The University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop topped Poets & Writers 2012 Rankings of Graduate Programs in Creative Writing. Follow this PDF link to see the top 50 schools.

Below, we’ve listed the to top five programs, complete with links. If you are looking for MFA alternatives, check out our post on a free edition of the Portable MFA in Creative Writing’ eBook.

Here’s more about the list: “Attorney, poet, editor, and freelance journalist Seth Abramson conducted the surveys for the overall rankings, and compiled all the hard data for the other rankings that appear in each of the tables. Full-residency applicants were surveyed on one of the highest-traffic MFA-related websites, the Creative Writing MFA Blog, founded in August 2005 by Tom Kealey, author of The Creative Writing MFA Handbook.”

1. University of Iowa
2. University of Michigan
3. University of Wisconsin
4. Brown University
5. Cornell University and Syracuse University tied for this spot

Editor’s note: This post has been updated to include the tie for the fifth place.