Students applying for admission to the MFA Program generally have completed a bachelor's or master's degree in English from an accredited institution with a 3.2 GPA in upper-division English courses, meet University admission requirements, and submit evidence of creative ability in fiction or poetry. When an undergraduate degree has been completed in a program having different requirements from those of CSULB or in some field other than English, additional preparation may be required.

Admission to the MFA program in Creative Writing is based in part on an evaluation of a representative sample of the applicant's recent work. The sample should consist of 10 pages of poetry or 20-30 double-spaced pages of prose (one or more short stories, one or more creative nonfiction essays, or a section of a novel). Admission to the program will be in one genre only, and applicants are discouraged from submitting in both genres in the same year.

Have earned a grade point average of at least 2.5 on the last degree completed by the candidate or have attained a grade point average of at least 2.5 (A=4.0) in the last 60 semester (90 quarter) units attempted.

IELTS - 6.0 each sub-section
TOEFL Internet-based (iBT) - 80
TOEFL Paper-based - 550