Leaderboard

Just wanted to pop and and say hope everyone had a nice holiday. Happy New Year!

waitlisted at Ohio state for nonfiction! last year they denied me. Hoping this is a good sign

Well friends, I finally submitted my last application. 14 out of 14 schools, in before deadlines! It was really rough if I'm being honest. My dad passed away at the end of November, so I ended up having a lot to do in addition to the holidays. But I did it! So here's hoping I get an offer somewhere, along with all you lovely creatives! Good luck!

I hear that, and same here! But isn't it kinda fun? Being all wrapped up in this? Chasing your dreams? Applying to good schools, applying to be a part of something, no idea how it will turn out, if you'll get in, if you'll make the right choice if you have more than one choice? For me this is all like Christmas extending all the way through to Jan, Feb, and beyond. We are all so privileged to be in a place to even dream these dreams.

i sat down to write a serious literary novel that could be the seeds of my thesis. but after only 1k words, sexy ghosts started showing up. my minds too mushy until this process ends to be serious.

Got my first admit from LSE in MSc Political Science and Political Economy!

Hi everyone: I can't believe I'm back at the Grad Cafe! Ugh/Haha! Last time I was here was when I was applying PhDs in Clinical Psych in 2009 for the 2010 app cycle. That was successful and I've had my doc and and been in the field since 2014. And now I'm ready to begin a phase I always knew would come - my writing. All my apps are now in, and so the exhaustion is real and the nervous waiting begins. I applied to Iowa, Brown, Syracuse, NYU, Columbia,Hunter, BU, Emerson, and Bennington. Anyway, just wanted to chime in and to wish everyone all the best of luck! Please let us know when and what you hear and I'll do the same.

I applied to Simon Fraser University and UBC....received an SFU interview invite on January 10 with various faculty, haven't heard back from UBC. I just wanted to share that I applied last year (4.17 GPA, multiple publications) and didn't get any interview offers. It was really discouraging, and mostly just very stressful waiting until March just to get a rejection email. Last year I got really wrapped up in checking my email 20x a day and checking grad cafe multiple times a day. It was kind of pointless. I've had friends not get in to clinical and move on with their lives, and friends get into their dream program, and at the end of the day, both of them are at the same happiness level. Actually I would say the friend who didn't get in is happier now than the one who did get in! So I just wanted to encourage anyone who's struggling with the waiting and 'what ifs' that your life is not clinical psychology or grad school, even if right now it feels like it is.

Just had a cute lil manic episode and impulse-applied to three more programs (Notre Dame, Boise State, and Northern Michigan). Please send thoughts and prayers to my poor recommenders.

Made an account because I'm too full of anticipation to just lurk anymore. Hi! This is my second round of apps, I first applied for 2022 straight out of undergrad and got all rejections and one waitlist. My SOP was kind of trash looking back on it and I've fine tuned my writing sample, though I still used pieces I workshopped in college. Few of my pieces feel like they're as polished as those because they haven't been workshopped, though I revised them substantially. Anyway, hi all. All the schools I applied to (only 5 this cycle, I want to live in a specific part of the country and really did my research this time) typically get back to people Feb-March yet I have the draft sheet open on my work computer all day and both the forum and the Draft open as well. On the bright side, I too want to join what will become a past thread for someone else to anxiously scroll through in the future as they anticipate responses from schools. :)

Just wanted to drop in and wish you all good luck!! I went through this last year, the process is so anxiety-inducing... If I can support y'all in any way, please lmk!

Meditation and Dharma practice, mostly. And a correctly prescribed SNRI ✨ And the perspective of being 39 and barely surviving multiple life threatening crises over the years. Helps me remember that not getting into an MFA program is a good day compared to what I've already survived, and now thrived through. So, like I said: mostly meditation.

I'm not. I'm in an adrenalized state of hypervigilance.

Last of my apps have been submitted…feeling strangely at peace even if I do check draft every other hour! February feels so long from now, and I can’t believe that is the earliest I will get any word back. Best of luck everyone!! 🙂

Yeah I kind of prefer it here to facebook draft. Something interesting about just having an anonymous forum where we all suffer together lol.

