FairleyAlfy

Hey Friends! I dropped off gradcafe for awhile...still continue to check draft pretty regularly because I could not completely be rid of my addiction to checking results, but I'm back here to hangout until I freak out again. haha 
Condolences to everyone that has gotten a rejection so far...hang in there! It is not the end of your writing, only the beginning. 
Congratulations to those who have received acceptances! So very happy for you!!
I feel like next week is going to be a big week! Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with. I haven't gotten a rejection from Hollins yet which has put me in a state of sheer anxiety...lol I guess that is just a welcome to the club around here. 

Hey Friends! I dropped off gradcafe for awhile...still continue to check draft pretty regularly because I could not completely be rid of my addiction to checking results, but I'm back here to hangout until I freak out again. haha 
Condolences to everyone that has gotten a rejection so far...hang in there! It is not the end of your writing, only the beginning. 
Congratulations to those who have received acceptances! So very happy for you!!
I feel like next week is going to be a big week! Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with. I haven't gotten a rejection from Hollins yet which has put me in a state of sheer anxiety...lol I guess that is just a welcome to the club around here. 

Hey Friends! I dropped off gradcafe for awhile...still continue to check draft pretty regularly because I could not completely be rid of my addiction to checking results, but I'm back here to hangout until I freak out again. haha 
Condolences to everyone that has gotten a rejection so far...hang in there! It is not the end of your writing, only the beginning. 
Congratulations to those who have received acceptances! So very happy for you!!
I feel like next week is going to be a big week! Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with. I haven't gotten a rejection from Hollins yet which has put me in a state of sheer anxiety...lol I guess that is just a welcome to the club around here. 

Florida didn’t even get back to me about a timeframe. At least all my transcripts got processed after a month.

Hey Friends! I dropped off gradcafe for awhile...still continue to check draft pretty regularly because I could not completely be rid of my addiction to checking results, but I'm back here to hangout until I freak out again. haha 
Condolences to everyone that has gotten a rejection so far...hang in there! It is not the end of your writing, only the beginning. 
Congratulations to those who have received acceptances! So very happy for you!!
I feel like next week is going to be a big week! Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with. I haven't gotten a rejection from Hollins yet which has put me in a state of sheer anxiety...lol I guess that is just a welcome to the club around here. 

Hey Friends! I dropped off gradcafe for awhile...still continue to check draft pretty regularly because I could not completely be rid of my addiction to checking results, but I'm back here to hangout until I freak out again. haha 
Condolences to everyone that has gotten a rejection so far...hang in there! It is not the end of your writing, only the beginning. 
Congratulations to those who have received acceptances! So very happy for you!!
I feel like next week is going to be a big week! Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with. I haven't gotten a rejection from Hollins yet which has put me in a state of sheer anxiety...lol I guess that is just a welcome to the club around here. 

Hey Friends! I dropped off gradcafe for awhile...still continue to check draft pretty regularly because I could not completely be rid of my addiction to checking results, but I'm back here to hangout until I freak out again. haha 
Condolences to everyone that has gotten a rejection so far...hang in there! It is not the end of your writing, only the beginning. 
Congratulations to those who have received acceptances! So very happy for you!!
I feel like next week is going to be a big week! Someone said on draft that the university of florida will be notifying folks next week...ahhh It is definitely at the top of my list because of faculty I want to work with. I haven't gotten a rejection from Hollins yet which has put me in a state of sheer anxiety...lol I guess that is just a welcome to the club around here. 

@fishfish24 I'm also about to reach jungle status--starting some seeds for my Spring garden this week! Also might start seeds for my summer garden but I have no idea if I'm getting off these waitlists. If I don't get in this year you better believe I'm going ALL OUT on my garden lmao. I had fungus gnats one year and the best thing you can do to prevent is to mix boiling water with your seed starting/potting soil mix to kill any eggs. I also second the neem oil suggestion ❤️ 
 
