Southern Illinois University based in Carbondale, IL offers a fully funded MFA in Creative Writing. The MFA program is a studio-academic program designed to assist talented students in developing their skills as poets or fiction writers. The fundamental elements of the program are writing workshops; intensive tutorial work with the thesis director on the student’s writing; and the study of the traditions, forms, and theories of literature from a writer’s stance. Almost all MFA students hold graduate assistantships, which provide stipends for the academic year and full remission of tuition. The annual stipend, which comes with tuition remission, ranges from $13,000 to $14,500.