.
If you can get a full ride (tuition+stipend/TA gig), it's worth doing just to have scads of time to just focus on writing. If you can get into a genuinely prestigious program it makes for useful networking (though not so much to be worth doing if that's your primary motivation).
If you can't get a full ride, then you're talking taking on student loan debt. If you can't get into a top-15 program, you're unlikely to be dazzled by all of the new doors that are suddenly open, network-wise -- though you may well have a great cohort that become new friends.
Again, this is a very US-ian assessment. Mileage may vary in countries that actually believe in arts/higher ed. funding.