[Fall 2015 MFA]

well friends, this where the admissions journey ends for me. i just received confirmation that all spots have been filled at Indiana's fiction program, and that I will not be offered a spot this year. that said, i will officially accept UIUC's offer. im sad about Indiana, but so so excited about Illinois! to all other Illinois acceptees lurking, see you all in august! to Indiana acceptees, congrats on a job well done! to everyone who didn't receive an offer this year, keep on writing and doing the very best you can! you are all hardworking folks and it will pay off. 

 

this has been such a journey for me, and countless others. i hope you all come out relatively unscathed and with the spirit of writing still inspiring you! sorry for being so cheesy... i just appreciate everyones willingness to be vulnerable with each other during this process. cheers all!

[Fall 2015 MFA]

for the record, UIUC (even though you only get ~$13,000 the first year) gives students a TAship worth ~$21,000 for the second and third years, which is pretty great for central Illinois, and much more than most other MFA programs

[Fall 2015 MFA]

I made it onto the waitlist for NCSU, thus proving that miracles do happen. So I'm going to hold off on accepting SIUC in hopes of hearing back from them. We're in the same boat, lagoon91 -- I do feel awfully guilty about making SIUC wait, especially if I end up turning it down at the eleventh hour. In all honesty, both programs are probably neck and neck in my estimate. But given the choice between Raleigh and Carbondale, let's just say I know where I'd rather live!

 

I don't think I'd have the courage to push it all the way to the deadline, though... if the 10th of April or thereabouts rolls around and I still haven't heard from NCSU, I may surrender to my nerves and accept SIUC.

 

What about you guys? Are you holding out until/close to the deadline, or will you make a decision earlier than that?

 

Nibs, I've also set the 10th as my personal deadline. i really dont wanna be that person who holds out until the 15th, that so stressful for the program and everyone else involved. if i don't hear yes or no from Indiana by then, i plan to accept Illinois' offer. 

 

Also is anyone else waiting on news from Virginia Tech? they've been so mum this whole time...

[Fall 2015 MFA]

Almost there! Only fifteen-ish days of waiting left! Can't believe how long this process has dragged on....can't believe how difficult it has been to do anything productive in the meantime. I'll be so glad when April 15 hits, for closure's sake.

 

Sorry to those who got bad news. Those are pretty huge mistakes for schools like Montana to be making. I'd be angry! You guys seem to be handling it with class.

 

Oh, and congrats on U of I, lagoon91!!

 

Thank you so much sandy bubbles! as this thread starts to quiet down, i wanna say, what a journey that has been for us all, truly! to those who didn't get in anywhere, i think the best advice ive heard through this whole process is that being rejected is no statement about the quality of your work, and certainly not an indicator that you should stop writing.  i feel like i only got into grad school this year out of a small percentage of talent and a huuuuge percentage of luck; i would venture that this is true for most folks. to those of use that did get in, congrats on all of your efforts! we made it this far, finally!

 

good luck everyone, this year and beyond! to those of us still waiting, maybe the next 16 days be swift!

[Fall 2015 MFA]

im having a similar issue, in that Illinois is looking like a great choice for me, but I'm still holding out hope for Indiana (my top choice program), where I've been waitlisted. i feel so bad making Illinois wait for me to decide, but im not ready to make any moves until i know about Indiana for sure. they're both such great programs too, ugh! any advice would be great!

 

but this is definitely a happy problem!

[Fall 2015 MFA]

Congrats, lagoon91! That's amazing news! And good luck on getting in. I found samson36's advice in the other thread really helpful. I think I flailed a little bit before that. But it's been interesting even seeing how different programs respond, or don't respond, to requests for general information. 

 

For those lucky enough to be choosing between programs, or for those on wait lists, is anyone struggling to prioritize aspects of different programs? Finding it hard to compare meshing w/ the faculty, or w/ the students, the program length, location, etc, to figure out best fit. i guess we all have to figure out our own priorities...not sure what mine is. More time to work, or working in the place I'd feel most comfortable/creative, or the program with the best post-grad job record, etc? Dunno.

 

thank you sandy bubbles! and thanks for the info; i will check out the waitlist thread. where have you been waitlisted? any signs of movement for you?

[Fall 2015 MFA]

i just got notification from Indiana (waitlisted!). im so thrilled even by that, as this is my top choice school. if anyone got in and doesnt wanna go, you would make this Chicagoan very, very happy to go to Bloomington. it seems as if they let in fewer people this year than in the past, so i feel super lucky.

 

also im trying to figure out good waitlist etiquette, in terms of contacting the program staff and students. if anyone has good advice about that, it'd be much appreciated.

[Fall 2015 MFA]

On 3/12/2015 at 12:59 PM, shoopster said:

As an update: I remain completely baffled by this entire experience.

 

So far, I've received a paper rejection from Iowa (not surprising in the slightest), and an email notification from The New School that I should check my application status online, which I did, and was accepted with the same 25% scholarship everyone else has mentioned. I still haven't heard from NYU, which I'll assume means I've been rejected. I've also not heard anything from Alabama, so who knows.

 

Why do some accepted people get called, while others just get a form email notification? Why are certain schools twice as expensive as others? Why do some programs wait a full month after their acceptance calls to notify the rejected folks, via snail mail, of all things??

 

I feel like I've taken up competitive figure skating in a Cold-War-era Olympic cycle and all the judges are drunk.

 

my god shoopster, that last sentence is the perfect way to put it

[Fall 2015 MFA]

any news on draft abt Alabama? Apparently some folks have already been accepted...

