exvat

Congrats!!!

"Yeah, I obvs applied to the IWW—the Irvine Writers' Workshop."

Not to give false hope here, but I wanna remind anyone who needs it—as my loved ones have been VERY quick to remind me today—that it truly ain't over 'til it's over. I called my cycle a failure on Friday (with "98% of precincts reporting")... And then got accepted to my last two schools. It ain't over 'til it's over.

Congratulations!!!

Thank you!! 🙏 ❤️ I'm speaking with them Thursday, and they said financial aid was available to discuss, whatever that means. Their initial offer is a $10k/yr scholarship, which I joke may as well be an Apple gift card, considering their tuition 😆

I love this. Very relatable financial advice.

Really appreciate this, good food for thought. I'll never consider $140k of debt for an MFA... but maybe $40k if the quality of life is sustainable, interest rate isn't predatory, etc. Because the job market in nearly any industry right now truly is awful.

I just got accepted to Columbia for Poetry!!! With an Apple gift card for financial aid!!! Feels amazing but almost certainly gonna have to turn it down due to money.

Anecdotally, my SOP did double duty, hitting all those points, while couched in a fairly linear biography. This was necessary to make sense of my story/CV, which are so bizarre and nonsensical upon first/fifth glance to the point of swift disqualification without clear and concise explanation.

CONGRATS!!! 🎉 🎉🎉 Good thing you already got that tux on!!! 🍾🍾

I've been escaping into Murakami novels the last several weeks (sometimes on a good sativa). Both Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore have been great emotional breaks from All This. I was reading Rachel Cusk books before that, and while they're AMAZING, they're super stressful 😬

Thank you!! And fingers crossed for you 🤞🤞🙏

Echoing this, and adding that yesterday, while driving around my Bible Belt town, I passed a church whose marquee read: What if we joined our sorrows, I'm saying. I'm saying: "What if that is joy?" — Ross Gay, The Book of Delights In the wise words of Greg from Over the Garden Wall: ain't that just the way?

NYU began sending acceptances Monday and continued all week. Someone here got accepted Wednesday. Two folks (me included) got in today. Not sure if they're done or heading to waitlist or what. I wouldn't lose hope though!

Thank you!! And WOW congrats to you on your own NYU offer!! 🎉🎉🎉 That's so exciting! Perhaps we'll end up in a cohort together... Fingers crossed for my own funding update 🤞🙏

Thank you, and best of luck with Iowa! 🙏🤞

Ahhh thank you!! Been rooting for you too, and hoping to celebrate for you! This feels like waking miraculously healthy after a long illness.

Thank you @everything bagel lover @Ekpe @Sumire11 @seezeegee @Tuxedocat @vilum @pananoprodigy @Chex and everyone else!!! Can hardly believe it. Congrats to @quadcrossedfingers as well!!!! Fingers crossed for cohort buddies! May funding odds be ever in our favor!🤞🤞 Funding details will be included with a formal offer letter in the next couple of weeks, so no mention atm. NYU is my top choice, and I'll certainly let them know that. I cannot fund my own education, but to my incredible joy and amazement, people in my life have already started nudging people we know with money they'd perhaps consider parting with, as patrons of the arts, so to speak 😂 🙏😭 Alright, gonna go meditate for a bit, ground myself some. Good news can be as destabilizing as bad 🤪

Y'ALL I JUST GOT ACCEPTED TO NYU FOR POETRY ANYTHING IS POSSIBLLLLLEEEEE

Outta reactions, but love this for them. Thanks for sharing!

With the discussion around partners/pets and moving, this kinda bums me out for different reasons. Chiefly because right now is ideal to begin a program, as I have nothing tying me down, and I'm facing likely straight rejections again. No partner, no job, no home to speak of, etc. Not sure where I go from here, but it's unlikely that I'll ever be in an "easier" place of life to begin an MFA program. Adcoms are jerks for not considering this inconvenience to me personally 😂

📣 "...in a specific way that appeals to MFAs." 📣

Ice cold 💀

Heard, felt, seen. After my first round of applications in 2017 (for aaaalll the wrong reasons), I just kept my nose to the grindstone and gave up the idea of an MFA altogether. Write more, and better. I collected increasingly "big" pub creds (esp for a "self-taught" writer). Eventually a top summer workshop—where my accomplished, insightful, trustworthy, and generous poetry workshop leader got me to again consider an MFA. Which I ignoooooreeeeeddddd. Until two years later, when others in my life (particularly at AWP) began encouraging me to apply. People with big credentials put their confidence in me under vaunted letterheads, saying they believed I could "Do The Thing™ at Lol University." So, here I am, at the tail end of round two, seven years apart, and sure of two things: 1. My writing is better than ever, and continuing to be, pretty much with every new poem. So I ain't stressing about poeting. I'm gonna keep doing the thing, and slaying at it. And, 2. Those folks with the fancy letterheads who know me, know my work, and went to bat for me aren't full of shit; so I can show them—and more importantly, myself—the respect of believing their highly sought professional opinions... which are quite favorable. It again ain't my year (98% of precincts reporting), and it doesn't feel great, especially given how sure my supporters seemed that I'd get something—anything. But also, I've learned a hell of a lot in the process, and feel way more confident in the outcome of a hypothetical third application cycle. Maybe that'll be another seven years. But at 47, who knows where I'll be? Or, for that matter, where MFA programs will be?

Wonderful perspective. Thank you for sharing!