Really sorry for those that are hurting today. I've reached a weird place where I'm finally accepting that I have no control over this outcome beyond the work I've put into my applications. Knowing and accepting are two different things apparently, haha. It hurts to be told "no" when you're hoping for a "yes." No one is disputing that the odds are terrible, that many of us might not be ready for an MFA yet (tho that's certainly not a random internet stranger's place to discern, myself included). But that also doesn't change the fact that if you want this badly enough, you will keep writing. You may apply again, or you may choose to form your own writing community. Maybe you realize a business built on competition and rejection is not something that makes you happy and you go a different direction--none of this is bad. I actually know two people who dropped out of MFA programs because it was making them miserable.  Both of them still write and publish. I'm not saying it's going to work out for all of us, I'm just saying that there are many paths to happiness and I feel sorry for those who become bitter and contrarian in an effort to disguise their low self esteem. Let's all take a breather and remind ourselves why we started reading & writing poetry/prose/essays to begin with. Is it to feed your ego and sense of "greatness" or is it because it nourishes you somehow? What has this process taught you, for better or for worse? Personally it's taught me that I might have ADHD lol. It's also taught me that what I really want is to be a part of something greater than myself in terms of a solid writing community. It would be great if that happened in the form of an MFA, but maybe it means being more proactive in my current community or moving to a different city in search of more opportunities. Anyway, this is a long ramble-y way of saying that I have really appreciated everyone who has participated in this thread.  

Sending you all some positive energy this Monday. You are talented regardless of rejections/acceptances. And you are pretty amazing for working so hard for something you care about. I am hoping for the best for you all!
I haven't posted in this thread yet, as I applied to both Creative Writing PhDs and Literature PhDs this round.. I've mostly been in the other thread. But I am currently in the final semester of my fiction MFA program. This year my MFA program decided to pick one student from each genre who is in their final year and add them to a sort of admissions review committee. Since I was chosen as the fiction representative, I get to look at incoming fiction applications and give my feedback to the department. I won't say which program I'm in (confidentiality and all that), and I wanted to stay away from this thread because I didn't want to accidentally stumble upon someone applying to my program. But I wanted to say that there are so many talented people applying. Rejection doesn't mean you aren't talented...from what I've seen it just means that the people in the department at the time just aren't a good fit for your that year. And of course...funding is limited. I've worked with literary journals and have similar things to say with that...there are amazing stories that we reject because they just aren't a fit for the journal, or because the Editor just isn't feeling it (it sucks lol). 
Saying all this doesn't change the fact that rejection doesn't feel good. I got rejected from every MFA program I applied to except the one I'm in now (and even then I barely made it off the waitlist). I have no publications in any literary journals. Rejection doesn't feel good at all and it is okay to feel disappointed. You're allowed to have feelings. You aren't wrong for your feelings. I just wanted to send you some encouragement from someone on the other side who is very familiar with rejection. 
I am sincerely hoping for the best for everyone. And I hope you get into the programs that would nurture your talents the best. ❤️ 
If anyone has questions about MFA programs, feel free to message me. I won't talk about my current experience with admissions review because it is confidential and I would never talk about someone else's submissions, but I'm happy to talk about anything else!

You guys, gals, and nonbinary pals! I had a story accepted to a magazine and they're going to pay me for it!
I get to work with an editor on revisions! It's a real thing! Someone values my work! ?
This was a much needed boost to my self-esteem with all the uncertainty surrounding MFA apps. 
Anyway, I just want to let you all know that YOU. CAN. DO. THIS. 
No matter what happens this MFA cycle, please keep writing, and please keep submitting. Your work matters to someone.
 

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
I GOT INTO SJCNY!!!!!!!
I’M GOING TO COLLEGE.
Brb I’m gonna go move my car and maybe cry happy tears a little bit.

Just received my first notification--I'm on the wait-list for University of Oregon! There's so much I love about this program. Hoping that this means there is more good news to come. I'm glad my first notification isn't a rejection, because I've been a nervous wreck tbh 

HOO-WHEE, these relentless journal rejections sure are making me nervous about the quality of my writing sample. Hang in there, everybody. (mostly talking to myself)

Hey all--
I've mostly just been quietly grateful for the company since joining this group, but I thought I'd chime in briefly...
A lot of people seem to be experiencing some degree of agony over the fact they haven't heard back yet and/or are expressing the expectation that they'll be hearing back really soon. (For whatever reason, I've been feeling that with each passing day my chances of being accepted are somehow declining, which I have to remember to laugh at myself for because this belief has zero ties to logic!). Anyway, I just wanted to gently remind people the same thing I'm reminding myself: it's actually too early to be hearing back from most of these programs. I'm sure the info below isn't perfect, but here's the data I put together by combing through the past 3-4 years or so of gradcafe and other forums where applicants have posted about receiving offers for programs I've applied to. (It also includes the dates I was waitlisted at Michener, Minnesota, and Madison-Wisconsin last year). Just hoping the extra info might bring some of you a little peace of mind! The programs are ordered by earliest date of earliest documented acceptance:
Minnesota:
     Earliest acceptance: January 26*
     My waitlist 2019: January 29, 2020
*It seems worth mentioning that Minnesota extended their deadline this year and has had to recalibrate their entire funding program due to covid, so I suspect their responses will be late...
Syracuse:
     Earliest acceptance: January 29
Madison-Wisconsin:
     Earliest acceptance: February 3
     My waitlist response: February 18
Florida (Miami) :
     Earliest acceptance: February 12
Vanderbilt:
     Earliest acceptance: February 13
Michener:
     Earliest acceptance: Feb 14
     My waitlist: Feb 18, 2020
New Writer's Project:
     Earliest acceptance: Feb 14
Helen Zell/ Michigan:
     Earliest acceptance: February 15
Florida (Gainsville):
     Earliest acceptance: February 15
Iowa:
     Earliest acceptance: February 17
Notre Dame:
     Earliest acceptance: February 22
Brown:
     Earliest acceptance: March 5
 
