SuddenBeth

This was really cool to read! Thanks for sharing your story, I can definitely relate to a lot of your journey as someone who also only got interviewed at CMU and was wait listed and was also terrified of not getting in anywhere and what that meant about me as a writer. It's so hard to internalize rejection, especially a grad school rejection, as a part of your growth and not a comment on your potential. It's also cool to hear that your work is somewhat non-traditional and visually driven because I would also describe my writing that way which makes me wonder if that's part of the reason we wound up in the same cohort. I'm super excited to study with you in the fall and grow in our practice together

Ahhh that would be awesome!!! I officially accepted the CMU offer so if you go there then we will be. Congrats on getting off the wait list!

I have to let CMU know by the 26th. Ohio said in an email a while back that they where supposed to start sending stuff out April 1st I believe

Just off the waitlist at CMU!!!! I cut myself off from the forum for a good while there because I was pretty sure I was down for the count and preferred to live in denial (and my heart is ever so slightly broken from the fact that I didn't get into Iowa but congrats to the folks who did!) so I'm still reeling from this plot twist. I'm still technically waiting on Ohio but the deadline to accept the offer from Carnegie comes before I will hear back from them. I'm torn between asking CMU for more time or just accepting the offer because on one hand I would much rather live in Pittsburgh than Athens Ohio but on the other I think Ohio is free from what I can tell which is definitely a factor for consideration.

Waitlisted at CMU as well ?. Better than a rejection. I'm trying to look at it as at least my work was considered grad school worthy even if it wasn't picked by them this year. I see some folx have had northwestern interviews so I'm guessing I should count that as a rejection as well since I haven't heard from them? Still holding out hope for Hunter, Iowa, and Ohio. I know Ohio's application deadline hasn't past yet and I'm hoping Hunter still has a few waves of interviews left to send out. Anyone else apply to Iowa?

Just had my interview with CMU. It was super short, like ten minutes long.They basically just asked me why I wanted to go to CMU and if I had any screenwriting experience and then let me ask them a couple of questions and that was it. They didn't even ask me the question that they had prepped me for in the email which was about how I defined success. Has anyone else had their interviews yet? Was your experience similar? I'm not sure if I should be worried that they didn't spend that much time one me because they knew I wasn't a good fit or if they were confident that I would work well in the program and didn't feel they needed any more info. They did offer to hook me up with someone who was an alumni who worked in my city so I feel like that is maybe a good sign???

My main strategy has been to spend my time planning out what my next year might look like if I don't get in anywhere. I'm kind of at a point in my life where I need a big change so I've been looking into moving out to NY or Chicago and maybe taking sketch classes at UCB or Second City or IO Theater or something like that as well as seek out other writing classes/ opportunities/ fellowships. It's been helpful to have something planned that I'm excited about so if everything goes tits up I'm emotionally prepared and not at a total loss. Also I've got two shows I'm working on right now, one is a sketch show and the other is a drunk Shakespeare show that I'm acting in/ directing and I'm taking an online sitcom spec writing class through Second City for fun. Basically I'm trying to load myself up with projects that I'm passionate about to keep my mind off things. I'm trying to be really strict about not checking the forum too much also because I feel like that could become a really obsessive/ anxiety inducing process if I let myself rely on it too much.

I got an interview as well! I emailed the immediately lol, guess there's no hiding my obsessive email checking now.

Yeah that's insane! How many do they take???? Also that means that we've got like a third of the applicants on thread right now lol.

Dude, I literally came like less then a day away from this happening to me for CMU! I pressed submit on the page where I uploaded my writing samples and didn't realize I had to go press submit on the gradcas app as well. Then gmail fucked me over and started doing this thing where it hid my important emails and I could only find them if I searched specifically for them so I missed the THREE emails they sent me about it. In a sheer stroke of luck CMU extended the deadline of their apps to the 8th because of some technically issues and somehow my phone put this info into a google reminder which I saw the night of the 7th. I seriously almost had a freaking heart attack!! I checked everything like 10 times for the other schools after that to make sure that didn't happen again.

Hey There! First time applicant here, about to submit all my January 15th apps as soon as my last two letters of recommendation are sent in. I've already applied to CMU and I'm also doing Hunter, Northwestern, Iowa, and Ohio. I have two questions before I officially press submit to validate my choices or make last minute changes: 1.) How much do y'all think formatting matters for the plays we are sending in? I have written all mine by the samual french guidlines with one or two modifications for aesthetic reasons and also out of necessity. One of the plays is kind of avant guard in staging and so my stage direction format is modified out of necessity to best communicate that. This is something I don't think I can change but also am not too worried about because it's justified within the script. In my other play have a few small deviations from samual french like having my stage directions in italicized and not in parenthesis. Mostly this is out of habit and I also I just like the way it looks and reads better. Most of the playwrights I've talked to say that formatting should be whatever best communicates your play and it's style most effectively (within reason) Should I change the way my play is formatted? Is samual french ok to use or is there another format I should be using? 2.) For the ten page sample for Northwestern right now I have some text at the top that describes how the show works and the set up and then go right in to the climax of the show. Is this a good idea? Or should I choose a bit of the play that is maybe a little easier to dive into without getting the full back story and time to get to know the characters? The play is super character driven so I'm slightly worried the climax won't hit as well without the set up and character growth that leads up to it? Thanks friends and happy somewhat end to the application to the application stage!