[Fall 2015 MFA]

yall, im crossing every limb and appendage i own in preparation for Michener's decisions coming out in the next few days   good luck all. my goodness, this process has been so draining so far. we're almost out of MFA decision season. hang in there!

[Three-Year MFA Programs]

i applied to a mix of two and three year programs and originally thought a two year program would be a better fit, but now i think i would prefer a three year program.

[Three-Year MFA Programs]

if anything, there's additional time, to work on theses, to teach, etc, which i think is invaluable. two year programs are good but some might feel like there isn't enough time, which i agree with a bit. unless you really know what you want to accomplish in those two years. also three year programs means an additional (hopefully funded) year of not having to return to the real world, lol

 

also some two year programs are essentially three years, due to additional post-grad fellowships and teaching opportunities (ie, Cornell, Michigan, etc), so there must be something to it.

[Fall 2015 MFA]

just saw this on Michener's website:

 

• 2015 Admissions Decisions
  Our final admissions decisions will be made on March 10th, and all admitted or wait-listed students will be contacted directly over the next day or two. This is somewhat later than our usual decision date, and we appreciate your patience in awaiting results. If you are not called or emailed by March 13, you have not been admitted or wait-listed, even though you may not have yet received a "deny" decision from Graduate Admissions (these can be delayed by glitches in your paperwork even though we have denied admission).

 

so just one more week of waiting, folks!

[Fall 2015 MFA]

which made me think: have rejections already been sent out? i feel so in the dark about Brown in general, which may be intentional on their end, so maybe there we some talk on draft?

[Fall 2015 MFA]

Interesting comment?

this one specifically:  

• I contacted Brian Evenson about timing and he wrote: "Not all the fiction rejections have been sent out yet. I am hoping acceptances will go out sometime next week, but it may be even a little longer than that. Sorry to keep you and a number of others waiting..."

[Fall 2015 MFA]

has anyone heard anything from brown? rejections/acceptances? i just saw an interesting comment in the gradcafe survey

[Fall 2015 MFA]

thanks samson! and thanks for clarifying!

[About Less Popular MFA Programs]

yea, enjay you have a lot of good insight here. i also thought the top 50 list was BS. there are plenty of great schools that didn't make that list or scored low, and their methodology was complete garbage. i mean really, asking applicants, rather than graduates of surveying published writers, etc..? it seemed ridiculous because it was. thats why they officially stopped making the list as of about last year, and P&W even apologized for having ever published them. it was always more myth that methodology. 

 

at the same time, as someone who can't afford to go to graduate school without generous funding, that list was helpful only in its determination of where the well-funded programs are, so i mainly used it as a starting point to do research into programs. but there are plenty of well-funded programs that aren't on that list (ie, UCF), and plenty of terribly funded programs that are (ie, Columbia)

[Fall 2015 MFA]

hey yall, i just got waitlisted at Illinois (yay?) by snail-mail, so to anyone that applied there, be on the lookout (im sure i got my letter this quickly because i live 2.5 hrs away from urbana-champaign, so don't stress if it hasnt arrived yet).

 

but that goes to say its seems like snail mail is still a thing cause im pretty sure Illinois called everyone they accepted/waitlisted last year and the year before, so maybe Iowa changed it up too.

[Fall 2015 MFA]

I know I was one of the earliest to get contacted —without going into too much detail, I omitted something from my application by accident and received a call from Iowa asking me to upload the document (an inconsequential financial document). The next day I received THE call from Samantha Chang. I left out a lot of details but basically that's what happened. I'm under the impression that they haven't given out the bulk of this year's acceptances. 

EDIT: @theretheirthey're I'll see you next semester at the Dey House! —the kid from NYU

 

thanks for this HeyIowa! i can still cling to hope! its definitely likely that they haven't notified everyone yet, since its only been about a week and not a ton of people have claimed acceptances. unless someone knows otherwise? im gonna keep my fingers crossed here in chicago

[Fall 2015 MFA]

I'm confused about this, though, because someone linked the other day that Michael Byers released a statement saying nothing had been sent out—and this was a week ago. 

 

i put that link up, where he commented last wednesday. since he first said that, notifications have gone out. it's been a fast moving week in the notification world for Michigan. it seems like they tend to accept and waitlist at the same time, and rejections follow usually in march.

[Fall 2015 MFA]

While I sit here twiddling my thumbs for the 4 decisions I'm waiting on, here's a question:

 

I already have a Masters degree. Think that makes me a less desirable MFA candidate than someone who does not? I've heard that most programs look (almost) exclusively at your writing sample, but I have a hard time believing that...

 

shoopster where did you apply? depending on how you presented your goals in your personal statement, i would say don't give up on yourself just yet. a program might get where you're coming from. 

[Fall 2015 MFA]

Someone got accepted off the waitlist for Univ of Michigan...guess I can cross Michigan off my list.

 

just had the same thought :/ ah well

[Fall 2015 MFA]

I just got the same notification.  Are they just looking at our applications now?!

 

OH GOD, i didnt even consider this! :'(

[Fall 2015 MFA]

hey yall,

 

i just got an email from Michener saying they were missing my cover sheet (which i did send but probably got lost in their hundreds of application emails). i know im reading too much into this but why would they email me about that? unless im a contender? considering they've been rejecting people for about a month now... i dunno, it kinda got me excited  

 

theretheirthey're, congrats on iowa! and yea i've heard its cutthroat but i think you've got the skills to make it; you got in!