MFA in Screenwriting

Our small, select program offers the necessary time and focuses to hone your skills for both film and television. Ready to join our Writer's Room?

No GRE required. Scholarships available.

The Boston University Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting offers the best of both worlds: a learning environment on the east coast and a working-world experience on the west coast.

Over four semesters in two cities, students build the skills, experience, and community to launch a career in the television and film industry as a scriptwriter. They start with three semesters in Boston and become part of a close-knit community that wants to grow together. COM keeps things intimate and nurturing by design, so students collaborate and learn from peers as well as faculty.

Then, students spend their fourth semester in Los Angeles, learning through an industry internship and gaining valuable experience from established writers and guest presenters while networking with our Los Angeles-based alumni. All students take a rewrite class to revise and polish a script started in Boston.

Students will write a minimum of seven scripts for:

• Two feature-length screenplays
• Two short screenplays
• An existing hour-long TV drama
• An existing half-hour TV comedy
• An original TV pilot and series bible

Courses cover writing for television (including Writing the Pilot, Writing the Sitcom, and Writing the Episodic Drama, among them) as well as for film (Writing the Short Film, Script into Film, three feature screenwriting workshops).

Learn Alongside Professionals

Students are mentored and taught by industry-savvy faculty -- veteran creatives with experience writing for both film and television. COM’s screenwriting faculty share their own experiences in the craft as well as their insights into building a professional network.

Since the MFA in Screenwriting is known as a “terminal degree,” students may gain teaching experience while also earning a paycheck through a graduate assistant position. After teaching their own section of our undergraduate screenwriting course, our MFA students have gone on to adjunct and full-time teaching positions.