Happy New Year everyone! I know admission decisions will start coming out this month so I'm sending everyone positive vibes. I haven't heard anything yet so keeping fingers crossed!

I ran into exactly this issue when I first applied two years ago (this year is my second round). I really didn't anticipate how burned out I'd feel after submitting my apps, nor how absurd my anxiety would get while waiting on results. It was impossible to focus on anything creative while in limbo mode. Felt like those muscles had just gone limp. This time around, I figured January through March will be lost months anyways. So I had friends recommend me their favorite movies and TV shows, and weird video games, and comfort-reads in genres that are removed from what I write. I plan to work my way through that. I've also scheduled a ton of activities for myself that will get me out of my apartment on my off days—ideally activities with other people, but also stuff like solo museum visits or seeing local concerts. I've noticed that being out and about makes it harder for me to get too trapped in my own head for long. Which is what I'm after, really. And I'm like, okay, neat, at the end of these limbo months I'll have experienced a ton of stuff that I might not have picked up normally! And I get to make my friends excited because I watched all their favorite mini-series and now they can talk about them with me. Win-win.

Lurker here...I am applying to Emory's DrPH in Implementation and Evaluation Science too. Wishing you (and everyone) the best of luck.

I'm personally not sweating it. I put out the best application I could at the time whenever a deadline came up. Some are better than others, but it was the best I could do at that exact moment. So, the stress for me was getting everything ready. Once I've submitted and it's out of my hands I'm pretty chill about it. I know my stress won't up my chances, so no reason to punish myself with stress. However, I stress about the group I ultimately applied to. If I had it to do over again (and I may well next year), I'd have applied a little more widely. Probably should have done Notre Dame and Ohio State (yes, the game last night may be impacting my thinking), but the reason I ultimately didn't was that at the time I felt like neither had the faculty I was looking for so why mess with two places I don't really want to live. Also probably should have done Johns Hopkins, but I do understand why I didn't. Still, if I could change one thing that'd be it.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sorry, just wanted to shout; it's still been too quiet lately.

I'm very sorry for your loss, and can only admire your strength in seeing out all of your submissions. Best of luck to you--

I guess my interview went well, because today I got accepted to Temple! I didn't think I did too great but I'm happy it worked out in my favor wishing everyone the best ❤️

Hi everyone! I've been spending my weekend reading threads from past years. I feel like I know some of these people now... I kind of miss them, weirdly.

Big week ahead, y'all! I can sense it!

Congratulations, @voxanonyma! I am offered an interview with Penn ANCH next week! Got notified yesterday. It will be my first interview, so I am a bit stressed and doing some preparations these days. Fingers crossed, and good luck to everyone!

A word on interviews from a faculty member. While part of the reason interviews are done is to ask more details about research interests, part of it is to evaluate English fluency (for international students) and to verify the candidate is capable of basic manners (for all). Some people look great on paper, but are hard to work with for a variety of reasons.

The release of the Draft notification sheet has pumped up the jam! [of anxiousness]. If things take after last year, we should be seeing some action from Ohio State, Amherst, and a few others come next week. It's also 1/11. My mother mentioned the psycho-spiritual intimations that might come from today. She recommended I wear all black the next day and be outside as often as possible. I took a Joy Williams novel with me to a park and, after sitting at a picnic table, saw a jet-black cat slip from behind a metal beam upholding a pavilion, and walk towards me. Maybe it's a sign of something! maybe a cat's mom was told to dress in all black and be outside as often as possible. Whatever the case, I'm wishing some form of good energy for everyone here--

I also got a Calgary invite!

Hi all! like the OP i'm applying to two PhD programs (Temple & Berkley) straight from undergrad😅, but I also applied to 3 MA programs. I'm a little nervous because I just got an email from Temple asking for an interview, even though they don't usually do them. I can't tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing😓 Most deadlines are past, but I wish everyone in this thread luck < 3

Thank you!! Yes, I did! I received a personalized note from the dean... I haven't heard any word from anyone else though. Over the moon about it, even if it's an invitation for Round 2. Hope you hear something soon <33

I just got my first acceptance letter today! Manifesting the same for all of your applications!