Wishing everyone good luck and peace of mind. 

I’m expecting to hear from Iowa’s Fiction program pleading me to grace them with my 800 page novel excerpt.

Hi everyone! Super late to posting on here but I applied to 4 MFA programs and figured I would share. I'm a writer from California and also applied to several journalism programs. I just really love writing and figured while getting into an MFA program is a long shot, it doesn't hurt to try. I'm wishing you all good vibes and crossing my fingers for you!!

I've been accepted to Miami University in Oxford, OH (residential MFA - poetry)! The graduate college updated my applicant status and provided a letter on Thursday, then an email with attached details came through from the department on Friday. I wasn't expecting to hear back from anyone so soon and it took me by surprise. I even sent the letter from the graduate college to one of my recommenders for verification. It was, indeed, a legitimate acceptance. 
I'm now waiting on word from five other schools. If I somehow end up with options, I've got no clue what I'll do. Until now, I hadn't thought to plan for it! 

I really underestimated how stressful this would be. I'm actually writing this from my bed haha. I haven't been rejected anywhere yet, but I'm already kind of depressed... I'm finding it really hard to be motivated to do much of anything. It's hard to talk with friends because they're so incredibly supportive, but I also feel that they don't understand the kind of pressure and competition involved in this process. 
It would be so much easier if we could go to a coffee shop to write or get lunch with a friend. Hard to feel motivated when my only option is to walk 30 feet over to my desk in the other room hahah. I'm so listless! Jealous of applicants in previous rounds who were at least able to go to a bar 

I applied in poetry, and I'm also anxiously waiting...This year has already been so weird...It's hard to tell when we will hear back. 

I only applied to five programs this cycle, but if I don't get in anywhere I think I'm going to pare that down to three apps next time. I really would love to do an MFA, but I just can't justify gambling so much money on application fees when I might be better served putting that towards workshops, residencies, or perhaps even self-publishing.
I've also had the urge to start a weirdo alternative magazine for a few years. I think I would find it a lot more rewarding to spend my own money building a space for writers and artists that I appreciate to share their work. 
In the meantime, my backup plan is to continue working at the job I actually enjoy and keep writing/submitting. Academia be damned!

I just created a big boi list of places I want to apply to whenever I do next time. Almost double the number of places I applied to this time around. Just to remind myself that this is not the end. Planning is strangely therapeutic and because i am so terrified of planning for if/when i get in like looking at apartments or visa things, I planned my next app season. No risk, hopeful optimist behaviour. 12/10 recommend.

Oh my gosh!!! Congratulations!!!! I'm so happy for you and your kids!!! I'm so happy this is the first success of the season!!!!!  This is the best group ever!  

Congrats 8 billion times over, and here is how I feel for you right now: 

I just got accepted at Miami of Ohio (poetry)!

My little ones and I just popped open the bottle of sparkling Welch's that has been sitting in the fridge door. I told them I got into an MFA and my daughter (3) ran to the fridge. I was really worried we weren't going to get to open it this year. 
SO GLAD to have an acceptance. I only applied to fully-funded programs that I'd be proud to attend, so this is big for me. I wanted to share the good news!
(And check your email if you applied!)

P.S. Did any of you guys apply to Purdue? It looks like their acceptances usually come out the last week of January and I'm having a nail-biter of a time lol. 

Honestly, this happened to me last year. I was constantly checking gradcafe every five minutes, I wasn’t concentrating on school, I was looking at my email waiting and waiting for something that never came.
When I got rejected from everywhere I attempted to...well...Anyway, I know the prospect of not getting in on the first try is scary, but I feel like I learned more from trying again and recovering from my disaster application season.
This probably won’t ease anyone’s anxiety (‘cause the majority of you are first time applicants if I’m correct), but take it from me. If all goes wrong this year, there is another year coming.