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The University of Kansas' MFA is a three-year program with tracks in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Each year the admissions committee admits approximately four poets and four prose writers from a pool of applicants that last year numbered between sixty and seventy. Typically, students in the program take course work for the first two years of the program and then write for the third year on their creative thesis. Students may take up to 15 credit hours to complete the thesis, and by the time they graduate they will have produced a book-length manuscript of poetry or prose.

The University of Kansas' English Department offers six to eight graduate teaching assistantships each year to incoming students in the MFA and Ph.D programs in creative writing. A GTA appointment includes a tuition waiver for ten semesters plus a stipend of $12,250 the first year. In the first year, GTA appointees teach English 101 (freshman composition) and English 102 (a required reading and writing course. MFA students have the opportunity to teach an introductory course in creative writing in their third year, and opportunities are available for advanced GTAs to teach in the summer.

Students who apply for a GTA appointment may also be considered for a limited number of fellowships.