rbr542

It's so weird that I had a dream last night too, that I sitting in the HZWP classroom! ?

Getting on the Michener waitlist is really something! Good luck this time around. I applied for Michener as well, for fiction.

This is so thorough and focused in it's criticism. I thought this was a good critique as well: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/books/review-american-dirt-jeanine-cummins.html it was probably the only major newspaper that published a negative review of the novel before the controversy broke.

I have these too! for HZWP though ?

It's such a complex issue that's also fuzzy in nature. It isn't like casting a white actor in place of an Asian one for example, where the 'wrong' is so clearly defined. I was willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt, but then, I saw the barbed-wire centerpieces of their book launch party. That was super disgusting. https://twitter.com/lesbrains/status/1219985319648301056

I wish there were MFA acceptance reaction videos on YouTube. Would have been the best way to kill time. ?

I just tried did this...the rents in Boston made me realize that I don't want to move out there.

This time next month everything will be clear.

Same!

At this point, I wish I had applied to any place with an acceptance rate higher than 1-3% ?

Do something mindless; like washing dishes or cleaning the house or a coloring book. It helps.

I have been doing well up until now, working, submitting, but for whatever reason my anxiety has become intense over the past two days. Another month of this is going to be really hellish. I should have applied to atleast one 'safety school.'

If I had to pick a category, I would say 'family.' I have always focussed less on the theme itself and picked what I felt comfortable writing about, what allowed for expression and experimentation rather than what's attractive or 'current,' which I do think a lot of litmags tend to publish regularly(litmags associated with MFA prpgrams.)

Other than the 'regular' things that adcoms look for, that the writing is dynamic, displays raw talent, polished at a certain degree etc., Etc., I'm afraid that they might look for things that have 'high stakes'. You know? 'serious topics' that address the problems in the world in a certain way, which I know my writing doesn't do. ☹️

Just a random question for fiction applicants: In your writing sample, were your stories mostly in first person? I heard somewhere that MFA programs prefer the more intimate voice of first person fiction (I may be wrong). Just curious.

Congratulations ? I wish you good luck!

A new acceptance posted on the results page. UIUC. ?

Sorry @anarchisttiger they got rid of the GRE this year. Only the New Writer's project at UT Austin requires it. I only checked because I really like warm weather.

That's really great. I didn't even bother to check this year lol. Michigan is my dream school and they never needed it, everywhere else, I applied just cause ?

People who applied to Syracuse must have take the GRE, right? I did not apply to any place that required GRE scores. It felt like a ridiculous requirement for a creative writing degree and turned me off any program that needed it. ~This, from someone with a prior degree in engineering.~

Now I'm binge watching undergrad acceptance videos on YouTube lol.

I'm working on a couple of new pieces. I'm also editing some of my old stuff and submitting indiscriminately to any journals with open submission periods.

@Dochinka96 I applied only to five schools and found even that to be too overwhelming. I haven't looked back on my application materials, I'm afraid I might find a stupid mistake, like finding the name of a wrong school mentioned in the header.

My top choice is Michigan. I'm currently enrolled in a literary program with an emphasis on creative writing. I'm just going to continue here, and finish my novel as part of my thesis. To be honest, this is the reason I do not feel nervous about any of my apps; getting in might be wonderful, but it's okay if I don't.

Thank you for saying this, I've never thought of it this way; I think that a thousand other people apply, and I'm no special just for trying, which is firmly in the camp of ‘recommenders and family believe in me more than I do.’ Tenacity and dedication have their own value, as it isn't always the most gifted writers who succeed, its those who stick with it for years and years without giving up. Rejection is part of this journey, and as my sister told me recently, where’s the fun in succeeding quickly?