Applying to MFA programs usually requires passing the Graduate Records Exam (GRE) with a particular score. Some schools require not only taking the General GRE test, but also ask that candidates take the English Subject Matter GRE test as well.
A writing sample is part of the application process as well. Even more so than the undergraduate college essay, a strong piece of writing can be the deciding factor in convincing a committee member to vote to admit an MFA candidate.
MFA students choose the area of concentration or genre that they want to write in, be it fiction, poetry, drama or the growing field of creative nonfiction.
Much of the coursework consists of writing workshops in which two or three students present copies of their work to their classmates each week. Those copies are taken home, read and then discussed in class the following week.
MFA students are usually asked to take some of the same theory classes as their M.A. brethren, including courses that cover specific theories of novels and poetry, and important periods of western and sometimes world, literature.
Instead of writing the dissertation that M.A. students are held to, MFA candidates usually are required to produce a final writing project of sizable publishable material. Professors that specialize in the student's genre become part of an MFA committee, and those professors become the arbiters of what quality of work rises to the level of being publishable.