Honestly, keep the sexy ghosts, sounds like a rad project

Fanfics and whiskey, baby 🤠 edit: and working on creative projects that I usually find myself putting to the side in favor of the more commercial or literary ones on my roster. Giving myself a permission slip to just make stuff for the sake of making stuff

In the past 3 years, JHU's response time has varied from early to mid Feb (2/6-2/13), though they've gone later than that (2/28 in 2020). Notre Dame has a later application date (so a later response) and they do interviews. Interview notifications have fallen around 2/14-16 [only 2 years worth of data]. Their acceptances have gone out anywhere from 2/23-3/5. Take a breath. We'll get there!

It's that time of the year where decisions are starting to roll in with increasing frequency - good luck to everyone!

Hey everyone! Intl. applicant here, finished my undergrad last summer. Haven't applied to a lot of places - just 3 universities/4 programs for fiction. Highly unlikely I get in anywhere and the whole process has left me generally queasy bec the application process is quite taxing and expensive where I'm from, but hoping something works out. This is a really cool community and I feel slightly better knowing most are as neurotic as me lol

So quiet!!! Where is Ohio Thee State!!!

I will say, sometimes the best teacher ends up being the one you least expect. A professor may be producing work that resonates with you, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll give you excellent feedback on your own pieces or explain concepts to you in a way that makes sense. Writing and teaching are totally separate skills. Likewise with a cohort. Some of my best readers, the people I have learned the most from over the years, are peers whose work is completely different from mine. Being unable to connect with someone's work doesn't matter if they offer you excellent feedback week after week. And of course it's just as important to give them excellent feedback in turn, even if you don't personally connect with what they're doing. Gotta take each piece as it comes, figure out what the writer is trying to accomplish, and what they can do to achieve it in the text.

I recommend visiting if you can! And also talking to grad students who the program DOES NOT hand-select for you, but rather people you find through here or the Draft Facebook group.

I'll go ahead and make an intro post, too. This is my second time applying (I'm hoping to switch out of my current program, where I'm a first-year). Feeling jittery and desperate for news, but I know it's not healthy to dwell in that energy through March. I wish I knew for certain that I'd get a waitlist or acceptance this round.

I know... I think I partly posted just because I want to be part of this old-school-feeling site and part of an old thread that future people comb through.

Can't wait for literally ANYTHING. I'm going stir crazy.

Yes. They're sending acceptance decisions to the best candidates, they won't send all the rejections straight away though. If they offered 10 spots to the best applicants, they are waiting for people to respond, once someone rejects them, they'll make an offer to another person who wasn't their first choice but still a strong fit. This is how they usually work their way down the silent waitlist, not every program does official waitlists. This is why sometimes you will hear about your decision in May, some people even in August!

Received an interview invite from my PI for UCalgary clinical!

Ohio State and UIUC are usually the first to notify for fiction. Last year it was around the 16th so it's probably going to be another 1-2 weeks.

I've heard that there was at least 1 poetry waitlist, probably indicating there have been poetry acceptances. Poetry nearly always hears back first (for all programs), so don't sweat it! No fiction rumbles - according to notification data, there haven't been acceptances this early for fiction.

1) yes it is useless, mostly, to check portals without prompting from an email. I think there's a .00001% chance of looking at a portal and seeing 'acceptance' before getting an email or a call. 2) i will still be obsessively checking the portals anyway, because i have no self control.

To all who observed, happy belated Christmas!

Just got an email from Knoxville - I’m through to round 2 :)

Hi! I am always doing this to myself lol but only applied to Tulane's program for Fall 24 and unfortunately didn't get accepted. I have decided to apply solely to Emory's DrPH in implementation and evaluation science for Fall 2025 and will be submitting it before January. Sending well wishes to everyone applying to your respective programs ❤️❤️❤️