annabananaphone

I have finally made my decision. I will be attending UCLA in the fall. So glad the process is over now! I have been anxious since September.

@jnp809. It is so subjective! I think it's very impressive that you got interviews at both Yale and Columbia. I got interviewed by some of the schools you got rejected from, but did not get interviewed by Yale, so who knows what goes on behind closed doors. I know it's technically illegal to have quotas in a lot of states, but I think your background as a person partially plays into their decisions. I know UCLA's program is lacking in female writers, so in addition to liking my writing or whatever else they saw in me, the fact that I am female may have played a part in my ultimate acceptance. They might have interviewed a male candidate who was just as impressive that they may have admitted instead of me if the situation had been reversed. Point being, it's out of our control, and I know it's so easy to jump into that "what did I do wrong?" thinking, but the truth is that no one who showed up, tried their best and then got rejected did anything wrong. The only way to have done something wrong would have been to not show up or to tell them that you hate their school and writing plays... which I am sure no one who spent the time carefully applying to these schools did. While I think playwriting MFA programs are great for those who want to attend them (me being one of those people), it does often seem challenging and almost meaningless to mix creativity with a systemic and competitive process. If we were all applying to business school, I might understand that I did not get into a program that someone else got into because my GMAT score was lower than theirs. Of course there is a level of subjectivity to everything in this world, business is a lot about personality, and test scores aren't everything, but I do believe the subjectivity factor generally increases in creative fields. So in a hypothetical sense it suddenly becomes one person writing comedic heightened realism about teenage girls living on the moon competing against someone else who wrote a realistic drama about the civil war and maybe the person reading the two plays so happened to be way more interested in serious war plays than zany poetic plays about teenage girls... so which candidate is really more "qualified" in that sense? The great thing about creative fields though is that everyone ends up where is best for them... even if that place isn't in grad school quite yet. I got rejected from Brooklyn College today too, so now I’ve heard from everywhere. Yay!

Awesome @lavendercloud. Congrats. I got rejected from most summer things I applied to. I was a semi-finalist at the o' neill, so that was cool. Right now I am leaning more towards UCLA. The program is small and they produce your work, unlike NYU. I also told UCLA that I got a full scholarship at NYU, and UCLA told me they are willing to offer me two TAships and a scholarship which would mean I'd only have to pay about 6,000 for the first year... and then less thereafter because I would be a california resident. The only reason I am still considering NYU is because a. it's totally free and b. most of my friends/collaborators are in nyc. I know a lot of great faculty teach at NYU too, I just think I'd get a lot more individualized attention and opportunities at UCLA. I will let you all know my final decision after I visit UCLA again next week

I'm glad people got into Ohio who are excited about going. I really liked the program, but I could tell they sensed my hesitation about living in the middle of rural Ohio for 3 years. I just don't think I could do it. Definitely worked out for the best! Congrats to those of you who got in. On my end of things, I am visiting a class at UCLA next week and speaking with the professors a little further. Looks like I will get to make the choice between NYU and UCLA. Although decisions can stress me out, especially making one between NY and LA, I am definitely thankful to have these two options. I set out applying to grad schools knowing how small and competitive these programs are and not expecting anything and was impressed with even the amount of interest I got.

@asimpleton and @sealou. I visited Ohio 2 weeks ago and they said they would let me know soon about their decision. My friend currently attends Ohio so I have been hearing a lot of the inside scoop. They seem to be accepting people one by one. I know (according to my friend and the people who have posted on here) that they have sent out two acceptances, but I'm not sure if they've sent out a third yet. I know they did invite me and a few other people to visit the school, so I am guessing they will send out the third acceptance to one of us, but you never know. I'm pretty sure another one of my friends was close to getting accepted last year, and he didn't hear from them until the final decision had been made. Point being, I don't think there is any systemic process they have for accepting people... although like I said, my guess would be that this year they will accept people they invited for a visit. Also, it seems like no one has heard from Brooklyn College yet... or at least no one I have talked to has. I'm sure it will be any day now.

Congrats @sparklmoshn. I don't know much about USC, but yes, NYU does not produce your work and I believe there are 8 playwrights, 8 screenwriters and 8 tv writers per class. So from what I have been told, if you're looking for a small environment with production opportunities, then NYU is not a good fit.

Hey Guys. I've been reading this for the past few weeks and thought I'd finally chime in. Reading everyone's comments has all been very insightful and I give a lot of credit to those of you who have been applying for multiple years. The process has been very intense and stressful and this is only my first time. I applied to 10 schools and was a finalist at UT Austin, NYU, Columbia, UCLA and Ohio. I was pretty bummed out when I found out today that I didn't get in or at least wait listed at UT Austin, especially since there were so few finalists, but about ten minutes laterI found out that I got into NYU with a full scholarship, and am first on the waitlist at UCLA, so I'm confident things all have a way of working out for the best. I still haven't heard anything from Brooklyn either. From what I hear they are pretty slow and disorganized, so it is possible they haven't sent out acceptances yet... although I totally get not wanting to wait around for them either. Ohio's program is awesome too. I visited last week and really liked what they are doing there. I also need to remind myself that being a finalist at five schools is great and I had a lot of fun visiting the different schools and meeting fellow playwrights and theater artists. Anyways, best of luck to everyone!!